Download VirtualBox
Download VirtualBox, binary link will redirect you to Sun’s site.
Installing
For me, I needed to install libqt3-mt before I could successfully install the 64bit package,
sudo aptitude install libqt3-mt
Now Install your download with…
sudo dpkg -i virtualbox_1.6.2-31466_Ubuntu_hardy_amd64.deb
Further note, you may need to recompile the VirtualBox kernel module if a previous install failed or you didn’t have the necessary dependencies first time; this is done by:
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Permissions
- Goto System / Administration / Users and Groups
- Click ‘Unlock’
- Enter your password and click to ‘Authenticate’
- Click ‘Manage Groups’
- Find the ‘vboxusers’ group and click properties for it
- Make sure there’s a checkbox next to your name within that group, so you are part of the ‘vboxusers’ group
You will have to reboot your machine for the change to take effect.
USB Support
By default USB support is disabled, to enable it;
sudo nano /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh
Inside you’ll find a block looking like;
# Magic to make /proc/bus/usb work
#
#mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
#domount usbfs “” /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
#ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
#mount --rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb
Edit it to look like;
# Magic to make /proc/bus/usb work
#
mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
domount usbfs “” /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
mount --rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb
(basically uncomment the last four lines)
Save changes and close the file (CTRL+X and Y)
Create a VM
Applications / System Tools / Sun xVM VirtualBox
Scroll down and click ‘I Agree’ on the licence agreement, then fill in the registration information to use VirtualBox, first time.
The rest is pretty self-explanatory if you’ve used other VM packages like OSX Parallels or Microsoft Virtual Machine.
- Click ‘New’
- Enter a name for your VM, choose the target platform you’re going to use it for
- Choose Base Memory
- Create a new Virtual Disk Image, click ‘New’
- Click ‘Fixed Size’ (for simplicity), 8GB should be enough for starters, you can choose ‘Dynamic’ which will grow or shrink the disk image based on usage
- Click ‘OK’ then ‘Finish’ to build the Virtual Disk Image
- Once the image has been created (may take 5+ minutes) it will show the new disk image in a listbox for selection, make sure it’s selected and click ‘Next’ then ‘Finish’
You now have a virtual machine ready for whichever ISO or CD-ROM install you wish to place on it. You can hit Machine / Settings / CD-ROM to select an ISO image to boot from so you can install from a disk image.
Note: Even if you’re running on a 64bit machine, the virtual machines will still operate under a 686 (32bit) platform.
All the best,
(originally based on a guide from Ubuntu Geek)
