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 <