Prerequisites ============= Users, that want to use the VirtualBox autostart feature, have to be members of the vboxusers group. E.g.: sudo usermod -aG vboxusers USERNAME Preparation =========== For each autostart user, add a section in /etc/vbox/autostart.cfg: USERNAME = { allow = true } Users work ========== The *first* time a user configures autostart, the command: VBoxManage setproperty autostartdbpath /etc/vbox/autostart.d needs to be run. Note: The autostart options are stored in the /etc/vbox file, and in the VM itself. If moving a VM, these options may need to be set again. Prepare a VM to start automatically: VBoxManage modifyvm --autostart-enabled on Choose a shut down mode: VBoxManage modifyvm --autostop-type Restart the vboxdrv service to start the VMs in question sudo service vboxdrv restart To turn off autostart for a VM VBoxManage modifyvm --autostart-enabled off