USING THE VirtualBox VIRTUAL MACHINE PROGRAM TO RUN
UBUNTU LINUX GUEST OS ON A WINDOWS HOST
HARDWARE & TECHNOLOGY SIG, November 18, 2008
Peter Roll

0. Introduction:

- outline of the screencast video presentation on VirtualBox and Ubuntu
- screencasting: used for the presentation, but no how-to-do-it details
- environment (screencast production studio): Windows Vista on an iMac
- download the two install files and place on Vista desktop:
VirtualBox installer: http://www.virtualbox.org/; free, supported by Sun
Ubuntu 8.0.4 .iso CD disk image: http://www.ubuntu.com/ getubuntu/download

1. Installing VirtualBox and using it to set up a new Virtual Machine (VM),
New Virtual Machine Wizard and the New Virtual Disk Wizard 1-VMsetup.mp4

2. Configuring the new Virtual Machine for installing and running Ubuntu:
using VB Settings button to “set up the VM BIOS” 2-configVM.mp4

- activate a CD-ROM drive to read the Ubuntu bootable CD .iso disk image, and
- set the boot sequence

3. Running Ubuntu from the .iso disk image, then installing it on the virtual
HD 3-UBinstall.mp4
4. Installing VBox Linux Guest Additions to enhance performance of the
Ubuntu VM: 4-GuestAddsinstall.mp4

- demonstrate mouse cursor control and screen resolution of raw Ubuntu VM
- reference to the VBox User Manual for Guest Additions
- use of the Unix command line to install the Guest additions

5. Walk-through of the Ubuntu and Guest Additions performance
enhancements: no video; live on Tank

- the three menus of Ubuntu
- shut down, restart, update manager
- mouse cursor integration - automatic sensing of guest vs. host operating system
- set screen resolution by dragging size of Ubuntu window
- USB flash drive - mount, unmount

Screencasting programs used:

CamStudio: a simple screen recorder program, free; the ancestor of
http://camstudio.org
Windows Media Encoder (Microsoft): an alternative screen recorder tried but not
used for this program: available at no cost to customers running Windows Genuine
Advantage; a more complex and feature-rich screen recorder; output .wmv files
which, however, are not compatible with all .wmv players; output works fine with
Windows Media Player and Windows Movie Maker:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

Yawcam (Yet Another Webcam application - display output of webcam on screen):
http://www.yawcam.com/

Apple Quicktime Player for Windows:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime755forwindows.html
Free version will do all playback; Pro version ($29 online upgrade) needed to
enable Export... command to compress to H.264 756x524 format and editing
features to delete out boo-boos).

Size of screencasts:

Filename	Run Time	Original Size (.avi)	Compressed Size (.mp4, H.264)
1-VMsetup	3m 8s	176 MB	5.7 MB
2-configVM	3m 9s	218 MB	5.8 MB
3-UBinstall	5m 5s	338 MB	10.0 MB
4-GuestAddsinstall	9m 23s	719 MB	16.7 MB
TOTALS	20m 45s	1.451 GB	38.2 MB

SETTINGS FOR THE CAMSTUDIO SCREENCAST PROGRAM (WINDOWS VISTA)

NOTES ON INSTALLING AND SETTING UP UBUNTU LINUX AS A GUEST OS UNDER VirtualBox ON A WINDOWS VISTA HOST

Guest Adds Notes

Contact Peter Roll at paroll@rollmodels.com for additional details and resources