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#1 2012-08-24 07:35:59

ngoonee
Forum Fellow
From: Between Thailand and Singapore
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 7,354

[solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

I'm trying to write a simple service file for VBoxHeadless (for my headless server).

│[Unit]                                                                        
Description=Virtualbox Headless WinXP VM

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless --startvm WinXP

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Somehow whenever I run it I get (from systemctl status) the following:-

 % systemctl status vbox.service
vbox.service - Virtualbox Headless WinXP VM
          Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/vbox.service; disabled)
          Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:29:38 +0800; 2s ago
         Process: 28938 ExecStart=/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless --startvm WinXP (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
          CGroup: name=systemd:/system/vbox.service

This is the default Type=Simple, forking and oneshot does not seem to help. Any suggestions? Of course, just running /usr/bin/VBoxHeadless --startvm WinXP works...

One interesting point to note is that VBoxHeadless is merely a symlink to VBox (which can't be run by itself). Not sure how useful that is. It might make sense for me to use VBoxManage instead, but if possible I'd like to get it working using VBoxHeadless since as far as I can tell that does the 'right thing' (tm).

Last edited by ngoonee (2012-08-27 00:52:26)


Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
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#2 2012-08-24 17:57:17

Atragor
Member
Registered: 2009-02-28
Posts: 59

Re: [solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

When I execute

% systemctl status vbox.service

there is a log at the bottom which I don't see in your output (in my case it tells about invalid machine name). Do you have systemd-journald running?

I guess that with this unit file VBoxHeadless is being executed as root user and therefore can't find virtual machine with the specified name. Adding "User=my_username" right below the "[Service]" line gives me the following result:

[root@archhost system]# systemctl status vbox
vbox.service - Virtualbox Headless WinXP VM
          Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/vbox.service; disabled)
          Active: active (running) since Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:45:37 +0400; 12s ago
        Main PID: 14515 (VBoxHeadless)
          CGroup: name=systemd:/system/vbox.service
                  ├ 14515 /usr/bin/VBoxHeadless --startvm winxp
                  ├ 14518 /opt/VirtualBox/VBoxXPCOMIPCD
                  └ 14523 /opt/VirtualBox/VBoxSVC --auto-shutdown

Hope this helps.

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#3 2012-08-24 18:31:07

tomegun
Developer
From: France
Registered: 2010-05-28
Posts: 661

Re: [solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

In case Atragor's suggestion does not help. Try enabling some debugging in VirtualBox (I don't know how, never used it) and also do "systemctl status ..." as root to see the log messages (or add your user to the "adm" group).

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#4 2012-08-25 05:09:55

ngoonee
Forum Fellow
From: Between Thailand and Singapore
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 7,354

Re: [solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

Thanks, the user thing would probably be it (never thought of it that way, even though I'm used to using su with custom rc.d scripts....) Will confirm that on Monday when I get back to my server.


Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

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#5 2012-08-27 00:51:59

ngoonee
Forum Fellow
From: Between Thailand and Singapore
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 7,354

Re: [solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

That was exactly it, User=my_user worked. Thanks Atragor and tomegun.

Full vbox.service for future reference if anyone is interested (and myself via google 3 years from now):-

[Unit]
Description=Virtualbox Headless VM

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless --startvm VM_Name
ExecStop=/usr/bin/VBoxManage controlvm VM_Name poweroff
User=my_user

[Install]
WantedBy=muti-user.target

I assume Type by default is simple, didn't define it. Not sure if VBoxHeadless forks, doubt it since it steals my TTYs.


Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

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#6 2013-01-05 01:45:03

hueck
Member
Registered: 2011-09-15
Posts: 12

Re: [solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

Hmm that doesnt work for me...

I have placed a file called vbox.service under /lib/systemd/system/vbox.service with the following content

[Unit]
Description=Virtualbox Headless VM

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless --startvm 4decf7c1-7eda-461c-92aa-835d2405a22e
ExecStop=/usr/bin/VBoxManage controlvm 4decf7c1-7eda-461c-92aa-835d2405a22e poweroff
User=my_user

[Install]
WantedBy=muti-user.target

If I start and stop it via

sudo systemctl start vbox and sudo systemctl stop vbox, everything works fine

Then i entered the following:

sudo systemctl enable vbox, but it wont start at boot

Here is the output

sudo systemctl status vbox
vbox.service - Virtualbox Headless VM
	  Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vbox.service; enabled)
	  Active: inactive (dead)
	  CGroup: name=systemd:/system/vbox.service

Jan 05 02:38:59 exia pulseaudio[1428]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Daemon startup failed.
Jan 05 02:40:08 exia systemd[1]: Started Virtualbox Headless VM.
Jan 05 02:42:02 exia systemd[1]: Stopping Virtualbox Headless VM...
Jan 05 02:42:02 exia VBoxManage[1546]: 0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Jan 05 02:42:02 exia VBoxHeadless[1375]: Oracle VM VirtualBox Headless Interface 4.2.6_OSE
Jan 05 02:42:02 exia VBoxHeadless[1375]: (C) 2008-2012 Oracle Corporation
Jan 05 02:42:02 exia VBoxHeadless[1375]: All rights reserved.
Jan 05 02:42:02 exia VBoxHeadless[1375]: VRDE server is listening on port 3389.
Jan 05 02:42:02 exia VBoxHeadless[1375]: VRDE server is inactive.
Jan 05 02:42:02 exia systemd[1]: Stopped Virtualbox Headless VM.

/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless --startvm 4decf7c1-7eda-461c-92aa-835d2405a22e works fine

Any ideas, though?

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#7 2013-01-05 03:23:58

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

Kind of a necrobump... might be better to start your own thread and link to this one.

In any case, I assume that trying to start it at boot is problematic without determining some kind of ordering (After=, Requires=, etc.)

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#8 2013-01-05 11:26:18

hueck
Member
Registered: 2011-09-15
Posts: 12

Re: [solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

WonderWoofy wrote:

Kind of a necrobump... might be better to start your own thread and link to this one.

Done

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=155689

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#9 2013-01-05 16:13:08

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: [solved] VBoxHeadless can't seem to run as a systemd service

With that  ^^^  , I will close this


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