James Bannan25 December 2008, 12:00 PM
Want to run Ubuntu Linux within Mac OS X for free -- without paying for Parallels or VMWare? Our step-by-step tutorial will have you up and running in no time!
Page 4 - Step 4 - Install Ubuntu
Download the latest version of Ubuntu - at the time of writing the version was 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). You just need the normal 32-bit desktop ISO (ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso).
An ISO is a cross-platform image file of a CD or DVD which contains all the imformation relating to the original media - it can be bootable, or a DVD Video, whatever really. It's not an application package like a DMG - in this instance, the Ubuntu ISO is an image of the installation media, so you could use the ISO to create a bootable CD if you wished.
Installing from the ISO is quicker than from CD, but it does result in more intense hard drive activity.
To install from the ISO, highlight the Ubuntu VM, and in the right-hand side of the screen click "CD/DVD-ROM", then tick "Mount CD/DVD Drive" and then "ISO Image". There are no images available for selection in the dropdown menu, so click the folder icon. This opens the Virtual Disk Manager - VirtualBox cleverly keeps track of all the ISOs you access regardless of where they're kept and catalogues them, making it much easier to access them later.
Click Add and browse for the Ubuntu ISO, then click Select and then OK. The ISO is now attached to the VM as the primary optical drive.
Highlight the Ubuntu VM and select Start. This starts the VM, connects you to the machine and, as there is no OS present on the virtual disk, boots from the mounted ISO.
To interact with a VM, you have to click into the window which contains the running instance. Doing this will "capture" the keyboard and mouse. You won't be able to interact with the Mac desktop, but you will be able to interact with the VM. To escape back to the Mac desktop click the Host key. For VirtualBox on OS X, the Host key is mapped to the Left Command button.
This is the default behaviour on all VirtualBox VMs, but you can enable seamless integration by installing guest addition tools, which we'll do once Ubuntu has been installed.
Select your installation language using the keyboard (the default is English). If you want to boot into the Live CD environment, choose the top option "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer". You can start the installation from within the Live CD GNOME interface. To install Ubuntu straight away, select "Install Ubuntu". You don't need to select any of the various boot options available.
- on the Welcome screen, select the Language and click Forward
- on the "Where are you?" screen, select your locale and click Forward
- select the appropriate Keyboard layout and click Forward
- on the "Prepare disk space" screen, select "Guided - use entire disk" and click Forward
- on the "Who are you?" screen type in your username and password details and click Forward