LinuxCNC in Virtualbox

This is not a directly useful thing to do because the virtual machine latency is too poor to drive a mill. However, it can be more convenient than running the live CD to explore the program and to provide support to folk doing the real thing. It is possible to pass the host par port to the VM if you think you might like to try it for real.

After installation (in a Debian VM) and rebooting, the user and root sooner or later lose the panel, desktop and context menus. Issuing an ACPI Shutdown signal brings up the usual logout/restart/shutdown. Lightdm does start, but the helpers don't seem to help.

The answer is to give root a password (sudo passwd root) at the first reboot into user and then log out. Log back in as root and log back out again. Log in as user. If either user or root lose the panels, use the context menus to go to the settings for autostart and add the panel program. Browse to /usr/bin and select xfce4-panel. The panels should be restored when you next log in.