[vbox-dev] [EXPERIMENTAL] VBox-Unattended Release 0.7.1 - Automated guest OS install

[Alexey Eromenko]

I have good news and bad news:

The Good news:
1. I have revived vboxunattended patch with 0.7.1 release
2. I have built a binary installer - VirtualBox_unattended-OSE-4.1.29
for those who like to try it out
The version is a patched 4.1.28, that I renamed as 4.1.29.

The bad news:
1. Linux hosts only (porting to Windows will be difficult)
2. I'we tried & failed to port the patchset to the new VirtualBox
4.3.0 release -- because the code in this release is so complex, that
I can't understand it.

[specifically: I was unable to understand how parameters are passed
between the classes in the New VM wizard, for example how the RAM
parameter goes from the VirtualBox GUI into the COM server IMachine
interface:
UIWizardNewVMPageBasic2->UIWizardNewVMPage2->UINameAndSystemEditor->UIWizardNewVM->CMachine...
?]

NOTE:
vbox-unattended patchset is experimental.

Supported guest OSes: (list not changed in few years)
-openSUSE 11.4 32/64-bit
-Debian 6.0 DVD 32/64-bit
-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (32/64-bit)
-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32/64-bit)
-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (32/64-bit)
-Windows XP (32-bit)
-Windows Vista (32-bit)
(other OSes might or might not work)

Install instructions: (Debian Linux)
1. New Dependencies:
# apt-get install p7zip-full mtools genisoimage
2. Download & install patched VirtualBox-unattended-OSE for Linux: (4.1.29)
http://www.qumble.org/Downloads/VirtualBox-4.1.29_unattended-OSE-r89849.run
2.a. [OPTIONAL] MD5SUM:
2e22e1568a49c0585ab7d4dee6eec50e
/home/alexey/1/VirtualBox-4.1.29_unattended-OSE-r89849.run
3. Make sure you use Oracle's guest additions:
Download http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.1.28/VBoxGuestAdditions_4.1.28.iso
cp [path]/VBoxGuestAdditions_4.1.28.iso
/opt/VirtualBox/additions/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso

Source code:
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=46798&p=211187#p211187
-- 
-Alexey Eromenko "Technologov"