Autostart VirtualBox VM on Ubuntu Server 18.04 Boot

Create a configuration file in /etc/default/

 sudo nano /etc/default/virtualbox

then add

 VBOXAUTOSTART_DB=/etc/vbox  
 VBOXAUTOSTART_CONFIG=/etc/vbox/autostart.cfg

Then create a configuration file in /etc/vbox/

 sudo nano /etc/vbox/autostart.cfg

then add

 default_policy = deny  
 # Create an entry for each user allowed to use autostart  
 myusername = {  
 allow = true  
 }

 sudo chgrp vboxusers /etc/vbox

 sudo chmod 1775 /etc/vbox

 sudo usermod -aG vboxusers USERNAME

 VBoxManage setproperty autostartdbpath /etc/vbox

Use the following command to get a list of available vms

 vboxmanage list vms

Create a file with <username>.start on /etc/vbox

 sudo touch /etc/vbox/username.start

 sudo chown username /etc/vbox/username.start

Restart the virtualbox service for changes to take effect

 sudo systemctl restart vboxautostart-service

Specify the virtual machine that will be set to autostart

 VBoxManage modifyvm <uuid|vmname> --autostart-enabled <on|off>

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