So, we have to download the "free as in beer" version from the Oracle website, which is currently here
At the time of writing the current build for Lucid is virtualbox-3.2_3.2.4-62467~Ubuntu~lucid_i386.deb
Before we can install the deb, we will also need to install some dependencies.
sudo apt-get install libcurl3 dkms libqt4-network libqtgui4 libxslt1.1 libasound2 \
libdirectfb-1.2-0 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libqt4-opengl libsdl1.2debian \
libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsysfs2 libts-0.0-0 libxcursor1 linux-headers-`uname -r` \
libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxmu6 libxxf86vm1 tsconf libqtcore4 libaudio2 libmng1
Now we can install the virtualbox deb that we downloaded earlier.
sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-3.2_3.2.4-62467~Ubuntu~lucid_i386.deb
Next, add your user account to the vboxusers group
sudo adduser brettg vboxusers
Virtualbox machines that you create will by default go in your home directory
/home/brettg/.VirtualBox/
Ensure vboxusers have appropriate permissions to the kernel, create the file;
sudo vi /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules
/etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules
KERNEL=="vboxdrv", GROUP="vboxusers", MODE="0660"
That's it, Virtualbox should be installed and ready to go.
Now we can move on to creating a virtual machine
Create a machine named "io"
VBoxManage createvm -name io --ostype Ubuntu -register
Configure it with a nic bridged to eth0, 256Mb RAM, enable acpi and set to boot from DVD
VBoxManage modifyvm io --memory 256 --pae on --acpi on --boot1 dvd --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 eth0
Create a virtual IDE controller
VBoxManage storagectl io --name IDE0 --add ide
Create a virtual HDD
VBoxManage createvdi -filename ~/.VirtualBox/Machines/io/sda.vdi -size 48000 -register
Attach the virtual HDD
VBoxManage storageattach io --storagectl IDE0 --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium ~/.VirtualBox/Machines/io/sda.vdi
Create and attach a virtual DVD drive to the controller and insert the DVD image
VBoxManage storageattach io --storagectl IDE0 --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium /store/archive/ISO/ubuntu-10.04-server-i386.iso
The default vrdp port for machines is 3389, however, if you intend to run more than one guest then each one will need to listen on a different port. I use the 3xxx range with the xxx being the last octet of the machines IP address. For example, 192.168.0.1 would be 3001.
VBoxManage modifyvm io --vrdpport 3001
And thats it, your machine has been created. Time to start it up and give it a test drive!
Using the virtual machine
Start the machine
nohup VBoxHeadless -startvm io &
On a GUI workstation, establish a remote desktop connection to the machine. In my case, the host server is called "jupiter" so I type;
rdesktop -a 8 jupiter:3001
After you have installed the OS, you need to tell the machine to boot from the hdd.
VBoxManage modifyvm io --boot1 disk
You can also deregister the dvd image if you don't intend to use it again.
VBoxManage unregisterimage dvd /store/archive/ISO/ubuntu-10.04-server-i386.iso
Here are some other useful commands;
VBoxManage showvminfo io
VBoxManage list hdds
VBoxManage list runningvms
VBoxManage controlvm io poweroff
VBoxManage unregistervm io --delete
VBoxManage controlvm io savestate
VBoxManage closemedium disk UUID
VBoxManage modifyhd UUID --type immutable
