Configure Linux in Virtualbox

Welcome!
I'm sharing here some notes on how i configure Virtualbox after the installation.
Except the guest additions, the rest could apply to a normal installation too (because i usually use netinstall iso).
So better pile up all the things i otherwise have to search in internet every time i format, because i have short memory. :-p
Let's start!

This post is subject to updates, if i find interesting tips i will add them here!

Setup Sudo

# apt install sudo

Now we need to edit the sudoers file

# nano /etc/sudoers

You should have a row that is like root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL.
Below it write this

USERNAME ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Of course replace USERNAME with your standard login username.
Now you can disconnect and if you login with your username you should be able to do everything.

Setup Guest Additions

Guest Additions are very useful to share data between host and guest vm.
I use it a lot, for example i mount an host folder as shared into the guest.
Now "insert" the disk of Guest Additions and...

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
$ sudo apt install build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r) -y
$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom
$ sudo mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom/
$ cd /mnt/cdrom/
$ sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run --nox11
$ sudo adduser USERNAME vboxsf
$ sudo shutdown -r now

Of course replace USERNAME with your standard login username.
I used the option --nox11 because i usually do this via ssh or in console.
If you mounted a shared folder into VirtualBox UI you can now see it mounted

(see example, where host's shr folder is mounted automatically at /mnt/shared/ )

Setup Static IP Address

This refers to Debian. Other distros like Ubuntu may have different methods to set it.

Sometimes i need to set the network interface to a static IP. It's very easy to achieve it.
First check what's the actual address

$ sudo apt install net-tools
$ sudo ifconfig -a

It should tell which is your ip, gateway and other thing.
Also check the name of your network interface you want to set static (in my case the ethernet which is enp0s3).
Now we are going to set it static by editing this file

$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

You should have a row which looks like

iface enp0s3 inet dhcp

edit it and add some other lines

iface enp0s3 inet static 
address 192.168.0.10
gateway 192.168.0.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
dns-nameservers 192.168.0.1, 9.9.9.9

Of course adapt it with what you want, and after it

$ sudo ifdown -a;  sudo ifup -a

Or reboot...

Shrink VM virtual disk

After days and days the vm virtual disk become bigger than the actual used space.
There's a procedure that can help gain some space...even few GB if you're an animal like me.
I suppose you're on a windows host with a virtual debian guest.
First we need to know what disk to optimize. Launch

$ sudo df

It should show you all your disk, mine is /dev/sda1
Now install zerofree and clean apt packages and cache.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt install zerofree
$ sudo apt autoremove && sudo apt autoclean && sudo apt clean
$ sudo shutdown -r now

Now we have to stop the boot at grub, in order to launch zerofree before linux start. At grub menu press E, find line that start with "linux ..." and add break=init at the end of line.
Press CTRL+X You should arrive in a shell that start with (initramfs)
Now digit

mount --bind /proc $rootmnt/proc
chroot $rootmnt /usr/sbin/zerofree -v /dev/sda1

It should now optimize the disk. After it exit and shutdown the VM

exit

Now open a command prompt in Windows and

cd C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
VBoxManage.exe modifymedium disk "C:\Users\USER\VirtualBox VMs\vbox\vbox.vdi" --compact

Of course replace the path to your virtual disk.

Once i had an issue with Ubuntu install: it didn't show me the grub menu.
It was necessary to edit the grub configuration.

$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Edit/uncomment this entries like this

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_TERMINAL=console

Then

$ sudo update-grub

Now you can follow the previous steps to do it.

Other small things

Other basic tools not included in netinstall are

$ sudo apt install curl wget

If i have to install linux on a remote machine that i don't access daily i usually configure unattended-upgrades

$ sudo apt install unattended-upgrades
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

You can customise the behaviour of the upgrades (when reboot, if autoremove or not, ...) by edit

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

I uncommented this

Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "true";
Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot-WithUsers "true";

Once i had an issue with a netbook on which i installed pihole for my network. I closed the lid and it went in suspension. It's pretty easy to change this behaviour.

$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/logind.conf

Uncomment and edit HandleLidSwitch

HandleLidSwitch=ignore

Other valid arguments are lock, suspend, poweroff and hibernate.