Headless mode

[KhaoticMind]

I'd really like to have the possibility to keep a system running without a GUI window open. This is very good when a VM is playing the role of a server in a environment (being it development or production), and you don't really need to see what is going on on it.

[Frank Mehnert]

And exactly this is possible using the VRDP mode. Just start a new VBox session with VBoxManage startvm <vm name> -type vrdp . Then attach to it with an RDP client, for example rdesktop on Linux. This feature is only available with the non-OSE version.

[KhaoticMind]

Didn't knew about it. Anyway, for what I understood, if i start the VM this way I can connect to the machine ONLY through RDP, right? And can't switch between headed/headless mode.

[umoeller]

Both the VirtualBox and the VBoxVRDP programs have a built-in VRDP server. You can enable it on a per-VM basis via VBoxManage; VirtualBox now also has options for this in the GUI (click on settings -> remote display). I _think_ this is already in 1.3.6, but certainly in the current development version.

[KhaoticMind]

I do not think this is the BEST solution, but hey! :)

Anyways... what about the OSE edition, that doesn't come with RDP?

[KhaoticMind]

Just tried RDP mode in 1.3.6, it is SLOWWWW. Host WinXP SP2, Guest Kubuntu 6.10! Also, starting from the GUI, it is not "headless".

Starting from VBoxVRDP it eats 100% of my CPU, after i access the guest using mstsc (RDP client for Windows XP) and click on it. It is all OK if i start from the GUI with VRDP enable. All VboxVRDP.exe keeps the prompt opened (so there is still a "head" so to speak).

[umoeller]

I suppose that if you really have VRDP performance problems, they should go into a separate bug report. Make sure that you have the guest additions installed because they greatly improve RDP performance. We do, however, support headless mode so I'll close this bug.