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Industrial
Asked: 2011-02-28 08:51:48 +0800 CST

Connecting with ssh to virtualbox (headless)?

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I have successfully setup a virtualbox running Ubuntu server. As everything is working now, it would be sweet to run it in the background, so I've made a small bash script to start it whenever I need to access it:

#!/bin/bash
nohup VBoxHeadless -s "Ubuntu server"&

This server uses bridged networking and has a static IP set to 192.168.1.5. When I run the following from another computer in the same network, the below shown error are thrown. Why?

ssh [email protected]
ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.5 port 22: No route to host

I assumed that running headless would not affect the Virtualbox beside the fact that it's lacking the GUI?

Thanks a lot

virtualization ubuntu virtualbox ssh headless

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    It may very well be that the server is having trouble starting up, or some other random error may be occurring.

    Fortunately, when you launch a headless server using VirtualBox without specifying the --vrde flag, it will automatically enable RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) on the VM. Try connecting to your server using RDP--because VirtualBox guarantees it to be running, and doesn't depend on the guest OS, you can rule out rather its an issue with the IP, the VM, or your connection to the server itself.

    The official VirtualBox documentation has more info on what kind of RDP clients are available for your system (I recommend rdesktop), and how to work with your headless system.

    Best of luck, and although this isn't technically an answer, it will allow you to do some real debugging! :)

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