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On a Ubuntu Desktop host, how can I install and run Ubuntu Server guest completely headlessly using a terminal/vboxmanage? (this means no GUI at all, not even for the initial Ubuntu Server setup)

I am aiming for a text user interface (TUI)-only guest (to run commands, like apt-get update in guest), with a shared folder to host (to transfer files from guest to host).

This is the script I have so far that creates a virtual machine (VM) and starts it:

vm_iso="ubuntu-server-20.04.iso"
vm_name="UbuntuServerTest"
vm_vdi="$HOME/virtualbox/${vm_name}.vdi"

curl -o "$vm_iso" "https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04.4/ubuntu-20.04.4-live-server-amd64.iso"

vboxmanage createvm \
    --ostype Ubuntu_64 \
    --basefolder "$HOME/virtualbox" \
    --register \
    --name "$vm_name"

# VBoxManage showvminfo "$vm_name"

vboxmanage modifyvm "$vm_name" \
    --memory 1024 \
    --nic1 nat \
    --vrde on --vrdeport 33890

vboxmanage createhd \
    --filename "$vm_vdi" \
    --format VDI --size 10240

vboxmanage storagectl "$vm_name" \
    --name "SATA" \
    --add sata

vboxmanage storageattach "$vm_name" \
    --storagectl SATA --port 0 --type hdd \
    --medium "$vm_vdi"

vboxmanage storageattach "$vm_name" \
    --storagectl SATA --port 15 --type dvddrive \
    --medium "$vm_iso"

vboxmanage startvm "$vm_name" --type headless

# vboxmanage sharedfolder add "$vm_name" --name shared --hostpath "shared_path" --automount

# vboxmanage controlvm "$vm_name" pause --type headless
# vboxmanage controlvm "$vm_name" resume --type headless
# vboxmanage controlvm "$vm_name" poweroff --type headless

Although the script uses VirtualBox, I am okay with QEMU or other software (as long as I can run arbitrary commands headlessly, transfer files from guest to host headlessly, and the kernel is virtualized).

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In QEMU:

Rather than a pure text based approach another possibility is to start QEMU with a VNC server. This is done with the -vnc command line option to QEMU. Then you can connect to that VNC instance from another machine via ssh proxy or whatever and get a GUI that can install any supported OS.

If you only want to use a text console then the choices will be more limited. Ubuntu install ISO's seem to try to use a graphical mode no matter what you do. The deprecated Ubuntu mini.iso may work though. Debian does work and I'll show how to use that.

This assumes you have a Debian ISO installer image available here.

# create empty virtual hard drive
qemu-img create -f qcow2 debian.qcow2 16G

# start VM
qemu-system-x86_64 -machine accel=kvm -m 1G -nographic -hda debian.qcow2 -boot d -cdrom debian-11.2.0-amd64-netinst.iso

As soon as it starts quickly press ESC (or CTRL+C works too) and you should get a boot: prompt. Then type install console=ttyS0 or use one of the other boot options with console=ttyS0 appended (press tab to list).

Modify the qemu parameters for your desired setup as far as disk configuration/network/etc.

And BTW, you can install OpenBSD (other BSD's?) in a similar fashion. At the boot> prompt type set tty com0 then press Return twice.

Notes:

  • you may need to remove -machine accel=kvm if it doesn't work
  • it is ttyS0 (the letter 'S', not the number '5')
  • when install finishes, use CTRL+AX to shutdown
  • after shutdown, to run normally without installer: qemu-system-x86_64 -m 1G -nographic -hda debian.qcow2
  • to transfer files from guest to host, follow https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/196074
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