8.19. VBoxManage startvm

Start a virtual machine.

Synopsis

VBoxManage startvm < uuid | vmname ...> [--putenv=name[=value]] [--type=[ gui | headless | sdl | separate ]] --password file --password-id password identifier

Description

The VBoxManage startvm command starts an Oracle VM VirtualBox virtual machine (VM) that is in the Powered Off or Saved state.

uuid | vmname

Specifies the name or Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) of the VM.

--putenv=name=value

Assigns a value to an environment variable as a name-value pair. For example, VBOX_DISABLE_HOST_DISK_CACHE=1.

The short form of this option is -E.

--type=gui | headless | sdl | separate

Specifies the frontend used to start the VM.

You can use the VBoxManage setproperty command to set a global default value for the frontend. Alternatively, you can use the VBoxManage modifyvm command to specify a default frontend value for a specific VM. If neither a global or per-VM default value is set and you do not specify the --type option, then the VM opens in a window on the host desktop.

The --type option accepts the following values:

gui

Starts a VM in a graphical user interface (GUI) window. This is the default.

headless

Starts a VM for remote display only.

sdl

Starts a VM using the VBoxSDL frontend.

separate

Starts a VM with a detachable user interface (UI), which means that the VM runs headless with the UI in a separate process.

This is an experimental feature that lacks certain functionality, such as 3D acceleration.

--password

Use the --password to supply the encryption password. Either specify the absolute pathname of a password file on the host operating system, or - to prompt you for the password on the command line.

--password-id

Use the --password-id option to specify the id the password is supplied for.

Note

If a VM fails to start with a particular frontend and the error information is inconclusive, consider starting the VM directly by running the frontend. This workaround might provide additional error information.

Examples

The following command starts the ol7u6 VM:

$ VBoxManage startvm ol7u6

The following command starts the ol7u6-mininstall VM in headless mode.

$ VBoxManage startvm ol7u6-mininstall --type headless