Virtual Box setup

I don’t set up a virtual machine often enough to remember which options I want, or maybe I just have a poor memory. Either way, here are steps to create a simple Ubuntu virtual machine with networking.

Basic Frame

In Oracle VirtualBox, select “New” and answer the prompts as described below.

• Name: Suggest “xxx-os-version”. Ex:ample “vb2-ubuntu-16-04-01” or “vm1-ubuntu-16041”
  

• Memory Size: Suggest 8192 MB (8 GB) of RAM, or something less that the host machine has.
  

• Hard disk: create a virtual hard disk now
  

• Hard disk file type: VDI
  

• Disk storage: Dynamically allocated
  

• File location & size: Size by need, and note that Ubuntu needs at least 25 GB. Suggest creating a directory for all things virtual machine and putting the disk file there.
  

The first time you fire up the virtual machine you will be asked for an operating system file (iso). Download this first and be ready! You can get Ubuntu desktop from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop.
Follow installation instructions. Select download updates while installing ubuntu.

For the hostname, suggest “user-vmX”, then you know by the name what user is defined. Example: “carolyn-vm4”

Guest Extensions

These enable cut and paste between host and virtual machine and folder sharing. See http://virtualboxes.org/doc/installing-guest-additions-on-ubuntu/

Open a terminal window and issue the commands:

	sudo apt-get update
	sudo apt-get upgrade #(y to prompt or use -y flag; takes a while)
	sudo apt-get install  build-essential  module-assistant #(y to prompt)
	sudo m-a prepare

From the running VM window select:

• Devices
• Insert guest additions CD image -
• run
• enter root password

Seup Copy-Paste

From the running VM window select: Devices - Shared Clipboard - Bi-directional

Setup a shared folder

• settings on virtualBox dialog or Devices on current VB window
• shared folders
• add share
• host directory path. ex: C:\Users\COwnby\Documents\VBShare
• name of share, ex: VBShare
• auto mount
• make permanent
• Then from command line: sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf

Nice things to have

Java

Seems that java is required for just about everything. Go ahead and install it now.

sudo apt-get update
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
echo oracle-java8-installer shared/accepted-oracle-license-v1-1 select true | /usr/bin/debconf-set-selections
sudo apt-get install -y oracle-java8-installer

Python

sudo apt install python-pip

Networking

I am running VirtualBox from Windows 10, and setting up networking so my machine is outside accessible has been tricky. This can be done with a bridged adapter or NAT networking

Bridged Adapter

With bridged networking, your virtual machine is seen externally as a normal network device. For more information, see Virtual Box Bridged Networking

Under your VM settings, go to the network tab.

• Attached To: Bridged Adapter
  
• Name: is the device showing connectivity from Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections
  

NAT Networking

An alternative is to use NAT Network with port mapping. A port on the host PC is mapped to each virtual machine, so your VM is externally addressable via the host PC’s IP and a port number. For more information, see Virtual Box NAT Networking

You’ll first need to get the ip address of your virtual machine with ip a. Under your virtual machine settings network tab, set:

• Attached To: NAT Network
  

Then, in Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager

• select File - Preferences
  

• go to Network tab

• select the screwdriver
  

• select “port forwarding”
  

To enable ssh access, for example, you might set:

• Host Port = 2222
• Guest IP = virtual machine’s IP address from ip a
• Guest Port = 22

Then to ssh to the virtual machine, you use

ssh user@host-ip:2222