Installing Ubuntu 10.04 Using Sun VirtualBox on Windows 7

As everyone knows , The new Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx)  is released. It is pretty awesome and more stable than the ones before it. If you haven’t seen what’s up with the new ubuntu and its new look, i recommend reading this blog post Quick Review on Ubuntu 10.04 .

Ubuntu

So first step is downloading Ubuntu. It depends which version do you want. the 32-bit is the usually recommended specially for
virtual machines, as it runs on both 64-bit and 32-bit hosts.

Here are the Download links of the available versions of Ubuntu .iso images on the official repositories.

  • Direct Download Mirrors of all mirrors available. Download. ( then choose which version from your mirror)
  • Torrent Links for all available Ubuntu versions on Ubuntu servers. Download.

This guide will work on both Mac and Windows. All supported versions.

Virtual Box

It is the Open-Source application for running virtual machines (  e.g. Operating systems ) as guests on your host machine.

It is made by Sun Microsystems before it was acquired by Oracle. let’s not talk about politics and install Ubuntu. You can Download Virtual Box for both Windows and Mac from this Link.

The installation process is simple, nothing complicated. HOWEVER it will disconnect the internet connection for a second, so if you are doing anything important. wait till you are done with it, then continue.

Alright, Now we have both Ubuntu iso image and Sun Virtual Box installed.

1) Creating New Virtual Machine

By clicking on the star icon, like the image shows below .


2) OS Type and Name

For this guide i will call it ( Ubuntu 10.04 ).

32-bit Ubuntu

64-bit Ubuntu

3) Amount of Ram

The Recommended is 512MB, but if you have more than 2 GB RAM machine, I would recommend  1024MB for a faster use.

4) Create A New Hard disk

Dynamically expanding storage ( Recommended)

Size and Location

Usually 10 GB is enough, it can be changed later. You can add more if you’d like !

Finish

Now You’ve created a new virtual machine  ( Ubuntu 10.04 ) and ready to be working. Now to set the .iso image as the CD to run it when we start.

5) Go to Settings > Storage

Click on the Setting icon on the home screen.

Then go to Storage, Then in the IDE Controller list, choose the empty CD icon and Add your iso Image. Then click OK and get back to Home Screen.

6) Click Start

7) Install Guest Addition

To make Ubuntu’s screen maximize and to make the mouse cursor move freely between Host and Guest, you will need to install the Guest Additions for Ubuntu, It is pretty Simple. All you need to do is click on Device>Install Guest Additions. A new CD icon will appear in the desktop, Open it. then click on the icon that says ” Open Autorun Prompt. After it finish, restart and  whoala ! You are done !

Congratulations !!!!

Now you have Ubuntu 10.04 running on your machine ! Enjoy it. Here is some Tips and Tricks for using Virtual Box. And for new programs check this list of programs you could download. 15 Application must have on Ubuntu ( Web Development )

Don’t you love how easy open source things are !!


12 thoughts on “Installing Ubuntu 10.04 Using Sun VirtualBox on Windows 7”

  1. Hi Mostafa
    I have read your article on installing ubuntu 10.04 in virtualBox. I have just done this on my laptop running windows 7. I am doing an open university course introduction to Linux, I have added a second Hard Disk, and have been using gnu-fdisk everything went fine adding partitions, well so I thought, after writing to disk and checking sdb1 and sdb2 these could not be mounted I had edited the /etc/fstab file to add these two disks. But have not got a clue as to what went wrong.

    I had allocated 8GB of space in gparted I created the disks in gparted but did not format them this was done under gnu-fdisk. when I now look gparted it shows only very two small partitions. and on booting into ubuntu message saying cannot mount disks press s to carry on, or m to manually mount, which I tried but it did not work, but pressing s did and I managed to boot into ubuntu. I do not know much about linux at the moment and am trying hard to understand how it works.

    This has put me behind on the course but do not want to give up. Mostafa do you have any ideas how I can format these partitions using gnu-fdisk.

    Disk sda is ubuntu 10.04

    Disk sdb1 and sdb2 are on second addititional disk roughly 8 GB in size but only very 2 small partitions.

    I would be grateful for any advice you could offer Mostafa or if you could direct me somewhere else. I realise maybe you do not give advice and if so I do apologise in advance.

    many thanks

    and regards

    John Ware

    Like

    • Hey John,
      I think you are not installing it virtually, you want to install it on your hard disk directly , right ?

      First to delete or format the hard disks you want to format. You will need a LIVE Ubuntu CD. I think you already have one, if you don’t download the iso from the Ubuntu website. GParted will allow you to delete them or format them.

      if you want to install it directly, there is a simple way of doing it. Create the partition you want ( 8GB or more ) then format it as EXT4. and mounts on / . Then another small partition ( 512 MB — 1 GB Max ) for Swap.
      Then let it install.

      If it will not be your main OS, and you will be using it once a week , i would recommend to install it virtually.
      If you want to install it virtually – Get the Latest Ubuntu 10.04 – and go through this article, step by step and you will have Ubuntu in no time.

      I just didn’t get the question clearly , so I hope I helped.
      If not you can check this website,post your question and they will help you in few minutes. StackOverFlow and SuperUser

      Like

  3. Hi Mostafa! I have a question, which version of virtualbox you used for win7? I want to download ubuntu but when i download virtualb 2.2.2 didn’t work, appears always messages of error, not supported. So I delete it.

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  5. Hi

    I am looking to install it directly. I am following what you said “there is a simple way of doing it. Create the partition you want ( 8GB or more ) then format it as EXT4. and mounts on / . Then another small partition ( 512 MB — 1 GB Max ) for Swap.”

    I do not follow create the partition, format it as EXT4 and mounts on /… for swap. What does this all mean? Can you elaborate please? It kinda urgent. Thanks so much.

    Regards,
    Ann

    Like

    • well if you gonna install it directly, then you gonna have to do all that from the gparted program.
      Just create a new partition EXT4 or EXT3 mount on the “/” , and another small partition “swap” then ubuntu will handle the rest .
      I Believe this will work

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  7. Hi… I am a newbie.
    I follow exactly what you have mentioned, but when i run there is an error message ..FATAL: No bootable medium format ! system failed.

    Thank you.

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