InstallUbuntuVirtualBox.pdf

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Install Ubuntu on VirtualBox
Ronald Mak
Department of Computer Engineering
Department of Computer Science
Department of Applied Data Science
January 25, 2021
Introduction
Linux is an industry-standard operating system, and Ubuntu is a popular distribution of Linux. In order to
run Ubuntu as the guest operating system in a virtual machine on your host machine (such as your
Windows or Mac laptop), you can first install VirtualBox and then install Ubuntu within VirtualBox. Then
whenever you start VirtualBox, you can select Ubuntu (or any other guest operating system that you’ve
installed) to run in the virtual machine managed by VirtualBox.
Hardware-assisted virtualization
To support a virtual machine, your laptop’s Intel CPU chip must have virtualization technology (VT-x)
enabled. It is enabled by default on some laptop brands, but disabled by default on others. To see
whether or not it’s enabled on your Windows laptop, follow the instructions at
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005486/processors.html
If VT-x is disabled, you must enable it by changing an option in the BIOS of your laptop. See the
instructions at https://www.sysprobs.com/disable-enable-virtualization-technology-bios
How to access the BIOS depends on the laptop brand: https://www.lifewire.com/bios-setup-utility-
access-keys-for-popular-computer-systems-2624463
Download the Ubuntu installation disk
Go to https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop and download the latest version of Ubuntu, which is
a 64-bit operating system. You will get a .iso file which is an image of the installation optical disk (i.e., a
CD ROM). Remember where you stored the file.
If you are on Windows 10, a better solution for getting Ubuntu is to install it
directly using the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature. For instructions, see
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10 and the tutorial,
“Install Ubuntu on Windows 10”:
http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/tutorials/InstallUbuntuWindows.pdf.
If you are on a Macintosh platform, you do not need to install Linux, since macOS
is based on a (non-Linux) version of UNIX. The latest versions of macOS use zsh as
the default shell (command-line) language. You may want to replace it with the
more popular industry-standard bash. See the tutorial, “Install bash for macOS”:
http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/tutorials/InstallBashForMacOS.pdf

R. Mak, Install Ubuntu on VirtualBox
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Install and configure VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a virtual machine manager under which you will run Ubuntu. Windows 10 or macOS will be
the host operating system for the virtual machine, and Ubuntu will be the guest operating system
running in the virtual machine.
Download the latest version of VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/. Install and run it. It should
appear as in Figure 1, except that if this is your first time running it, there won’t be any other guest
operating systems already installed.
Figure 1. The VirtualBox main screen (running on MacOS X).

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Click the New button and fill in the Create
Virtual Machine form (Figure 2). Pick an
appropriate name. Choose a machine folder
on your laptop that will contain the virtual
machine image. The type should be Linux,
and the version should be Ubuntu (64 bit).
Set a memory size for the virtual machine,
but don’t give it more than half of the
memory of your host laptop. Select the
Create a virtual hard disk now radio button.
Click the Create button.
Figure 2. The Create Virtual Machine form.
On the Create Virtual Hard Disk form (Figure
3), specify the maximum size to which
Ubuntu’s virtual hard disk can grow. Select
the VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) and the
Dynamically allocated radio buttons. Click the
Create button. This creates the new virtual
machine named, for example, Ubuntu 18.10
(Figure 4).
Note: For an installation of Ubuntu, specify at
least 64 GB for the size of the virtual hard
disk.
Figure 3. The Create Virtual Disk form.

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Figure 4. The virtual machine named Ubuntu 18.10 is created.
Select the name of the newly created
virtual machine. Click the Settings icon at
the top. Then click on System in the left
panel. In the System Settings form, select
the Motherboard tab. Specify the amount
of base memory you want to devote the
virtual machine, but not more than half of
the physical memory in your host machine.
Select the Processor tab (Figure 5) and
specify the number of CPUs you want to
devote to the virtual machine, but not
more than half the number of CPUs in your
host machine. Click the OK button.
Figure 5. The System Settings form.
Note: For an installation of Ubuntu, specify at least 2 CPUs and 4 GB of memory.

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Click Storage in the left panel. The Storage
Settings form (Figure 6) shows the virtual
CD ROM drive, which is initially empty, and
the virtual hard drive, which is the .vdi
virtual disk image that VirtualBox created.
Select Empty under Controller: IDE.
Figure 6. The initial Storage Settings form.
You want to install Ubuntu on the
virtual machine, so you must
“insert” the .iso installation disk
image file that you downloaded
earlier into the virtual CD ROM
drive. Look under Attributes and
click on the image of the disk to
the right of the dropdown menu.
Select the .iso file to insert into
the drive. You should now see the
.iso file name under Controller:
IDE (Figure 7). Click the OK button.
Figure 7. The installation disk image
inserted into the virtual CD ROM drive.

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Install Ubuntu
Now you are ready to start the virtual machine (Figure 8) in order to install Ubuntu. To start the Ubuntu
virtual machine, highlight it and click the Start button at the top.
Figure 8. Ready to start the Ubuntu virtual machine.
The virtual machine will boot off the installation disk and start the installation process (Figure 9).
Because the installation process downloads files from the Internet, you will need a good connection.

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Choose your language and click Install
Ubuntu to start the installation process. At
various times, you will be asked to make a
choice. Except otherwise directed, you
should accept the default choices.
Figure 9. Starting the installation process.
On the Installation type form, accept the
choice Erase disk and install Ubuntu (Figure
10). The disk that it will erase is the virtual
disk, not your host laptop’s physical disk!
Click the Install Now button and the
subsequent Continue button.
Figure 10. Erase the virtual disk and install Ubuntu.

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On the Who are you? form (Figure 11),
enter appropriate names. The username will
also become the name of your home
directory in /home. The passwords will
become your login passwords.
Figure 11. Choose names and passwords.
The installation process will take a while,
especially if you have a slow Internet
connection. You can watch files download
and install, or you can go have a cup of
coffee. When it’s finally done, it will ask you
to restart (Figure 12). Press the Restart Now
button.
Figure 12. Installation is complete.

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Ubuntu will restart and ask you to remove
the installation disk from the virtual CD ROM
drive (Figure 13).
Right-click on the image of the CD ROM at
the bottom of the screen and select Remove
disk from virtual drive. You may need to
press the right control key on your keyboard
if the virtual machine has “captured” your
mouse. After removing the disk, click in the
Ubuntu window and press the enter key.
Figure 13. After the initial system restart.
After the VirtualBox splash screen and some
system startup messages, you will be asked
to log in (Figure 14).
Click on your name and enter your password.
Figure 14. The login screen.

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You have successfully installed Ubuntu as a
virtual machine (Figure 15)!
Figure 15. Ubuntu is successfully installed!
Open an Ubuntu terminal window
Open an Ubuntu terminal window in order to
enter and execute commands on the
command line. Click the Show Applications
icon (the matrix of nine dots) at the bottom
left of the desktop to display application
icons. In the search box at the top, type
“terminal”. The terminal icon appears. Right-
click the icon and select Add to Favorites to
add a terminal icon to the left panel so that
you can easily open a terminal window in the
future. Double-click the terminal icon to open
a terminal window (Figure 16).
Figure 16. An Ubuntu terminal window.
Install guest additions
Guest additions are additional software that you install in the guest operating system (i.e., Ubuntu) that
provide important useful features, such as shared folders and the ability to cut and paste between the
guest and host environments. Guest additions are fully explained in Chapter 4 of the VirtualBox User
Manual, which is in the doc directory of the VirtualBox installation on your host machine.
In the top menu bar of the virtual machine window (you may need to hold down the right control key on
your host keyboard and press C to make the top menu bar appear), drop down the Devices menu and
select Insert Guest Additions CD image ….

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You can also insert the image manually. Look for the virtual disk image file
VBoxGuestAdditions.iso in the top folder of your installation. Right-click the image of the CD
ROM at the bottom of the virtual machine window (right-click control-C if necessary to see it) and insert
the .iso file.
A dialog will pop up asking if you want to run
automatically started software (Figure 17).
Figure 17. Click the Run button to install the guest additions.
Click the Run button and the software will
install (Figure 18).
Figure 18. Installing the guest additions.
You can also start the installation script
manually. Click the Vbox_GAS icon in the
upper left of the Ubuntu desktop to display
the contents of the virtual disk (Figure 19).
Click the Run Software button in the upper
right.
Figure 19. Contents of the guest additions virtual
disk.

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Create and mount the shared folder
A shared folder is a directory on your host operating system (i.e., Windows 10 or macOS) that is also
accessible by the guest operating system (i.e., Ubuntu). A shared folder is the easiest way to transfer
files between the host and the guest.
Create a directory in your host operating
system that you wish to be shared, such as
D:Shared in Windows or ~/Shared in
macOS. In the VirtualBox main screen, select
the Ubuntu guest operating system name
and click the Settings icon at the top. Click
on Shared Folders in the left panel. In the
Shared Folders form (Figure 20), click the +
folder icon on the right. In the dialog box,
enter the Folder Path of your directory and
“Shared” as the Mount point. Check the
Auto-mount and Make Permanent boxes.
Figure 20. Shared folder dialog box entries.
Click the OK button to see your choices
(Figure 21).
Figure 21. Shared folder specification.

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In the Ubuntu operating system, in order to access data in the shared folder, you must be in the
vboxsf group. Enter the following command on the command line in the terminal window:
where username is your username (e.g., ron).
To mount the shared folder, enter the following commands:
where username is your username. The mkdir command creates a folder (directory) named Shared in
your home directory. The sudo mount command mounts the shared folder to the folder you just
created in your home directory. Now the folder you created (e.g., D:Shared in Windows or
~/Shared in macOS) is shared with folder Shared in your Ubuntu home directory.
To test the shared folder: Put some files into the shared directory (e.g., BigPi.cpp and
BigPi.txt). Then use the ls command in the Ubuntu terminal to see the files listed:
To make this mount permanent so that it will be in effect the next time you start Ubuntu, execute the
following four commands:
where username is your username. Be especially careful typing the echo command, particularly the
double >> symbol. If you accidently trash the system file /etc/fstab, you can recover it from the
copy /etc/fstab-save.
The shared folder is also automatically mounted for you in /media/sf_Shared. Since both you and
sf_Shared are in the group vboxsf, you are able to add, remove, or edit files in that directory.
Configure Ubuntu for software development
Read the “Configure Ubuntu for Software Development” tutorial next:
http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/tutorials/ConfigureUbuntu.pdf
sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf username
mkdir Shared
sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 Shared /home/username/Shared
ls shared
BigPi.cpp BigPi.txt
sudo su
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab-save
echo "Shared /home/username/Shared vboxsf defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
exit

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