I have recently started using VirtualBox to get my Linux environment rather than fully using Ubuntu. For me this works well. But recently i have realized that in the Ubuntu vm the only thing I use a lot is the terminal, mostly just because I need the Linux environment and not the full desktop.
So I tried installing Ubuntu server into a VM, which worked. But as soon as I reboot the machine, it fails after the system boot logo. After BIOS and where I would log on from the command line I simply get a black screen with a non blinking cursor. So I am never fully able to boot into the vbox.
I read up on the command line version, trying to run it headless and then connecting to it from demote desktop. after starting the vbox I am able to connect to the desktop and see the grub screen but after selecting Ubuntu I get that same non-blinking cursor.
So is this really possible? I tried cygwin but it never really felt adequate to me. I like and am very comfortable with the Ubuntu/Debian command line. How could I (if possible) accomplish this? I want to be bale to start up the VBox and get the full command line for that vbox session. Any ideas?
Ubuntu version: 10.10, VirtualBox v. 4.0.4 r70112 and I am on Windows 7 Ultimate.
You didn't mention the versions of Ubuntu and Virtualbox.
I failed twice to install full Ubuntu 10.10 over the latest VirtualBox 4.0.4 over Ubuntu (problems like those you describe), so I switched to Debian 6.0.
All you require to install Ubuntu headless is to install the server version, which you already did. If you get blank screens, tweak the ioapic settings in both VB and Ubuntu. Another tweak is to switch between IDE and SATA drivers for the main disk (the Grub in my non-virtualized Ubuntu hangs if there's USB media attached at boot time).
If you can run full Ubuntu on a VM, you can try downgrading it by removing the xserver-xorg package, or changing the default runlevel.
If all you want is a Linux consule, you can install Debian 6 without any GUI components.