I have installed Ubuntu Desktop 14.04 (Trusty) on a VirtualBox client (bridged network connection, Guest Additions installed). I sometimes run the client in headless mode (rather than through the VirtualBox GUI) and access it via SSH. To start such a client and get its network address, I normally:
nohup VBoxHeadless --startvm <VM_NAME> & #start as background process
#wait a bit for it to start up
VBoxManage guestproperty get <VM_NAME> "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP"
This works for most clients (Debian, Windows, I don't remember if it worked for my Ubuntu 13.10 client). If this fails, I can request all details, but even here the network address doesn't come up.
VBoxManage guestproperty enumerate <VM_NAME>
My guestproperties for the 14.04 client are as follows:
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Product, value: Linux, timestamp: 1402485749624026000, flags:
Name: /VirtualBox/HostInfo/GUI/LanguageID, value: en_US, timestamp: 1402652779530499000, flags:
Name: /VirtualBox/HostInfo/VBoxVerExt, value: 4.3.12, timestamp: 1402652779119725000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Vbgl/Video/SavedMode, value: 1366x722x32, timestamp: 1402485750186131000, flags:
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Version, value: #53-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jun 4 21:02:19 UTC 2014, timestamp: 1402485749625558000, flags:
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VersionExt, value: 4.3.12, timestamp: 1402485749627827000, flags:
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Revision, value: 93733, timestamp: 1402485749628338000, flags:
Name: /VirtualBox/HostGuest/SysprepExec, value: , timestamp: 1402652779118360000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/HostGuest/SysprepArgs, value: , timestamp: 1402652779118595000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Version, value: 4.3.12, timestamp: 1402485749627214000, flags:
Name: /VirtualBox/HostInfo/VBoxRev, value: 93733, timestamp: 1402652779119840000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/HostInfo/VBoxVer, value: 4.3.12, timestamp: 1402652779119633000, flags: TRANSIENT, RDONLYGUEST
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Release, value: 3.13.0-29-generic, timestamp: 1402485749624971000, flags:
Name: /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/HostVerLastChecked, value: 4.3.12, timestamp: 1402485781945719000, flags:
My workaround is to start the client with the VBox GUI, log in and type ifconfig to get the address, shut it down, and start it again headless, but I'd prefer to avoid that. How can I get the network address from a headless Trusty VirtualBox client?
