| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="frontends">
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| 4 | <title>Alternative Front Ends</title>
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| 5 | <body>
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| 6 | <p>
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| 7 | As briefly mentioned in <xref href="features-overview.dita#features-overview"/>,
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| 8 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> has a very flexible internal design that enables
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| 9 | you to use multiple interfaces to control the same virtual
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| 10 | machines. For example, you can start a virtual machine with the
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| 11 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/> window and then stop it from the command line. With
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| 12 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>'s support for the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP),
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| 13 | you can even run virtual machines remotely on a headless server
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| 14 | and have all the graphical output redirected over the network.
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| 15 | </p>
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| 16 | <p> The following front ends are shipped in the standard <ph
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| 17 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> package:</p>
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| 18 | <ul>
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| 19 | <li>
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| 20 | <p><b outputclass="bold">VirtualBox.</b> This is the <ph
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| 21 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/>, a graphical user interface that uses the
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| 22 | Qt toolkit. This interface is described throughout this manual. While this is the simplest
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| 23 | and easiest front end to use, some of the more advanced <ph
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| 24 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> features are not included.</p>
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| 25 | </li>
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| 26 | <li>
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| 27 | <p><b outputclass="bold">VBoxManage.</b> A command-line
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| 28 | interface for automated and detailed control of every aspect
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| 29 | of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>. See
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| 30 | <xref href="vboxmanage.dita#vboxmanage"/>.
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| 31 | </p>
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| 32 | </li>
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| 33 | <li>
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| 34 | <p><b outputclass="bold">VBoxHeadless.</b> A front end that produces no visible output on
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| 35 | the host at all, but can act as a RDP server if the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension
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| 36 | (VRDE) is installed and enabled for the VM. As opposed to the other graphical interfaces,
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| 37 | the headless front end requires no graphics support. This is useful, for example, if you
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| 38 | want to host your virtual machines on a headless Linux server that has no X Window system
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| 39 | installed. See <xref href="vboxheadless.dita">VBoxHeadless, the Remote Desktop
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| 40 | Server</xref>. </p>
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| 41 | </li>
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| 42 | <li>
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| 43 | <!-- Separate mode: check with Klaus whether this needs to be covered in 7.1-->
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| 44 | <p><b>Separate mode.</b> A front end that is based on <userinput>VBoxHeadless</userinput>,
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| 45 | but does not require VRDE or an RDP viewer. See <xref href="vboxheadless-separate-mode.dita">Separate Mode</xref>.</p>
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| 46 | </li>
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| 47 | </ul>
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| 48 | <p> If the above front ends still do not satisfy your particular needs, it is possible to create
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| 49 | yet another front end to the complex virtualization engine that is the core of <ph
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| 50 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>, as the <ph
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| 51 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> core neatly exposes all of its features in
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| 52 | a clean API. See <xref href="VirtualBoxAPI.dita"><ph
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| 53 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> Programming Interfaces</xref>. </p>
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| 54 | </body>
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| 55 |
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| 56 | </topic>
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