VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a gratis virtualization system for Windows, OSX and GNU/Linux.

With it you can create a Virtual Machine, essentially having a "fake" computer running inside your actual computer. Your physical computer becomes known as the Host machine, and the virtual machines are known as Guests.

It is possible to "snapshot" a virtual machine, allowing you to save and restore it's current state just as you can in a video game emulator or word processor.

You can run multiple virtual machines at once and even network them together.

Virtual machines are good for testing out operating systems, sandboxing processes and experimentation.

Installation

Windows

Official installers can be found on the VirtualBox Downloads page.

During installation you may need to approve some VirtualBox drivers owned by Oracle. These are fine, go ahead and agree. You may also need to reboot after the install.

Once installed, shortcuts will be available in the Start Menu.

Linux

You official package repositories will very likely contain VirtualBox. There may also be a separate package for the VirtualBox Guest Additions iso, which is handy to have if you're going to be creating Windows Guest machines.

After you install the package(s) you may need to load the vboxdrv kernel module (# modprobe vboxdrv) or add your user account to a virtual box users group. Refer to your distro's wiki for details.

Once installed, running "VirtualBox" (capitals required) from the command line or checking your Desktop Environment/Window Managers application menu will get you started.

Creating a Virtual Machine

There are two steps in creating a usable virtual machine:

1. Setting up the virtual machine, and
2. Installing it's operating system.

In this example we'll just be covering the setup of the machine and stop just short of installing the OS (Windows 7 and Linux Mint cover these topics.

Creating a Virtual Machine is done using a wizard in the VirtualBox Manager:

1. Click the New icon in the toolbar to start the wizard (blue spikey ball icon).
2. In the popup you name your new virtual machine. VirtualBox will try to guess what operating system you're going to use by analysing it's name. For this walkthrough, we'll use Linux Mint as an example.
3. Enter "linux mint" as the name.
   • VirtualBox will guess the Type as "Linux" and Version as "Linux 2.6 / 3.x (64 bit)".
   • Have a click about to see the other options. 32bit and 64bit guest machines are possible (on a 64bit host) and plenty of Linux distros are named specifically, along with Windows, Mac OSX and BSD.
4. Hit Next.
5. On the memory size screen you can specify how much of your Host machine's RAM is to be allocated to this Guest machine. VirtualBox will default to a minimal amount of ram (256Mb for Linux Mint) and you may want to allocate more. Allocating less is generally a bad idea unless you have a reason to.
6. Hit Next.
7. On the first Hard drive screen you can specify what kind of hard drive to give your Guest machine. The options are:
   • Create a virtual hard drive now (default): Probably what you want.
   • Use an existing virtual hard drive file: Let's you import another Guest hard drive to this Guest machine.
   • Do not add a virtual hard drive: For use only if you have a good reason.
8. With "Create a virtual hard drive now" selected, hit Create.
9. Next are the options for the type of our Guest hard drive. VDI (the default) is fine.
   • This screen is not for selecting the intented filesystem (NTFS, ext4, etc) but for the format of the Guest hard drive.
   • It's mostly for compatibility with other virtualization systems, such as VMWare.
10. With VDI selected, hit Next.
11. Now a choice to Dynamically allocate (default) the Guest hard drive as required, or use a Fixed Size.
    • Dynamically allocated still has a maximum size, but it is created as required (e.g. if the Guest machine is only using 2gb/8gb hdd space, it's file on the Host will be 2gb).
    • Fixed size creates the entire drive in full right now (e.g. if the Guest machine is only using 2gb/8gb hdd space, it's file on the Host will be 8gb).
12. With "Dynamically allocated" selected, hit Next.
13. Finally, options for the maximum size and name of the Guest hdd. The defaults are fine. Hit Create.

Now you'll be back in the VirtualBox Manager and your new virtual machine will be over on the left hand side and it's details will be displayed.

Before you power it on, you may want to put your operating system install .iso in it's Guest optical drive. You'll also want to know how to uncapture the mouse and keyboard from the Guest machine (hit the right Control key on your phsyical keyboard):

Inserting the Operating System Install Disc

With your virtual machine selected, hit the Settings icon on the toolbar, and:

1. Select the Storage category.
2. Select the "Empty" IDE Controller with the picture of a CD.
3. On the right, under Attributes, click the other CD icon for CD/DVD Drive.
4. In the dropdown menu, select Choose a Virtual CD/DVD disk file.
5. Locate and select your .iso
6. Hit OK to you virtual machine's Settings screen.

You're now ready to power on your virtual machine and install your operating system.

Using a Virtual Machine

Help! I'm Trapped Inside the Guest Machine!

• Press the right Control key on your physical keyboard. This will release your mouse and keyboard back to the Host machine.
• Right Control + F will get you out of full screen mode.