James W Harrington

A Simple Script to Start a Linux Virtual Box using Automator

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:23:28 +0000

Here is a simple script you can use to create an icon to launch a Virtual Box VM in headless mode using an Automator application. Simply start automator drop and paste this code into a AppleScript window.

on run {input, parameters}


do shell script "vboxmanage startvm [VM NAME] --type headless "
	do shell script "sleep 60"
	tell application "Terminal"

		if (count of windows) is 0 then

			do script "ssh -l root root@[VM IP ADDRESS]"

		else

			do script "ssh -l root root@[VM IP ADDRESS]" in window 1

		end if

		activate

	end tell

return input end run

This script is designed for a VM running Debian and will launch your VM in headless mode wait, 60 seconds and then launch and SSH session within terminal window.

If you launch this whilst the VM is already running you’ll get an error. You could get round this by putting a simple if statement to check and see if the VM is running, and if so simply launch the terminal window and not attempt to relaunch the VM

You could even save the workflow as an application and drop it on your dock with a cool icon.

Windows Live to get Active Sync Support

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:58:23 +0000

I have been reading on the web that hotmail is going to get Exchange ActiveSync enabled over the summer allowing users to keep their email, calendar, and contacts in sync with their mobile device.

Although not officially enabled yet it appears some users have had limited success (including me) it appears that to get it working you specify the server name as m.hotmail.com and leave the domain box blank.

Please remember ActiveSync on most devices currently only supports one email address, this means that if your work email server is configured on your phone then you most likely cannot take advantage of this new service. iPhone 4 users, iPhone 3G* and 3GS* users will be able to support multiple ActiveSync accounts.

*3G and 3GS users will get this in iOS 4

Rebuilding Archives

admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:40:02 +0000

Over the years I have run various different blogs (technical and personal) and most of them are archived offline. I am now working on a project to combine all those old posts, ideas, howto’s etc into this my main blog. So whilst I am doing this it may look like there are big gaps, which there but they will be filled soon

How to Instal Virtualbox’s Guest Additions on Debian

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:32:16 +0000

These steps describe how to install the Guest Additions on your Debian virtual machine running on Virtualbox

Login as root
Update your APT database with apt-get update;
Install the latest security updates with apt-get upgrade;
Install required packages with apt-get install build-essential module-assistant;
Configure your system for building kernel modules by running m-a prepare
Click on Install Guest Additions… from the Devices menu, then run mount /media/cdrom.
Run sh /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run, and follow the instructions on screen.

When you done don’t forget to reboot