How to Install Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 to a Virtual Machine
In this tutorial I demonstrate how to install Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop to a virtual machine. I am using Oracle VirtualBox to create and manage my virtual machine which I have already installed. I have also already download the Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 ISO file found on Canonical website. In this tutorial I refer to the host machine, which is my actual computer and the VM which is the virtual machine.
1. To begin, I click New in Oracle VirtualBox to create a new virtual machine.
2. I name my virtual machine Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 and I confirm the type changes to Linux and the version changes to Ubuntu.
3. I increase the amount of RAM dedacated to the virtual machine to 2 GB. This number can vary, and it is imporatant to save at least 1 GB of RAM for the host machine. That being said, the more RAM you give your VM, the faster it will run.
4. I create a new virtual hard drive for this virtual machine.
5. The virtual hard drive will be a file saved to th host machine. I chose to use the .vdi file format for this VM.
6. Your VM will run faster if you make your virtual hard drive a fixed size, however because hard drive space on my host machine is limited I choice dynamically allocated which will result in a smaller vdi file size.
7. An increase in the virtual hard drive size will allow me to install software and another operating system, which I will do in another tutorial.
8. In order to increase the performance of virtual machine, right click on the VM and click settings.
9. Check the box labeled Enable IO APIC to increase read write performance.
10. I have also found that changing the chipset to ICH9 results in a slight increase in performacne as well.
11. Under the processor tab, I checked the Enable PAE/NX box.
12. And under the Acceleration tab I confirmed both the Enable VT-x and Enable Nested Paging boxes were checked.
13. Because this is a desktop version of Ubuntu, I would like acquit video performance, so I increased the display video memory to 128 MB. You could also enable 3D acceleration, however I have had mixed results when doing this.
14. Once the settings have been updated, I double clicked on the virtual machine to launch it for the first time. When you do this you will be prompted to select a start-up disk.
15. I found the ISO file I previous downloaded on my desktop and opened it.
16. Now that my start-up disk has been selected i can boot my VM properly for the first time.
17. The first prompt asks whether I would like to try or install Ubuntu. I chose to install Ubuntu because I would like changes made to the OS to be persistent, and I would also like to install the OS to my new virtual hard drive.
18. During the installation process, I prefer for updates and third-party software to be downloaded and installed.
19. Because there is nothing on our virtual hard drive, I chose to erase the disk and install Ubuntu.
20. On this screen, a prompt lets you know that a new partition will be created, which will consume the entire disk.
21. Your location information is used for the system time.
22. I chose my keyboard layout, which was the default. If you do not see your keyboard listed, click the button detect keyboard layout and follow the onscreen prompts.
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