Are you tired of relying solely on your physical computer for all your work-related tasks?
Do you want to expand your horizons and experiment with different operating systems like Ubuntu?
VirtualBox allows you to do just that! In this blog post, we will guide you step-by-step on how to add Ubuntu machine onto VirtualBox so that you can experience the benefits of both worlds.
Keep reading as we take a deep dive into the world of virtual machines and give you everything you need to get started.
Contents
Introduction to Virtual Box
In this section, we will provide a brief introduction to VirtualBox and how to add an Ubuntu machine on it.
VirtualBox is a hypervisor for x86 computers from Oracle. It can run on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.
You can use it to create virtual machines and run different operating systems on them. Adding an Ubuntu machine on VirtualBox is simple and only requires a few steps.
Download and Install Ubuntu
Assuming you have already installed VirtualBox on your computer, open VirtualBox and click the New button.
- You will be asked to create a new virtual machine. Give your machine a name (I will use “Ubuntu” for this tutorial) and select “Linux” for the Type. Select “Ubuntu (64-bit)” for the Version and click Next.
- You will be asked to allocate memory for your new virtual machine. I would recommend giving it at least 1GB of RAM. Once you have selected the amount of memory, click Next.
- On the hard disk page, select “Create a virtual hard disk now” and click Create.
- Now you will need to choose the Hard Disk file type. I would recommend using the VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) file type unless you have a specific need for something else. Click Next after selecting VDI.
- The next choice is whether to store yourvirtual hard disk as a single file or split into multiple files. Unless you have a specific reason to do so, I would recommend keeping it as a single file. Click Next after making your selection.
- The next page allows you to configure the storage details of your virtual hard disk. Unless you have special storage requirements, I would recommend keeping the default settings and clicking Next.
- On the final page, review your choices and click Create to create your new virtual machine.
Configuring the Ubuntu Machine Settings
In order to add an Ubuntu machine on VirtualBox, it is necessary to configure the machine settings.
- This can be done by opening the VirtualBox Manager and selecting the ‘New’ button in the top-left corner.
- Then, choose a name and operating system for the new virtual machine and select ‘Next’.
- Next, allocate memory for the virtual machine. It is recommended to give at least 2048 MB (2 GB) of RAM to an Ubuntu machine. Once memory has been allocated, select ‘Next’.
- Now, select ‘Create a virtual hard disk now’ and then ‘Create’. Choose either a VDI or VHD filetype and then select ‘Dynamically Allocated’ or ‘Fixed Size’, depending on your needs.
- It is generally recommended to use a dynamically allocated drive in order to save space on your physical drive. Once you have made your selection, click ‘Create’.
- Now that the basic settings have been configured, it is time to adjust the more advanced options.
- To do this, open the Settings dialogue for your newly created virtual machine. In the ‘System’ tab, uncheck the box next to ‘Enable EFI (special OSes only)’. This will improve compatibility with some operating systems.
- In the ‘Processor’ tab, increase the number of processors if your computer has multiple cores. This will improve performance of your virtual machine. If you are not sure how many cores your computer has, leave this setting at its default value.
- In the ‘Display’ tab, increase the video memory to at least 128 MB. This will provide adequate graphics performance for your virtual machine.
- Finally, in the ‘Storage’ tab, add an optical drive with an ISO image of Ubuntu OS. Select ‘OK’ to save your settings and start up your brand new Ubuntu machine!
Creating and Setting Up the User Account
Assuming you have VirtualBox installed, open it and click the New button. Give your machine a name—Ubuntu, say—and select Linux from the Type menu.
Choose Ubuntu (64-bit) from the Version menu. Unless you know you need a specific version of Ubuntu, choose the latest stable release from the drop-down menu.
Allocate at least 2048 MB of RAM to the virtual machine. Depending on your host system’s resources and what you plan to do with your Ubuntu guest, you can give it more RAM later.
For now, 2048 MB is a good start. Create a virtual hard disk now option and click Create. Select VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) from the Format list and click Next.
By default, VirtualBox will create dynamic disks that only use as much space on your physical disk as they need.
If available storage space is tight or if you want maximum performance for your Ubuntu VM, however, you can opt for fixed size disks instead by selecting Fixed size storage on the next screen and clicking Next again.
On the next screen, specify how large you want your virtual disk to be in gigabytes—20 GB should be plenty unless you plan to do a lot of heavy duty work in your VM or install lots of apps with large footprints; in that case, give it more room to grow by allocating 40 GB or even more storage space if needed and then click Create when prompted .
Once the disk image is created and ready, start the virtual machine by double-clicking its name in VirtualBox’s list of VMs.
When it pops up, click Start and you’ll be ready to install Ubuntu. Once Ubuntu has finished installing, you can create a user account by clicking the top-right gear icon and then selecting ‘Users’ from the dropdown menu.
Click the ‘+’ icon to add a new user, set a username & password, mark the ‘Administrator’ checkbox and click OK. Your new user is now ready to log in and use your Ubuntu VM installation!
Installing Guest Additions
In order to install Guest Additions on your Ubuntu virtual machine, you will need to have the following packages installed:
- build-essential
- linux-headers-$(uname -r)
- dkms
Once you have these packages installed, you can proceed with the installation by mounting the ISO file and running the installer:
- Start by downloading the Guest Additions ISO from the VirtualBox website.
- Next, create a new virtual machine in VirtualBox and boot from the Ubuntu ISO.
- Once Ubuntu is up and running, open a terminal window and run the following commands to install the required packages: sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) dkms
- With the required packages now installed, mount the Guest Additions ISO by clicking Devices > Optical Drives > Choose/Create Disk Image in the virtual machine’s menu bar. Select the ISO file that you downloaded earlier.
- Once the ISO has been mounted, open a terminal window and change into the newly mounted directory: cd /media/$USER/VBOXADDITIONS_*/
- Finally, run the installer with root privileges: sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
This will install the Guest Additions on your Ubuntu virtual machine. Once the installation is complete, you should be able to use features such as shared folders and better video support.
Customizing Your Ubuntu Desktop Environment
If you’re not satisfied with the default Ubuntu desktop environment, you can customize it to better suit your needs. There are a number of ways to do this, and we’ll cover some of the most popular methods here.
One way to customize your Ubuntu desktop environment is to use a different window manager.
There are a number of different window managers available for Ubuntu, and you can install them from the Ubuntu Software Center.
Once you’ve installed a new window manager, you can switch to it by logging out of your current session and selecting it from the login screen.
Another way to customize your desktop environment is to install a new theme. You can find many themes for Ubuntu online, and they can be installed using the Ubuntu Software Center.
Once you’ve installed a new theme, you can activate it by going to the Appearance settings in your System Settings application.
If you want even more control over your desktop environment, you can try installing a custom wallpaper or icons.
Wallpapers and icons are typically distributed as .deb files, which can be downloaded from websites or installed using the command line.
Once you’ve downloaded a .deb file, you can install it by double-clicking on it in your file manager. After installation, the new wallpaper or icon will be available in the Appearance settings of your System Settings application.
Troubleshooting Tips
If you’re having trouble adding an Ubuntu machine on VirtualBox, here are a few troubleshooting tips that may help:
- Make sure the VirtualBox Extension Pack is installed. This is required in order to be able to add an Ubuntu machine on VirtualBox.
- If you’re using a 64-bit version of Ubuntu, make sure you enable hardware virtualization in your BIOS settings. This is required in order for 64-bit guests to be able to run on VirtualBox.
- When creating a new virtual machine in VirtualBox, make sure you select “Linux” as the operating system and “Ubuntu” as the version. If you don’t see Ubuntu listed as a version, click the “Other” option and choose “Ubuntu” from the list of supported operating systems.
- If you’re still having trouble, try installing the UbuntuGuestAdditions package on your Ubuntu guest machine. This will install additional drivers and software that may help improve compatibility with VirtualBox.
Conclusion
Adding an Ubuntu virtual machine to VirtualBox is a straightforward process. Thanks to the user-friendly interface of the VirtualBox platform, you can quickly install and configure your ubuntu instance with just a few simple clicks and moments of your time.
This guide has provided all essential information needed for setting up an ubuntu instance on virtualbox, so now you’re ready to start exploring this amazing operating system. Enjoy!
