It may be interesting to have a Linux machine within range of SSH that is always available and that is windowless, i.e. running in headless mode .

For example, under MacOS, you can have Linux tools without being cluttered with a window associated with this Linux.

The advantage is to run a VM in the background without using a lot of memory.

There are two distinct parts to master:

start and stop the VM in command line mode;

allow connection by SSH from the host to this VM. To know the name of the VM:

VBoxManage list vms
Copy

To launch the vm, here called myvm:

VBoxHeadless --startvm "myvm"
Copy

Then, we can do Port Forwarding to reach the VM from the host:

VBoxManage controlvm myvm natpf1 vers_ssh,tcp,,2224,,22
Copy

Finally, if you want to properly shut down the VM:

VBoxManage controlvm "myvm" acpipowerbutton
Copy

If we want to ensure access to the VM is possible:

VBoxManage showvminfo "myvm"
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = vers_ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 2224, guest ip = , guest port = 22
Copy

To connect via SSH:

ssh -p 2224 localhost
Copy