Ubuntu 8 on VirtualBox Hosted on Windows

I recently got a Macbook Pro. But I can no longer use VMWare on Mac to run Linux because VMWare charges for its Fusion player on Mac. Fortunately, I can use VirtualBox which is free for all platforms.

Here are the steps to get Ubuntu 8(Guest) up and running in VirtualBox on Windows(Host):

1. Download the ISO version of Ubuntu 8
2. Open VirtualBox. Create a new image. I gave it a 16GB virtual disk.
3. Attach the Ubuntu ISO image as cd-rom
4. make sure the boot sequence starts with cd-rom
5. start the virtual machine. It should go into Ubuntu's installation screen.
6. During Ubuntu's installation, make sure you choose to install the boot loader at the last or the 2nd to the last step(the setting is hidden unless you click the advanced button). Otherwise, you won't be able to boot into your Ubuntu installation.
7. Shutdown the virtual machine. Make sure you change the boot sequence to boot with the 16GB hard disk first.
8. You may notice that the virtual machine doesn't use the native resolution of your LCD. Here's a working solution: click on VirtualBox's "Devices" => "Install Guest Additions" menu item. Then restart the virtual machine.

Edited on Jan 11th, 2009: with the release of Virtualbox 2.1, DHCP finally works for the guess OS through the host OS(you can connect between the host and the guess through networking).

Tags: linux windows ubuntu vmware virtualbox