PrestaShop appliance login

Unfortunately the VBox window does need to stay open... If you close it then VBox will shut down your server (VirtualBox is more geared towards desktop OSs where if you didn't want to see your VM anymore you probably want it shut...). I have come across a tool to run VBox installed appliances headlessly but it's a bit clunky.

Unless you have a need I wouldn't bother installing the Guest Addons. And OTTOMH the only extra functionality that is of any benefit is share folders, but seeing as you plan to host remotely eventually then it's probably better to just get used to the tools that will still be useful once you move your site. If you want to install them no matter what then have a look here.

Wow. I really appreciate the detailed response. Thank you for not taking anything for granted (SFTP vs FTP). I'm a rookie, after all. Thanks to you, Jeremy, I'm logged in to the PrestaShop Administration panel right now.

I remember reading about PuTTY's copy/paste ability when I was researching this problem, and from reading the site documentation here and at PrestaShop's website, I knew to access the internal site via a browser.

What I didn't know is that I was already completely finished with setup and configuration of the appliance. I guess I just thought that logging in at the prompt at that point would open a Linux desktop or something. I also didn't know that Webshell is another way of accessing the console. Judging from your answer, I really shouldn't need to log in to the console anyway.

I still don't know why I can't type those two symbols (only @ and #) within the VM console window. The problem doesn't exist in Webshell, obviously, because it's in the browser. Of course, as you said, the user name is root, not the PrestaShop email address, so there's no @ symbol necessary. When the console shows "prestashop login," it really means "appliance root" login, right?

So now I have to ask another rookie question...does the console window need to stay open even though I've already accessed PrestaShop via the browser? Also, if I can't get to a Linux desktop, how do I install the VirtualBox Guest Additions? I have another question, too, about upgrading PrestaShop from within the appliance via their "1-Click" AutoUpgrade rather than upgrading the appliance itself (the latest appliance and upstream source for PrestaShop is dated June, but the PrestaShop version is still not the latest version from April), but I will ask that in a new topic.

Thanks again. I already felt confident in my choice to go with TurnKey Linux based on my comparison with other solutions. Basically, I wanted to focus on the site itself, not the Linux and Apache learning curve and I wanted the development environment to be as close as possible to the hosting environment to further minimize the learning curve.

TurnKey addresses both, and now I'm confident in the support, as well.

Stephen

As you may or may not realise, to log in to the actual Prestashop itself you need to access it via a web browser that is on the same network (e.g. your Windows host is probably a safe bet assuming that you have virtual networking set up properly - use the IP in the config console).

To log into the console you can use the VBox window, but personally I would only use that for initial config... Once you have it configured then I would recommend setting a static IP. I'd use PuTTY (and connect via SSH) to access your appliance (note: selecting text in the PuTTY window auto copies and right click pastes). Filezilla is also an invaluable tool IMO - for copying to/from the appliance file system  (remember to use SFTP connection not vanilla FTP). Webshell (https://<appliance-IP>:12320 from your Win web browser) is another option for accessing the console of your appliance.

The beauty of getting used to using these tools is that you can continue to use exactly the same ones once you have your server up and running on Amazon (or anywhere else contactable via network). 

As for the email that you input to log in, that's not required (you just need that for the WebUI). To log into the console, use the username 'root' (no quotes) and the password you set as the root password on first boot.

Like I said, for some reason, I was just expecting to have to finish logging in to the console and then continue working within that window, or leave the VirtualBox window running, but not the console itself.

Now that I've been able to access everything through the browser, as you said I haven't needed anything else. I've been using Webmin, so I haven't even needed PuTTY yet (although I've downloaded the portable PuTTYtray just in case). I haven't needed the Guest Additions either, presumably because I'm not working inside that window anyway.

Everything to do with TurnKey Linux and VirtualBox is working as advertised. I'm currently using VirtualBox Portable from a 32GB USB key (formatted with NTFS) with the 32-bit ovf image. I haven't had any problems (other than the symbol typing, which is irrelevant). Now I'm just working with PrestaShop and the stack. That's the way it should be, so thanks for the support so far and for making this stuff so much more user friendly in the first place.

Stephen