Create a Linux UBUNTU Virtual System on your Windows OS Laptop or PC

4 Parts:

Things that you will need

How to Install and Run it

Tips Tricks & Warnings

Comments

Many of us own a Microsoft Operated Laptops and PCs, and also many of us have heard about Linux and UBUNTU OS. We need to keep our Windows OS, and take a look on the UBUNTU OS and sometimes use it for certain purposes. If you are among those persons, then you should read this article and benefit from the guidelines stated in here to make use of that Virtual system.

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Virtual System is an environment where you can Virtually install any OS to test, try and explore. In here I will be using the Oracle VirtualBox.

Contents

1 Things that you will need
2 How to Install and Run it
3 Tips Tricks & Warnings
4 Comments

1
Virtual System, i.e
.
Oracle Virtual Manager, you can go in here to check it out, and download the Virtual Box for Windows hosts w w w.Virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads (Marked in Red) (please remove the spaces in between www)

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2
An ISO file for you Virtual system that you intent to run Virtually, for here we are talking about the UBUNTU OS, which you can download from here
:
releases.ubuntu.com For my case I downloaded the marked in Red, depending on your need and your System Specs, you need to download the appropriate to suite your host system specs. i.e. if you are on AMD64, then you need to download the first one on the photo (Marked in Blue)

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3
Optional, you need to burn the ISO for safe keep.
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1
After downloading the Virtual System "Oracle VirtualBox" Run it, and the main window will show
.
Of course, those OS showing on the left part of the photo will not appear at first.

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2
Now, you need to click on the "New" Toolbar button
.
On the window appearing, Type the Name of the OS you are planning to install, "Test" in this example. Also for the "Type" Select "Linux", and for "Version" select "Ubuntu". This will create what is called a new "Machine" titled as "Test". Click on "Next".
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3
You need to set the Memory size, which will be used by your Virtual OS as a (RAM), recommended size is 512MB, depending on your HD free space, I use 1024MB, that would make the Virtual OS run more smoothly
.
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4
Upon clicking "Next", you need to set the Hard drive specs for you Virtual OS, This will preserve the HD size and keep it reserved for your Virtual OS
.
You can select "Do not add a virtual hard drive", and later on, you may set a more advanced or complex setup after creating the Machine. a warning window will appear, stating that "You are about to create a new virtual...etc". Hit Continue.

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5
Since here, we are not going to install the "UBUNTU", we are going to try it only
.
We don't not need to preserves a space for the Machine Hard disk. As you can see from the coming photo, the new Machine called "Test" is created (marked in Blue), and the RAM is 1024MB (marked in Red). The marked in Brown are derived from your hosting System physical.
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6
Now, this is very important - when clicking on the newly created machine for the first time, you will be instructed to "Select start-up disk, You need to click the browse button (marked in Red) and select the location of the ISO file you downloaded earlier
.
Click on "Start" button after selecting the ISO file.

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7
If you are planning on installing the UBUNTU click on "Install Ubuntu", yet since we in this example are not going to permanently install it, we will click on "Try Ubuntu" (marked in Red)
.
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8
Please wait for the process to complete, and you will get the virtual Ubuntu OS up and running on your system
.

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9
Feel free to explore and walk-through your new Ubuntu, for example, click on the "Settings" Button to log into the "System Settings" (marked in Yellow)
.
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10
Also it is a good idea to click on the "Ubuntu Software center" (marked in Yellow), and explore so many application available for you
.
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11
Once you are familiar with the Ubuntu, and want a permanent installation, you may click on the "Install Ubuntu"
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12
To browse your files among Ubuntu, click on the File Icon (marked in Yellow)
.
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13
To Quit or End the Running session of Ubuntu, you may click on the "Machine" menu bar, then select "Close" or "ACPI Shutdown which will give you the choice of "Lock, Hibernate, Sleep, and Shutdown"
.

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DO NOT move or relocate the ISO file you used to create the Machine, after creating it. You will be faced with an error like in the following photo, (marked in Red).
Best and easiest way to overcome this is to Delete that error Machine, and create a new one based on the location of the moved ISO file. Right click on the error Machine, and select "Remove".
When Deleting, and to restore the space used by the error Machine, select "Delete all files".
For those who want to know where the files and OS are stored in your system, Right Click on the Machine Icon, and select "Show in Explorer" (marked in Red). And If you are using this machine frequently enough, you may also click on "Create Shortcut on Desktop" (marked in Blue).
You may also take above as a guideline on how to install another parallel virtual OS like Windows XP for example on your Windows 7 OS Laptop.