VirtualBox: Unattended OS installation with PowerShell

Variables

#
# Add Virtual Box bin-path to PATH environment variable if necessary:
#
  if ( (get-command VBoxManage.exe -errorAction silentlyContinue) -eq $null) {
     $env:path="C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox;$env:path"
  }


# $vmName  = 'Win10Preview'
# $vmName  = 'Windows10'
  $vmName  = 'Windows11'
# $vmName  = 'Ubuntu-desktop-22.04.1'
# $vmName  = 'Debian-11.6.0'

#
# Location of installation ISO file:
#
# $isoFile = "$home\ISOs\Windows10_InsiderPreview_Client_x64_en-us_19035.iso"
# $isoFile = "$home\ISOs\Windows-10.iso"
  $isoFile = "$home\ISOs\Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso"
# $isoFile = "$home\ISOs\ubuntu-22.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso"
# $isoFile = "$home\ISOs\debian-11.6.0-amd64-netinst.iso"

  if (-not (test-path $isoFile)) {
    "$isoFile does not exist"
     return
  }

  $vmPath="$home\VirtualBox VMs\$vmName"

#
# Default user name is vboxuser
#
  $userName     = 'tq84'
  $fullUserName = 'Tee Queue Eighty-Four'

#
# Default password is changeme
#
  $password='theSecret'

#
# Some Memory sizes
#
  $hdSizeMb  = 65536
  $memSizeMb = (get-cimInstance win32_physicalMemory | measure-object -property capacity -sum).sum / 1mb / 2 # Half of the total memory
  $vramMb    =   128 # Must be in range 0 … 256 (Mb) - GUI allows max of 128 only.

#
# Number of CPUs:
#
  $nofCPUs  = $([System.Environment]::ProcessorCount / 2)

#
# Path of shared folder
#
  $sharedFolder = "$home\VirtualBox\sharedFolder"

Remove last creation

$registeredVMs = & VBoxManage list vms

if (VBoxManage list vms | select-string \b${vmName}\b) {
  write-host "$vmName is registered"
  VBoxManage controlvm    $vmName poweroff
  VBoxManage unregistervm $vmName --delete
}
else {
  write-host "$vmName is not registered"
}

if (test-path $vmPath) {
  write-host "Removing vm files $vmPath"
  rmdir -recurse $vmPath
}

if (test-path $sharedFolder) {
  write-host "Removing shared folder $sharedFolder"
  rmdir -recurse -force $sharedFolder
}

Detect OS of given .iso

# VBoxManage unattended detect --iso=$isoFile
VBoxManage unattended detect --iso=$isoFile | select-string TypeId | foreach-object { $osType = $_ -replace '.* = (.*)', '$1'}
write-host "detected os type $osType"

...
    OS TypeId    = WindowsNT_64
...

VBoxManage list ostypes

Create the virtual machine definition file

VBoxManage createvm --name $vmName --ostype $osType --register

if (! (test-path $vmPath\$vmName.vbox)) {
   echo "I expected a .vbox"
   return
}

Add a hard disk

VBoxManage createmedium --filename $vmPath\hard-drive.vdi --size $hdSizeMb

if (! (test-path $vmPath\hard-drive.vdi)) {
   echo "I expected a .vdi"
   return
}

Add SATA controller and attach hard disk to it

VBoxManage storagectl    $vmName --name       'SATA Controller' --add sata --controller IntelAHCI
VBoxManage storageattach $vmName --storagectl 'SATA Controller' --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium $vmPath/hard-drive.vdi

Add IDE controller and virtual DVD drive

VBoxManage storagectl    $vmName --name       'IDE Controller' --add ide
VBoxManage storageattach $vmName --storagectl 'IDE Controller' --port 0 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium $isoFile

Enable APIC

VBoxManage modifyvm $vmName --ioapic on

Specify boot order of devices

VBoxManage modifyvm $vmName --boot1 dvd --boot2 disk --boot3 none --boot4 none

Memory

VBoxManage modifyvm $vmName --memory $memSizeMb --vram $vramMb

Specify (host) location of a shared folder

$null = mkdir $sharedFolder
VBoxManage sharedfolder add $vmName --name shr --hostpath $sharedFolder --automount

Enable clipboard content sharing

VBoxManage modifyvm  $vmName --clipboard-mode bidirectional

VBoxSVGA

VBoxManage modifyvm  $vmName --graphicscontroller vboxsvga

Number of CPUs

VBoxManage modifyvm $vmName --cpus $nofCPUs

VBoxManage VBoxManage showvminfo $vmName --machinereadable | findstr cpus=

Specify an unattended installation

VBoxManage unattended install $vmName      `
  --iso=$isoFile                           `
  --user=$userName                         `
  --password=$password                     `
  --full-user-name=$fullUserName           `
  --install-additions                      `
  --time-zone=CET                          `
# --post-install-command='VBoxControl guestproperty set installation_finished y'

           scriptTemplatePath = C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\UnattendedTemplates\win_nt6_unattended.xml
postInstallScriptTemplatePath = C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\UnattendedTemplates\win_postinstall.cmd

List virtual machines

VBoxManage list vms

Remove menus

VBoxManage setextradata $vmName GUI/RestrictedRuntimeMenus ALL 

Start the virtual machine

VBoxManage startvm $vmName

Specify the size of the screen

VBoxManage controlvm $vmName setvideomodehint 1200 900  32

VBoxManage setextradata $vmName CustomVideoMode             1600x900x32
VBoxManage controlvm    $vmName setvideomodehint            1920 1080 32
VBoxManage controlvm    $vmName setscreenlayout primary 0 0 1600 1200 24

Wait for installation to be finished

VBoxManage guestproperty wait $vmName installation_finished

VBoxManage guestproperty enumerate $vmName 

TODO

Next steps

See also