Ubuntu – Safely close virtualbox machine on host reboot

I had the same problem and solved it by

1. Purging Virtualbox:

   sudo apt-get purge virtualbox virtualbox-dkms virtualbox-ose-qt virtualbox-qt

2. I then reinstalled;

   sudo apt-get install virtualbox virtualbox-dkms virtualbox-ose virtualbox

   and noticed:

   dependency problems prevent configuration of virtualbox-ose:
   virtualbox-ose depends on virtualbox; however:
   Package virtualbox is not configured yet.
   Package virtualbox-4.0 which provides virtualbox is not installed.
   

3. so I tried installing virtualbox-4.0;

   sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.0

   That worked and pulled in the correct VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules.

4. I then had to download and install the correct version of the extension pack Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.16-75491.vbox-extpack.

That worked, and I now have a fully functioning Virtualbox instance.

The way to do this is to write a script to start your VM, wait until it terminates, and then issue the shut-down command.

Create a folder bin in your home folder (if it does not exist already).

Now create a file with the following contents. Let's call it win7vmshutdown, and save it in your bin folder.

#!/bin/bash

VBoxManage startvm 'Win7'                           # Start the VM.

sleep 10s                                           # Give it time to start up. 

while pgrep VirtualBox >/dev/null                   # As long as the VM is running...
do
        sleep 5s                                    # Wait a bit before trying again.
done

gnome-session-quit --power-off                      # Issue the command to shut down.

Make the script executable; enter the following in a Terminal.

chmod +x ~/bin/win7vmshutdown

In your Startup Applications, remove the VBoxManage ... command and replace it with win7vmshutdown.

The shutdown command will prompt you for shutdown; if you don't answer, it will shut down in 60 seconds. This gives you time to interrupt the shutdown in case of unexpected problems.

Reboot your computer to test.

You said:

Also, when virtual box starts up automatically, Ubuntu's desktop should not be visible.

To do that, you want to run your VM in full-screen. Install the Guest Additions in your VM, reboot it, and run it full-screen.