Instructions adapted from: https://www.liberiangeek.net/2014/09/install-virtualbox-headless-ubuntu-14-04-server-manage-phpvirtualbox/ http://linuxhomeserverguide.com/server-config/phpVirtualBox.php
start with:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get autoremove
install dkms:
sudo apt-get install build-essential dkms
Edit:
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list
and add:
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian trusty contrib
Add the key:
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Install VirtualBox:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.1 virtualbox-ext-pack virtualbox-dkms
Create a user that will own/run the phpVirtualBox:
sudo useradd vboxadmin
sudo passwd vboxadmin
sudo usermod -aG vboxusers vboxadmin
Make sure user has home directory:
sudo mkdir /home/vboxadmin && sudo chown vboxadmin:users /home/vboxadmin && sudo usermod --home /home/vboxadmin vboxadmin
... and is part of sudoers:
sudo adduser vboxadmin sudo
#Important: Login as this user now!!!
Install the service and configure it for use by vboxadmin:
sudo systemctl enable vboxweb-service
Set up the /lib/systemd/system/vboxweb.service file. Add/update the following entries in the [Service] section:
User=vboxadmin
Group=vboxusers
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vboxwebsrv --host=127.0.0.1 --pidfile /home/vboxadmin/.vboxweb.pid --background
PIDFile=/home/vboxadmin/.vboxweb.pid
Change the VirtualBox web auth library setting:
vboxmanage setproperty websrvauthlibrary null
Check VirtualBox status:
sudo service vboxweb status
Install apache and php:
sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-common php-soap php5-gd
Download phpVirtualBox:
cd /tmp/ && wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/phpvirtualbox/phpvirtualbox-5.0-5.zip?r=https%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fphpvirtualbox%2Ffiles%2F&ts=1506652449&use_mirror=pilotfiber
Unzip phpVirtualBox:
unzip phpvirtualbox*.zip
Move the extracted files to the web server:
sudo mv phpvirtualbox-5.0.5 /var/www/html/phpvirtualbox
Copy the default config file:
sudo cp /var/www/html/phpvirtualbox/config.php-example /var/www/html/phpvirtualbox/config.php
Edit the config file to add the user created earlier:
sudo vi /var/www/html/phpvirtualbox/config.php
Change the username and password as appropriate:
var $username = 'vboxadmin';
var $password = 'xxxx';Create the virtualbox file and edit it:
sudo vi /etc/default/virtualbox
Add these two lines (http://sourceforge.net/p/phpvirtualbox/wiki/vboxweb-service%20Configuration%20in%20Linux/):
VBOXWEB_USER=vboxadmin
VBOXWEB_HOST=127.0.0.1
Start VirtualBox:
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxweb-service start
On ubuntu server 14.04, set the service to autostart with a startup script in /etc/init/vboxwebsrv.conf
# vboxwebsrv - phpVirtualBox web server
#
description "phpVirtualBox web server daemon"
start on runlevel [2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]
expect fork
respawn
exec vboxwebsrv -b
Download VirtualBox extension pack from: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Once installed, VBoxManage is pretty handy for configurations. For example, to resize a HDD:
VBoxManage modifyhd Win7.vdi --resize 262144
Configure 2D & 3D acceleration:
VBoxManage modifyvm {VM} --accelerate3d [on|off]
VBoxManage modifyvm {VM} --accelerate2dvideo [on|off]