Virtualbox
Overview
VirtualBox is easy-to-use virtualization software. Originally developed by innotek, VirtualBox was released as Open Source in January 2007. VirtualBox is available in two versions: The Open Source Edition (OSE) (released under GPL) and the full binary package (licensed under Virtualbox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL)).
Installing Virtualbox
The simplest way to install Virtualbox is to install it from your distribution's software repositories, see the Installing Software page for more information. If your distribution does not provide packages for Virtualbox, or you otherwise cannot use them, you can download the .run installer from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
Installing Virtualbox from the .run installer
If you install Virtualbox from the .run installer, you will need to install the required development packages and tools in order to build the required kernel modules. These special kernel modules are required for guest execution, without them running, you will not be able to start any virtual machines.
Extension Pack
You can also download the Virtualbox Extension Pack to enable extra features for supported guest operating systems.
Creating a virtual machine
To create a virtual machine using Virtualbox, we can use it's "wizard" to guide us through the process of creating a new virtual machine (VM).
Name and operating system
This dialog box has four fields:
- Name:
The most common sense approach to naming our new VM is to name it the name of the operating system (OS) you wish to run virtually as a "guest".
- Machine Folder:
Usually the default location already specified should be fine, so we can probably leave that as is. This is where the settings for that particular VM will be stored on the "host" system.
- Type:
The "type" field is for the OS family, so if you are going to run a Linux distribution as a "guest" you choose "Linux".
- Version:
Next we can pick the version of Linux in this case that matches the distribution you are planning to run as a "guest". If your distribution is not in the list, then pick "Other Linux (32-bit)" or "Other Linux (64-bit)" depending on which architecture said distribution is.
Memory size
In this dialog box, we can choose how much of your system's real RAM we allocate to our new VM. Be aware that your "host" system still needs enough memory (RAM) to properly function, therefore you should not allocate more than half of your RAM to your VM. It's recommended that your "host" machine has at least 8GiB of RAM in total, and that you allocate the recommended amount for the OS you plan to run as the "guest" system. For distributions Virtualbox has "presets" for, the default is usually the minimum amount of RAM required to run said distribution.
Hard disk
In this dialog box we sepicfiy how much drive space we allocate to the "guest" system running within our new VM. While this will appear as a "real" drive to our guest, it is in fact just a file on the "host" system.
- Do not add a virtual disk
This option will not create a virtual drive for our VM, which means you will not be able to install an OS as the "guest" system with this option selected.
- Create a virtual hard disk now
This will open up another dialog box to allow us to select from the options listed in the next section below.
- Use an existing virtual hard disk file
If you already have a virtual hard disk image file, you can use that instead of creating a new virtual disk.
Hard disk file type
- VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)
This is Virtualbox's native disk image file format, and is selected by default by the wizard.
- VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
This disk image file format was developed by Microsoft, and is the native format for Hyper-V. It is also built into modern versions of Microsoft Windows.
- VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk)
This disk image file format was initially developed by VMware, but has since become an open format.
Storage on physical hard disk
- Dynamically allocated
With this option the size of the virtual hard disk file will grow when the size set in the "File location and size" dialog box gets exceeded.
- Fixed size
With this option the size of the virtual hard drive is fixed, and cannot grow when you attempt to exceed the set size.