The last few steps will ask you to select a location for your VM, a name, and a password. The steps might not appear easy to follow, but they are precisely that.
When you come across the “Erase Disk” option, select it as that will wipe the virtual hard drive clean and install the virtual machine files. Once you initiate the installation wizard, follow the instructions. These aren’t important and shouldn’t worry you. You will come across several error messages on your new guest operating system. Click on it, and VirtualBox will initiate the installation wizard to launch the VM. Step 4: Launch the Virtual MachineĬonveniently, you will see a “Start” button after finishing the setup process. With these two additional steps out the way, you now have a virtual machine ready to go on top of your Linux host OS. Select the Virtual Disk Image (VDI) option. VirtualBox will allow you to choose from several hard disk types. This should be the standard if you’re running multiple virtual machines. Then, you can increase/decrease the memory size later on. We recommend you allocate the minimum necessary for the VM to run – between 8 and 15 GB of hard drive space. However, don’t mistake providing your host OS with insufficient memory, as that will interfere with the guest OS’s speed and functionality. When going through this step, you might think a smart move would be to allocate more resources to the VM. The next step is to allocate memory resources to your VM. Don’t give it a vague name and instead be precise. The setup wizard will explain to choose a descriptive name for the new virtual machine. VirtualBox can run on any OS, even macOS. This step depends entirely on you and what you require. The first step in creating a virtual machine on Linux is to give it a name and operating system. Once you install VirtualBox on your Linux operating system, you will notice the VirtualBox icon on your desktop.
One thing to mention is disable the firewall and antivirus software to allow VirtualBox to install on your Linux. The software provides the installation assistance necessary to set up VirtualBox on your Linux.
So the next step is to download VirtualBox for Linux. VirtualBox will allow you to switch between host and guest OS through the dashboard with advanced tools, features, and greater control over your guest OS. The great thing about VirtualBox, and other virtual machine programs, is that you won’t need to reboot to power up the guest operating system.
VirtualBox is a free virtualization software that lets you power up a VM on top of the host OS. With a 64-bit version, you can assign extra resources for each additional guest operating system.īear in mind that the host operating system needs to have the hardware to support the resource usage from each guest OS. The reason why 64-bit versions are preferred in Linux virtualization is due to scalability. The 64-bit version allows you to utilize more CPU resources but is just as fast as the 32-bit version. With Ubuntu, you can choose between a 32 and 64-bit version.
It’s also significantly more user-friendly and has an easy-to-navigate user interface. Unlike other Linux distros, Ubuntu is easy to install. So, naturally, the first step is to download and install Ubuntu. Step 1: Download UbuntuĪrguably one of the best Linux distributions, we will use Ubuntu to run a virtual machine on Linux. However, we will focus on VirtualBox, the industry standard in Linux virtualization products. There are plenty of virtualization software that supports Linux operating systems. To run a Linux virtual machine successfully, you need to choose a virtualization software or VM application. So next time you think about running multiple operating systems on your Linux PC, consider running a virtual machine. With a virtual machine, you create guest operating systems that sit on top of your OS and power up seamlessly. On much slower systems with insufficient hardware, switching between operating systems can take up to ten minutes. One of the downsides to dual-booting an operating system instead of running virtual machines is speed. For those who don’t know, dual-booting allows you to install different operating systems and choose which one to use when booting up your PC. However, a better option might be to run a virtual machine on your Linux PC.īut that begs the question, how do you do it? While we will answer that question in this guide, allow us to point out that running a VM on Linux is more efficient, faster, and less frustrating than dual booting. IT professionals using the Linux OS can use the dual boot option to reap the benefits of setting up different operating systems. Running a virtual machine on Linux is one way to switch between multiple operating systems without needing to reboot your PC.