Where to put script to shut down VBox VM's when shutting down Ubuntu

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

I generally run a VM with XP on a separate desktop, and consistently forget I have it open when shutting down, which causes my laptop to freeze up.

Writing a script is no great problem using:

VBoxManage controlvm XP poweroff

but where do I put it so that it is run prior to the shutdown command?

[Tomatz]

I generally run a VM with XP on a separate desktop, and consistently forget I have it open when shutting down, which causes my laptop to freeze up.

Writing a script is no great problem using:

VBoxManage controlvm XP poweroff

but where do I put it so that it is run prior to the shutdown command?

Im not great at scripting but the easiest way i can think of doing it would be:

VBoxManage controlvm XP poweroff

sleep 20

gnome-session-save --kill

Put the code above it in a text file on your desktop and all it shutdown-script, then:

Open a terminal

cd ~/Desktop

sudo chmod 777 /shutdown-script

sudo cp /shutdown-script /usr/bin/shutdown-script

Now just run the command shutdown-script or add it to a launcher. Also i have only allowed 20 seconds till shutdown (for xp). You may need to alter this

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

Thanks Tomatz

It's not that part I have a problem with, I want to automate it as a part of the normal shut down routine (because I keep forgetting)

We have a nice place for start up programs, but not for shut down scripts

[Tomatz]

The folder /etc/rc6.d holds all the scripts for shutdown BUT any script you make will have to watch for vbox to shutdown your guest OS before continuing with the host shutdown process. This could be problematic and is far beyond my experience.

Maybe you should ask in the programing forum?

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

bump?

[markba]

You can use VBoxTool (see my sig) for controlled saving when the host goes down. It makes use of the init-system (as suggested above). It is doing much more, like autostarting sessions at boot, check the website if you'd like....

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

Thanks markba

vboxtool is great, but I don't always want VMs to start when I boot up. Any way to block the autostart function? (I'll have a look in the scripts)

[markba]

Blocking autostart is easy, just empty /etc/vboxtool/machines.conf: vboxtool will only autostart the sessions named in machines.conf. As an alternative, you can also comment them out by preceding the line by '#'.

Autosave sessions does not depend on machines.conf, so even with an empty machines.conf, all sessions will be saved automatically on shutdown.

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

I'll need to rephrase what I said about vboxtool... it's a great idea....

can't get it to work for love nor money.

Won't start or stop or run any VM's with or without a GUI

Not enough patience here this evening to perservere with it, but it has given me some ideas about how I can code to achieve what I want to do, using my original command.

[markba]

Installation should not be that difficult, just follow these instructions: http://vboxtool.svn.sourceforge.net/...xt?view=markup

But nevertheless, you can also implement your own solution, as allways: by studying code, you'll learn a lot. If you have any questions about vboxtool, just drop them here.