On Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon `~/VirtualBox VMs/` is created only when logging in with the associated user, how to access this folder without logging in ?
Sep 24, 9:08pm
You don't need to log in as that user — the folder exists on disk as soon as the VMs were created; a login is never required to read files. The catch is Unix permissions: ~/VirtualBox VMs/ belongs to that user and their group (typically 0750/0700), so another account can't read it directly.
Options from any account with sudo (e.g. your own admin account, or a root shell on a TTY via Ctrl+Alt+F3):
bash
# Copy the folder somewhere readable, without a GUI login
sudo cp -r /home/<user>/VirtualBox\ VMs /somewhere/external
# Or just browse it
sudo ls -la /home/<user>/VirtualBox\ VMs/
sudo less /home/<user>/VirtualBox\ VMs/<vm>/<vm>.vbox
# Or temporarily grant read access (ACL, no ownership change)
sudo setfacl -R -m u:<youruser>:rx "/home/<user>/VirtualBox VMs"
If the home directory is encrypted (Linux Mint's default is not ecryptfs anymore, but check with ls /home/.ecryptfs), the files only decrypt at that user's login — in that case there's no way around logging in as that user (even a TTY login suffices, no GUI needed) or knowing their login passphrase to unwrap the mount key.
Otherwise, any of the above works from a live USB too, if the machine itself is unavailable:
bash
sudo mount /dev/sdXn /mnt
sudo cp -r "/mnt/home/<user>/VirtualBox VMs" /destination
Note: you don't need to run VirtualBox to read the files — the .vdi/.vbox files can be opened elsewhere (e.g. VBoxManage on another machine, or mount the .vdi with qemu-nbd).
Sep 24, 9:08pm
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