The Small Box Admin

Carey Holzman Reviews UniDupDock

2011-07-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

Carey Holzman of Tech-Vets reviews the StarTech UniDupDoc hard drive duplicator.

Junkless Software Installs From Source

2009-11-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

On a recent podcast episode a listener wanted to know if there is "junk" in .rar and .tar files. I don't deal with .rar files very often, and usually .tar files are the normal way to distribute programs in source format for compiling and installing.

What are .rar and .tar files? RAR [1] is a proprietary archive and compression format. I don't believe much software for Linux is distributed in RAR format. If RAR is used to distribute files, there probably are not many non-essential files. TAR [2] is a program that archives files and Linux software is often distributed in this format. TAR is also used for backing up systems and other backup programs often use tar [3]. One note, TAR does not compress archives by default, but can compress and uncompress archives with options to the TAR command.

Back to the question of "junk" in TAR files. Usually the steps to compile and install software from source, distributed in a TAR archive, are:

Extract the archive - tar -zxf FILENAME
Run a configure script - ./configure
Compile the source code - make
Install the compiled program - make install

Once the software is installed the TAR archive may no longer be needed and can be deleted. If the author of the software created a rule to uninstall the software ($ sudo make uninstall) then the unarchived source may need to be kept. There is a better way to installing and managing source installed software.

Checkinstall [4] solves the problem by creating a software package that can be managed with your systems package manager. From the checkinstall web site:

Installs a compiled program from the program's source directory using "make install" or any other command supplied on checkinstall's command line. checkinstall will create a Slackware, RPM or Debian compatible package and install it using your distribution's standard package administration utilities.

Here are the steps to install a program distributed by source using checkinstall on a Ubuntu server. The example program is HTMLDoc [5], a program that converts HTML files to indexed HTML, Postscript or PDF.

First the gcc compiler and other utilities as well as checkinstall must be installed:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
$ sudo apt-get install checkinstall
The software must be downloaded, unarchived and configured:

$ tar -zxf htmldoc-1.8.27-source.tar.gz
$ cd htmldoc-1.8.27/
$ ./configure

The options to the tar command are, -z uncompress the gzipped archive, -x extract and -f the identified file. The -z option must be used if the archive is compressed with gzip, identified by the .gz extension.

Instead of using "$ sudo make install", the checkinstall command is used (a lot of output has been omitted):

$ sudo checkinstall
[sudo] password for srvadmin:

checkinstall 1.6.1, Copyright 2002 Felipe Eduardo Sanchez Diaz Duran
This software is released under the GNU GPL.

The package documentation directory ./doc-pak does not exist.
Should I create a default set of package docs? [y]: y
Preparing package documentation...OK
Please write a description for the package.
End your description with an empty line or EOF.
>> htmldoc_1.8.27
>> [CTRL]+D

*****************************************
**** Debian package creation selected ***
*****************************************

This package will be built according to these values:

0 - Maintainer: [ root@karmic ]
1 - Summary: [ htmldoc_1.8.27 ]
2 - Name: [ htmldoc ]
3 - Version: [ 1.8.27 ]
4 - Release: [ 1 ]
5 - License: [ GPL ]
6 - Group: [ checkinstall ]
7 - Architecture: [ i386 ]
8 - Source location: [ htmldoc-1.8.27 ]
9 - Alternate source location: [ ]
10 - Requires: [ ]
11 - Provides: [ htmldoc ]

Enter a number to change any of them or press ENTER to continue: [ENTER]
**********************************************************************
Done. The new package has been installed and saved to
/home/srvadmin/htmldoc-1.8.27/htmldoc_1.8.27-1_i386.deb
You can remove it from your system anytime using:
dpkg -r htmldoc
**********************************************************************
$

Note that the description is entered and the defaults after that are used. Now the package is installed and .deb package (htmldoc_1.8.27-1_i386.deb) is created. The package can be saved and the rest of the source files and distribution archive can be deleted. The package can also be distributed and installed on other machines:

$ sudo dpkg -i htmldoc_1.8.27-1_i386.deb

Verification of the install can be done with the dpkg command:

$ dpkg -l htmldoc
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii htmldoc 1.8.27-1 htmldoc_1.8.27

The package can also be removed with the dpkg command:

$ sudo dpkg -r htmldoc

Additionally documentation for the installed software is saved in the /usr/share/doc/htmldoc directory.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAR
[2] http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/
[3] http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/backup_your_workstation_with_backup_manager
[4] http://www.asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/index.php
[5] http://www.htmldoc.org/

Setting Up a SME Server Test Environment with VirtualBox on Vista

2009-01-31T14:53:00.001-08:00

SME Server (http://www.contribs.org/) is a Linux distribution designed for the office environment, similar to Microsoft Small Business Server or the now defunct Linux based NetMax Server. SME Server is managed through a web interface and provides file and print sharing, E-mail server and web client, Firewall, Directory Services, Web hosting and other services. It is also extensible via Contribs. Contribs are software packages that are designed to add extra functionality to SME Server.

This document will explain how to setup a test network environment on Vista using Virtual Box with SME Server and Windows XP Professional guests. I chose Windows XP Professional, because that is the environment I have found that most business or educational intitutions are using. This document already assumes that VirtualBox is installed and working and that the Windows XP Professioanl guest is installed in VirtualBox.

Setting Up the SME Server Guest

Start VirtualBox and the VirtualBox application displays, as in the following figure.

Start the Virtual Machine Wizard by clicking on the New button above the left hand pane. At the Welcome dialog click on the Next button. In the VM Name and OS Type dialog, enter a name for this virtual machine and select Linux as the operating system and Linux 2.6 as the Version then click Next.

The Memory dialog is where the amount of memory is allocated to the guest operating system. The amount set here depends on the amount of memory on the host machine. A good amount to allocate to SME Server is 512Mb and to Windows XP is 1Gb, if your host machine allows. After setting the memory amount click the Next button.

The Virtual Hard Disk dialog displays next. To create a new virtual disk for this guest operating system, click on the New... button. The Create New Virtual Disk Wizard now displays. At the welcome screen click on Next. In the Hard Disk Storage Type select the Dynamically expanding storage radio button, under the Storage Type and click Next. This choice will allocate disk space for the guest, but will expand to the maximum specified size as needed. This choice is also faster to create than the Fixed-size storage.

The next step is to specify the size of the virtual disk. The size to set here is a best guess estimate of the operating system and any Contribs that will be installed. This will also depend on the disk size of the host operating system and the amount that can be allocated. If there is sufficient space 20Gb is a good starting point for the test environment.

After specifying the size, click on the Next button and then the Finish button in the Summary dialog. Returning to the Virtual Hard Disk dialog, click Next then the Finish button in the resulting Summary. Now the virtual machine has been created and displays in the left pane of VirtualBox.

The next step is to specify the CDROM, or in this case, the ISO file to boot from. A bootable CD is not required, VirtualBox can boot directly from the downloaded ISO file. Using the ISO file to install is much faster than using a CDROM drive. Click on either the yellow settings icon above the left pane or the CD/DVD-ROM text in the right hand pane to display the CDROM settings. Click the check box Mount CD/DVD Drive to put a check mark. Then select the radio button ISO Image File, then the yellow and green folder icon.

In the Virtual Media Manager dialog click on the Add icon and navigate to the SME Server ISO image and select it. After selecting the ISO image click the Select button. This returns back to the SME Server - Settings.

The Test Environment Network

A little explanation of the network setup is needed here. VirtualBox has several ways to setup networking, the two we are concerned about here is a NAT (Network Address Translation) network and an internal network. NAT acts as a normal NAT network does. A system sits behind a routing device, which could be a router or firewall, using the IP of the routing device to communicate with the outside world. The second type of network is an internal network. The internal network allows guest operating systems to communicate with each other, but is isolated from the outside world.

SME Server can act as a routing device, and this will be simulated in our test environment as well as letting our test environment access the outside world. By default the eth0 device (the first network interface) will face the internal network and the eth1 device will face the outside world or Internet. To setup the network click on the Network settings in the left pane of the SME Server - Settings dialog. In tab Adapter 1 verify the Enable Network Adapter check box has a check. In the Adapter Type drop down, select Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop. In the Attached to drop down, select Internal Network. In the Network Name text box, enter a name for the internal network, e.g. TestLAN. The name entered here will also be used with the Windows XP Pro settings, so the SME Server and XP workstation are on the same internal network.

Select the Adapter 2 tab and once again from the drop down box, select the Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop as the Adapter Type. In the Attached To dropdown box, select NAT. Now the second network adapter is setup as the outside world/Internet/insecure side.

Click on OK to complete the configuration and settings for the SME Server guest operating sysytem. One last step before the installation begins is to set the boot order of the virtual devices. In the settings for the guest, select General and then the Advanced tab. Set the boot order by selecting the device and the up or down arrows. We are now able to install SME Server.

Installing SME Server

To begin the installation, click on the Start icon, the green arrow in VirtualBox. A BIOS type boot screen appears. You have the option of pressing the F12 key to select the boot device, since no operating system is installed the mounted ISO will boot

At the SME Server screen boot prompt, press the ENTER key to begin the installation. The resulting screen will allow you to test the CD media. Press the TAB to select Skip and press the ENTER key to advance to the next screen. The language selection screen appears, select English and advance to the next screen. In the Keyboard Selection select us and advance to the next screen. Formatting takes place next, press TAB to select Yes and advance. In the Time Zone Selection screen, select your time zone and advance. Now the installation begins by formatting the virtual disk and installing the SME Server packages. After completing the Complete screen appers, press ENTER to reboot the virtual machine.

Completing the SME Server Installation

After the reboot, configuration of the SME Server begins. The first screen asks if you want to restore from backup. Since this is our first installation, select No. In the next screen the administrator password is set. As a best practice, use a strong password with upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Strong passwords is enabled by default and the installation will prompt you if the password isn't strong enough. After setting the password the installation prompts for verification.

In the next installation screen, enter the primary domain name. Since this is a test environment and the server will not provide services to or from the internet, the local top level domain is a good choice. In this example testlan.local is used.

Following the domain name is the server name, again use something logical for the test domain, in this example serv01. After the server name is the IP address of the server, use a non-internet routable IP, e.g. 192.168.1.1. After the IP address is set, the netmask value is prompted for, the default should be sufficient.

The Operation Mode of the SME Server is set next. SME Server can provide gateway services and internet services, or it can act in a standalone manner with or without gateway services. In this test environment we are testing both Internet services and gateway services, option 1, Server and Gateway is selected.

The next screen asks if the servers Internet facing network interface is a dedicated always on connection or a dial-up connection. Select option 1, Server and Gateway - dedicated and proceed to the next screen. The Ethernet card assignment screen prompts to assign each network interface. Since the virtual machine was set earlier to have eth0 face the internal network and eth1 face the Internet, option normal should be selected here.

After setting the ethernet card assignment, the internet facing network card is configured. Since VirtualBox will assign an internal IP address through DHCP, the Use DHCP option 2 should be selected. VirtualBox sets the virtual machine to use NAT and the virtual machine is "firewalled" from being accessed, but the guest can access internet services. The SME Server as configured will act as a gateway in which the Windows XP Pro client can also access external services.

The next screen prompts for use of Dynamic DNS Service. Since we are in a test environment, Dynamic DNS is not required. Select option 1, not to use Dynamic DNS. The next three screens set up the DHCP service that SME Server will be providing on the internal network side. Enable the DHCP service and set the beginning and ending IP address that the DHCP server will be assigning. Skip the Corporate DNS server address setting by selecting Next. The last step is to activate the settings, at the Activate configuration changes, select Yes to finalize the setup of SME Server.

After the settings are activated the SME Server will display a login screen. Two accounts are setup, the admin account and the root or super user account. The password is the same for both accounts that was setup earlier.

The root account is like any other Linux root account, where the command line is used to manage the server. However, the web interface is where the SME Server is maintained a majority of the time. When the admin account is used to login at the console, the server console menu is displayed.

There are a minimum amount of tasks that can be performed at the SME Server console menu. If the network is not accessible there is an option to get to the SME Server web interface, albeit with a text based web browser.

Configuring SME Server as a Domain Controller

Now that SME Server is up and running as a guest operating system, the Windows XP Pro client can be used to manage SME Server. Windows XP Professional should be installed as a guest using the same internal network as the eth0 device on the SME server. The SME Server also provices DHCP services, since VirtualBox does not supply DHCP to the internal network.

Log into the Windows XP Pro client and open a web browser to http://serv01/server-manager. Log into the SME Sever web management interface with the admin user account. From the menu on the left side of the management interface under Configuration select Workgroup. On the Change Workgroup Settings page set the name of the Windows workgroup (e.g. testlan), the Server Name and set the Workgroup and Domain Controller drop box to Yes and finally click on the Save button. After saving the settings a green Operation Status Report information box should appear. At this point reboot the server to enable the domain controller settings. (Note that I didn't try to find a way to enable these settings without rebooting the server. I will update this page if I look into this. Since this is a test environment, rebooting wasn't an issue for me.)

After the server reboots the Windows XP Pro guest can now join the domain. In Windows go to the Control Panel and start the System control panel applet to display the System Properties dialog box. In the System Properties dialog box, select the Computer Name tab, then click on the Change button. The Computer Name Changes dialog box now appears. Note that the Computer Name was set during install of Windows XP Pro. Under the Member of section, select the radio button and enter the name of the domain from the previous steps. After clicking on OK another Computer Name Changes dialog box appears, prompting for a account name and password with permissions to join the domain. Enter the admin username and password and click on OK. You will be prompted to restart the machine, click your way back through the dialog boxes and restart the Windows XP Pro guest.

After the Windows XP Pro guests restarts, a Log On to Windows dialog appears. Click on the Options>> button to expand the dialog. In the Log on to drop down, make sure that the domain name is selected and not the local workstation. Log on with the admin username and password.

Setup of our test environment is now complete. The SME Server is up and running, acting as a gateway and providing services to the local network. The Windows XP guest is getting DHCP and other services from the SME Server and is able to access the Internet. The next steps are to update the SME Server and apply all updates and anti-virus to the Windows XP Pro client.

Adding a Lightweight GUI and Webmin to Ubuntu Server

2008-10-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

The default installation of Ubuntu Server is non-graphical, the server is managed from the command line. Reasons for this type of installation are security and elimination of resource heavy GUI's (Graphical User Interface's). On some installations, the system management ease of a GUI makes life a little easier for the system administrator. It is possible to install the web based system management tool without the GUI. This method will allow you to use those tools locally on the server without using a separate computer on the network.

Tools to be installed are a lightweight window manager, a method of locking the screen, web based system management software, web browser and a light weight file manager.

Installation of Fluxbox

Fluxbox is a resource light window manager that will work well for simple system administration. Tip: I get tired of typing 'sudo' for every command, so we will remain as root, as the first command shows. To install Fluxbox and the display manager perform the following commands:


$ sudo su -
[sudo] password for boxadmin:
# apt-get install fluxbox xorg xdm
# /etc/init.d/xdm

The result is a login screen for the server. Login with the user name and password and be amazed at the awesomeness of Fluxbox. OK. Now for some tools to use in our now graphical server. A simple transparent screen lock utility, xtrlock, web browser, Firefox and a file manager, xfe, will be installed .

Dillo is a simple lightweight browser that would fit into this lightweight theme, however, https (SSL) is in a alpha stage and not well supported. SSL is needed for Webmin.

The first thing you will notice in Fluxbox is there is no start menu. To access applications right click on the desktop to display the menu. Start a terminal session by left clicking Applications -> Terminal Emulators -> XTerm. From the command line we will install our tools.


$ sudo su -
# apt-get install xtrlock
# apt-get install firefox
# apt-get install xfe

The basic tools are now installed. The next step is to make a simple key binding to activate the screen lock without having to go through the menu. Using the nano editor make the following changes to the last line in the file ~/.fluxbox/keys.


Mod1 F12 :ExecCommand sleep 1 ; xtrlock

Pressing the key combination [alt]+[f12], will execute xtrlock. The mouse pointer will change to a lock and the screen will remain visible, but the keyboard and mouse are captured. Typing in the user password will change the mouse pointer back and normal use will resume.

Installing Webmin

Webmin is a web based interface for system administration. I use Webmin a lot for small sites. To make Webmin a little more secure I setup the firewall to block access to a single IP address or subnet as well as not allowing Internet side access (which I will not cover here). Before Webmin is installed, some dependent packages need to be installed. The Webmin distribution is downloaded using the wget utility and installed with the dpkg package management tool.


# apt-get install libauthen-pam-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl openssl
# wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.430_all.deb
# dpkg -i webmin_1.430_all.deb
# exit
$

After installation is complete, Webmin is accessed from the Firefox web browser at the following URL.

https://localhost:10000

There will be some error messages complaining about the security certificate. Follow the on screen steps to add an exception for your server. Now you have a resource light GUI interface to your Ubuntu Server box.

Resources:
Fluxbox http://www.fluxbox.org/
xfe http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/
Webmin http://www.webmin.com/
Ubuntu Server http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu/serveredition

Shared Folders and Seamless Windows in Virtual Box

2008-10-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

In this final installment of running Ubuntu Linux in Windows Vista with Virtual Box, I'll look at using shared folders and seamless windows. A directory in the Vista filesystem can be used to share files between the Vista host and Ubuntu guest operating systems. Seamless windows allows Ubuntu application windows to be used side-by-side with Vista application windows.

Shared Folders

First the folder to be shared must be created on the Vista host. Open a command prompt by clicking on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt. A directory can be created in the resulting location or at the top level of the C:\ drive with the following commands:


C:\users\kleyba> md \virtshare
C:\users\kleyba> exit

Now the folder needs to be accessible to the guest Ubuntu. In the running instance of Ubuntu, from the Virtual Box menu select Devices -> Shared Folders... In the resulting Shared Folders dialog box, select Machine Folders, then click on the folder icon with the plus sign in the upper right. In the Folder Path: drop down box select Other... and navigate to the folder created in the Vista host. The Folder Name: text box will be filled automatically, it can be left as the default. Add a check to the Make Permanent check box, the shared folder will be always available to the Ubuntu guest. Click OK in the Add Share and then Shared Folders dialog boxes to complete this step.

To test the shared folder the share will be mounted manually. Open a terminal window in Ubuntu by selecting from the menu Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal. Using the mount and umount commands test the share:


$ sudo mount -t vboxsf virtshare /mnt
$ mount
$ touch /mnt/virtshare/testfile.txt
$ ls /mnt/virtshare
$ sudo umount /mnt

The first command mounts the the share virtshare, with the vboxsf filesystem type, on the directory /mnt. The /mnt directory in Linux is used for temporarily mounting filesystems. The vboxsf filesystem type, selected by using the -t option to the mount command, is unique to Virtual Box with the Virtual Box Additions. The mount command by itself displays the mounted filesystems, the shared filesystem will be listed last as:


virtshare on /mnt type vboxsf (rw)

The next two commands create a test file with touch and displays the file with ls. Finally, the share is umounted with the umount command. After successful testing the share, it will become permanent by creating a mount point and editing the file with the filesystem static information, /etc/fstab, with the nano editor.


$ mkdir ~/vistashare
$ cp /etc/fstab ~/fstab.backup
$ sudo nano /etc/fstab

The mount point, which is just an empty directory, is created with the mkdir command. The cp command is used to make a backup copy of the fstab file; just a little insurance. The nano editor now displays the content of the /etc/fstab file. Add the follwing line to the end.


virtshare /home/{USER}/vistashare vboxsf rw 0 2

Replace {USER} with the name of your home folder, which is normally your username. To save the file press CTRL+O, then , then CTRL+X.

After the changes are made to /etc/fstab, the shared folder will be automagically mounted whenever the Ubuntu guest is booted. The share can also be mounted with the mount command and -a switch as follows:


$ sudo mount -a

The shared folder can now be used, view the folder by selecting Places -> Home Folder in Ubuntu.

Seamless Windows

The seamless windows feature allows you to display host and guest application windows. The desktop of the guest operating system is suppressed, but the application menu is available. To enable seamless windows press the Host+L keys. A dialog box will display with information on seamless windows, put a check in the Do not show this message again check box and click on the Switch button.

Ubuntu application windows and Vista application windows now are displayed on the Vista desktop. Seamless windows can be disabled by pressing the Host+L keys.

Installing Virtual Box Additions

2008-10-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

Once Ubuntu is installed in a virtual machine, the Virtual Box Additions can be installed. From the Virtual Box User Manual:

They (the Virtual Box additions) consist of device drivers and system applications for the guest operating system that optimize the guest for better performance and usability.

Installing Additions

To install the additions, Ubuntu must be started and logged in. From the Virtual Box menu, select Devices -> Guest Additions... The virtual CD-ROM for the guest additions will be mounted.

The next step is to open a terminal window in Ubuntu by selecting Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal from within Ubuntu. Change directories to the mounted virtual CD, then run the Virtual Box Additions install script. After the script is successfully run, the system will need to be rebooted to complete the installation.


$ cd /media/cdrom
$ ls
$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
$ sudo reboot

The 'sudo' command allows you to run the install script as the super user, which has privileges to install software. The 'sudo' command will prompt you for your password, which is the same as the password created for the initial user when Ubuntu is installed. The 'sudo' command is used again to restart the machine with 'reboot'.

Using Guest Additions

After the virtual machine reboots an information dialog box appears noting that the guest operating system now supports mouse integration. The host key is no longer needed to switch between the host and guest operating systems. There is also a warning that some applications may not work correctly with mouse integration. Mouse integration can also be disabled if needed.

Once the information dialog is dismissed, the guest operating sytem can be used with mouse integration. One neat feature of the guest additions is to make the guest operating system work in full screen mode. To switch to and from full screen mode, press the Host + F keys. An information dialog box will appear with details on fullscreen mode.

Some of the other benefits of installing the Guest Additions is better video support, shared folders, seamless windows, and a shared clipboard between host and guest operating systems.

Open Terminal Here in Nautilus

2008-10-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

I have a user that needed to navigate through Nautilus and open a terminal in the current directory. This behavior is not enabled by default. It turns out that Nautilus is scriptable, i.e. custom behaviors can be scripted. The G-script web page has several scripts that you can download to modify Nautilus. The specific script for the behavior we wanted was on the G-script web site, below is the code.


#!/bin/sh
# From Chris Picton
# Replaces a Script by Martin Enlund
# Modified to work with spaces in path by Christophe Combelles

# This script either opens in the current directory,
# or in the selected directory

base="`echo $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI | cut -d'/' -f3- | sed 's/%20/ /g'`"
if [ -z "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" ]; then
dir="$base"
else
while [ ! -z "$1" -a ! -d "$base/$1" ]; do shift; done
dir="$base/$1"
fi

gnome-terminal --working-directory="$dir"

Using the gedit text editor, copy and save this shell script in a text file to your Nautilus script directory under ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts. Name the file something like openhere.sh.

A couple of tips, if you navigate to the scripts folder in Nautilus, from the menu select View -> Show Hidden Files, then the hidden folders, the folders that begin with a ".", can be seen. If you use the gedit text editor, when saving the script, right click in the file name area and from the drop down menu select Show Hidden Files, to show the hidden directories.

The script needs to be executable so do the following in a terminal window:


~$ cd .gnome2/nautilus-scripts
~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts$ chmod +x openhere.sh

Now when right clicking in the file area of Nautilus, a menu drop down will appear. Select Scripts, then the name of the script to run, in this case openhere.sh, which will open a terminal window in the current directory.

Running Ubuntu on Vista with Virtual Box

2008-10-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

I've been getting requests on how to dual boot Vista and Linux or requests to install Linux on someones recently purchased computer. If the goal is to try out Linux or a few of the many Linux distributions, then I suggest running Linux virtually. That way one can a) decide which distribution they prefer, and b) decide of Linux will be their primary operating system.

At work I prefer to use Ubuntu Linux as my primary operating system and run Windows XP in Virtual Box for specific tasks that must be run under Windows. At home, I run Vista as my primary operating system and run different instances of Linux for testing using Virtual Box. I also run instaces of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, only I found that Virtual PC works better for me in that specific testing scenario.

Installing Virtual Box on Vista

To start things off, Virtual Box needs to be installed. The install package can be downloaded from Virtual Box Website. The correct download is the Virtual Box for Windows hosts. I also suggest the Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL) version, for the additional features the Open Source Edition (OSE) does not include. Download the installer and then begin the installation by double clicking the downloaded installer package.

The first dialog box that appears is the Welcome screen, press the next button. The next dialog box is the End-User License Agreement. Select the "I accept..." radio button and click on the next button.

The Custom Setup dialog box allows the selection of USB and network drivers, select Next to accept the defaults. At the Ready to Install dialog box, click on the Install button to begin the installation. The installation begins at this point. Two resulting dialog boxes will ask to install the USB and networking drivers. Select Install to both of these dialog boxes.

The final dialog box indicates the completion of the installation, select Finish and this step is complete.

Creating the Virtual Machine

Start the Virtual Box application, the first step is to register your installation. After successful registration, the Virtual Box application window displays.

Click on the New icon in the upper left side of the application window to start the New Virtual Machine Wizard, at the welcome dialog click on Next.

In the Name text window enter a name for your virtual machine and select the OS Type of Ubuntu. Press the Next button to advance to the Memory dialog box. Select a memory size by either moving the slider button or entering a number in the text box, then clicking the Next button. The amount of memory to use depends on the available memory on the host machine. If, for example, the host machine has 2 gigabytes of memory a good value to allocate to the virtual machine is 512 megabytes to 1 gigabyte. Another consideration is the way the virtual machine is going to be used. If the virtual machine will run without the host machine running any other applications, then the higher amount of memory allocated the better the performance of the virtual machine; leaving enough memory for the host machine to operate correctly.

The next step is create a virtual hard drive for the virtual machine. In the Virtual Hard Disk dialog box, click on the New... button. Yet another Welcome dialog will appear for the wizard, click on the Next button. The image type dialog has two options for dynamically expanding or fixed size virtual disks. The former creates an image that will expand to the specified maximum as needed, while the latter creates a full fixed sized disk image. Selecting a dynamically expanding image is faster during setup and will save on disk space if the full image size in not needed. Leave the default of dynamic and click the Next button. In the next dialog box the size of the disk image is specified. The default of 8 gigabytes is adequate, but again depending on the available space on the host machine adjusting for less or more needs to be determined. Select the size of the image to be used, accept the default name and click the Next button. The wizards summary dialog appears, click on Finish to return to the Virtual Machine Wizard.

The newly created virtual disk image will be selected, click the Next button. The summary dialog appears, click on Finish to complete the virtual machine entry. The Ubuntu virtual machine is now listed in the left pane of the Virtual Box application. Before starting the Ubuntu installation an installation media source needs to be selected. There are two options for installation media, either an Ubuntu CD or mounting a downloaded ISO image from the Ubuntu web site. If the Ubuntu CD is used on the host machine, the CD is mapped or mounted to make it available to the virtual machine. An easier method is to download the Ubuntu ISO image that is normally burned to a CD for installation. Instead of burning an installation CD, the ISO image can be mounted and made available to the virtual machine.

In the right side pane click on the blue CD/DVD-ROM text to bring up the settings window. From here either the host systems CD/DVD can be mapped to the virtual machine or a ISO image file can be mounted. In this example the ISO image file is used. Check the Mount CD/DVD Drive check box. Select the ISO Image File radio button and then click the folder icon to start the Virtual Disk Manager.

In the Virtual Disk Manager, click the Add icon and navigate and select the Ubuntu ISO image on your host machine, then click the Select button. The Ubuntu ISO image will now look like a mounted CD of the Ubuntu installation CD. The settings window can now be closed by clicking on the OK button. The virtual operating system is now ready to be installed.

A couple of notes; when the virtual machine is started the keyboard and mouse will be captured in the virtual machine. In order to switch back control of the keyboard and mouse to the host machine the host key needs to be pressed to release them. By default the host key is the right control (ctrl) key. In this example, Vista is running on a Mac Book Pro with Boot Camp and Vista. Since there is no right control key on the Mac Book Pro, I changed the settings under File -> Preferences -> Input, to change the host key to the left alt key. When starting the virutal machine, the host key is indicated in the lower right hand of the virtual machine window. Note that in the screen shots the alt key is indicated.

Installing Ubuntu

Now that all the preliminary steps are done, all that is left is the actual Ubuntu installation. To start the virtual machine, select the virtual machine in the left pane of the Virtual Box application and click on the green Start icon. The BIOS screen of the virtual machine is displayed and the F12 key can be pressed to select the boot device, by default the CD/DVD should boot. Two dialog boxes will display, one with information on the host key and another on the bit depth. Both can be safely ignored and the Do not show this message again check box can be checked and the window discarded by clicking the OK button. The Ubuntu installation CD is now booted and the first step is to select the install language, which is by default English, at this point press the Enter key. If the screen is left at this point, the default is to boot into a Live CD verson of Ubuntu, so pressing the Enter key should be done.

At the Ubuntu menu, down arrow to select the Install Ubuntu item and press enter. The installer begins and the first dialog box is the Welcome screen.

Click on the Forward button to get to the Where are you? dialog box, select the correct time zone and click Forward.

Next is the Keyboard Layout dialog where the keyboard type is selected, click on Forward.

The next section asks for the disk layout, the Guided - use the entire disk default is used then click Forward.

The Who are you? section is next, enter information in all fields, the log in name and password is critical to remember.

Click on Forward and the Ready to install window is now displaying with all the information previously selected and entered displayed. To begin the installation click on the Install button.

The Ubuntu installation magic now begins, grab a cup of tea or coffee and wait for the install to complete. After the virtual image is formatted, Ubuntu installed and configured the final Installation Complete dialog appears. Click on the Restart Now button to complete the installation.

The installation is now shutdown and the virtual machine displays the final screen indicating the CD media must be removed. From the Virtual Box menu, select Devices -> Unmount CD/DVD-ROM and then press the Enter key. Remember to return control to the host system to access the menu, the host key will need to be pressed first (e.g. Right ctrl).

The virtual machine will now restart booting Ubuntu for the first time. When Ubuntu has fully booted the login screen appears prompting for the username and password. After entering the username password combination the Ubuntu opeating system is now running in a virtual machine.

Welcome to the Small Box Blog

2008-10-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

I created this blog for notes on Linux in smaller environments. Whether your own personal Linux box, workstation at work or administering a small Linux server, the goal is to help with tips, tricks and general information.

Enjoy,
Ken, The Small Box Administrator