virtualbox with no window manager?

bananabrain · 2014-05-25 01:04:38

Hello,

I've found myself looking at virtual machines recently because:

1. I want to watch British Eurosport over the internet.
2. Eurosport uses microsoft silverlight to stream its content.
3. Rather than hand 30GB+ of my disk over to the Seattle fraternity and dual boot just to use silverlight under windows 7, it seems far more efficient to use a vm.

So...

I have an AMD/Radeon mini-itx setup connected to a plasma tv via hdmi.

The xorg packages are installed and, other than a few command line utilities I sometimes run on a virtual console, this machine only runs xbmc (with xbmc.service enabled).

This all works beautifully with no window manager or X utilities installed.

Now I'd like to know if it's possible to directly run either xbmc or virtualbox (maybe vboxmanage from what I've read so far) at boot time, or is it necessary to run virtualbox in an window under xfce or some other window manager?

Thanks in advance for any advice offered.

Last edited by bananabrain (2014-05-25 01:06:51)

Trilby · 2014-05-25 01:06:08

As an alternative, why not just use pipelight - it is reasonably light to install and works wonderfully.

bananabrain · 2014-05-25 01:10:01

Never heard of it - I'll have a look right now...

...a couple of kickers here:

1. Initially I thought this was just going to be a plugin for firefox running on a vanilla linux box, which would have been something really special, but it looks like pipelight depends on (a specially patched) wine, which I can't say I'm excited about getting involved with.

2. Even if it had been just a simple firefox plugin (which would have been great for running on this here laptop), it would still involve installing a desktop environment on the xbmc machine, which is kind of what I'm trying to avoid.

Really grateful for your suggestion though, and pointing me to something I knew nothing about.

Last edited by bananabrain (2014-05-25 01:24:42)

ewaller · 2014-05-25 01:15:17

bananabrain wrote:

Now I'd like to know if it's possible to directly run either xbmc or virtualbox (maybe vboxmanage from what I've read so far) at boot time, or is it necessary to run virtualbox in an window under xfce or some other window manager?
Thanks in advance for any advice offered.

Sure it is. Here is my ~/.xinitrc

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

#xset b off
setxkbmap -option caps:super
#autocutsel -fork &
#autocutsel -selection PRIMARY -fork &
export GTK2_RC_FILES="$HOME/.gtkrc-2.0" 

case $WM in
openbox)
	exec  openbox-session
	;;
gnome)
	exec gnome-session
	;;
e17)
     enlightenment_start
    ;;
dwm)
     exec dwm
    ;;
vb)
    VirtualBox -startvm "Windows 7" -fullscreen
    ;;
xfce4)
    exec startxfce4
    ;;
i3)
    exec i3
    ;;
*)
    exec openbox-session
    ;;
esac

I log into a console, and use startx to start an Xorg session. To well it which environment I want, I set the environmental variable WM to the desired value. like this:

ewaller$@$odin ~ 1050 %WM=vb startx

In this case, Windows 7 starts full screen on whatever console from which I invoked startx. I can have openbox running on console 1, hit Ctrl-Alt-F2 to flip to console 2, login, and start Windows on that console. One could automate this to just happen at login.

bananabrain · 2014-05-25 01:47:42

Many thanks - this looks like the end point of what I need.

Unlike me though, to get to that point you had some desktop environments available on which to run the vbox tools that initially set up your virtual machines ready for installation, hence my wish to get the vboxmanage utility up on screen without a window manager. I may be splitting hairs here - I haven't yet looked to see if these machines can be setup with command line tools yet. Or maybe it's possible to build a vm on my laptop and just copy the image to the other machine? As I said I'm new to this. Thanks for your very helpful reply.

ewaller · 2014-05-25 02:08:13

bananabrain wrote:

Unlike me though, to get to that point you had some desktop environments available on which to run the vbox tools that initially set up your virtual machines ready for installation, hence my wish to get the vboxmanage utility up on screen without a window manager. I may be splitting hairs here - I haven't yet looked to see if these machines can be setup with command line tools yet. Or maybe it's possible to build a vm on my laptop and just copy the image to the other machine? As I said I'm new to this. Thanks for your very helpful reply.

No. That is run from a console; Xorg is not running. When I choose vb, it starts an instance of Xorg with no window manager or desktop environment. Virtualbox uses Xorg bareback, without any WM. Edit: Essentially, Xorg runs with VirtualBox as the WM.

Last edited by ewaller (2014-05-25 02:09:37)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2014-05-25 09:43:19

I use zsh & have my .zprofile set up to launch a different wm/de from each of the 6 tty's:

[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && startdwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 2 ]] && startmonsterwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 3 ]] && starti3
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 4 ]] && startpekwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 5 ]] && startlxqt

Where (for example) "startdwm" is a modified version of /usr/bin/startx:

#!/bin/sh

#
# This is just a sample implementation of a slightly less primitive
# interface than xinit. It looks for user .xinitrc and .xserverrc
# files, then system xinitrc and xserverrc files, else lets xinit choose
# its default. The system xinitrc should probably do things like check
# for .Xresources files and merge them in, start up a window manager,
# and pop a clock and several xterms.
#
# Site administrators are STRONGLY urged to write nicer versions.
#

unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
unset SESSION_MANAGER
userclientrc=$HOME/.xinitdwm
sysclientrc=/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
...

pointing to a ~/.xinitdwm start up script for dwm.
You could use something similar with a log on at tty2 starting up your vm system

bananabrain · 2014-05-26 13:58:04

ewaller wrote:

No. That is run from a console; Xorg is not running. When I choose vb, it starts an instance of Xorg with no window manager or desktop environment. Virtualbox uses Xorg bareback, without any WM. Edit: Essentially, Xorg runs with VirtualBox as the WM.

Can't thank you enough for this Eric, it's almost exactly what I'm trying to do and works really well.

At first I couldn't get it working before realising 100MB+ of qt4 and dependencies are required. I guess some time later I'll have a play with vboxmanage's command line options.

Now I just need a way to prettify it so I can choose between the xbmc service and the virtualbox gui at bootup.

Thanks again.

ewaller · 2014-05-26 16:34:19

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

I use zsh & have my .zprofile set up to launch a different wm/de from each of the 6 tty's:
...
pointing to a ~/.xinitdwm start up script for dwm.
You could use something similar with a log on at tty2 starting up your vm system

Cool idea

Bananabrain: My pleasure.

bananabrain · 2014-05-28 10:31:29

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

I use zsh & have my .zprofile set up to launch a different wm/de from each of the 6 tty's:
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && startdwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 2 ]] && startmonsterwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 3 ]] && starti3
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 4 ]] && startpekwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 5 ]] && startlxqt
Where (for example) "startdwm" is a modified version of /usr/bin/startx:

...this is a great idea.

I have zero familiarity with zsh but I'd expect it should be possible under other shells?

Also, with sufficient resources I'm thinking there's nothing to stop you running these window managers (or whatever) simultaneously under their respective ttys - ie multiple X sessions running together?

Thanks, I'll have a play around.

x33a · 2014-05-28 12:18:01

bananabrain wrote:

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
I use zsh & have my .zprofile set up to launch a different wm/de from each of the 6 tty's:
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && startdwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 2 ]] && startmonsterwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 3 ]] && starti3
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 4 ]] && startpekwm
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 5 ]] && startlxqt
Where (for example) "startdwm" is a modified version of /usr/bin/startx:
...this is a great idea.
I have zero familiarity with zsh but I'd expect it should be possible under other shells?

The same code should work fine with Bash at least.

Also, with sufficient resources I'm thinking there's nothing to stop you running these window managers (or whatever) simultaneously under their respective ttys - ie multiple X sessions running together?

Yes, you can easily run multiple DEs/WMs on different X servers.

pjals · 2020-10-09 14:53:26

ewaller wrote:

bananabrain wrote:
Now I'd like to know if it's possible to directly run either xbmc or virtualbox (maybe vboxmanage from what I've read so far) at boot time, or is it necessary to run virtualbox in an window under xfce or some other window manager?
Thanks in advance for any advice offered.
Sure it is. Here is my ~/.xinitrc
#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

#xset b off
setxkbmap -option caps:super
#autocutsel -fork &
#autocutsel -selection PRIMARY -fork &
export GTK2_RC_FILES="$HOME/.gtkrc-2.0" 

case $WM in
openbox)
	exec  openbox-session
	;;
gnome)
	exec gnome-session
	;;
e17)
     enlightenment_start
    ;;
dwm)
     exec dwm
    ;;
vb)
    VirtualBox -startvm "Windows 7" -fullscreen
    ;;
xfce4)
    exec startxfce4
    ;;
i3)
    exec i3
    ;;
*)
    exec openbox-session
    ;;
esac
I log into a console, and use startx to start an Xorg session. To well it which environment I want, I set the environmental variable WM to the desired value. like this:
ewaller$@$odin ~ 1050 %WM=vb startx
In this case, Windows 7 starts full screen on whatever console from which I invoked startx. I can have openbox running on console 1, hit Ctrl-Alt-F2 to flip to console 2, login, and start Windows on that console. One could automate this to just happen at login.

what about multi-display?

V1del · 2020-10-09 15:44:40

Please do not necrobump 6 year old threads. Try it out, if the multi monitor support doesn't work out with what's suggested here open your own thread with details of your own setup.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … bumping%22

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-05-25 01:04:38

virtualbox with no window manager?

#2 2014-05-25 01:06:08

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#3 2014-05-25 01:10:01

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#4 2014-05-25 01:15:17

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#5 2014-05-25 01:47:42

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#6 2014-05-25 02:08:13

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#7 2014-05-25 09:43:19

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#8 2014-05-26 13:58:04

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#9 2014-05-26 16:34:19

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#10 2014-05-28 10:31:29

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#11 2014-05-28 12:18:01

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#12 2020-10-09 14:53:26

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

#13 2020-10-09 15:44:40

Re: virtualbox with no window manager?

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