For todays Ubuntu Tip of the Day I will be installing the latest version of Ubuntu Linux (7.04 Feisty Fawn) onto a Virtual Machine from within Windows XP. I have chosen VMware because it is now free and it is pretty easy to install and get up and running with very little fuss.
Why are you covering a Windows XP Application running Ubuntu?!? I am covering this because most of us know how great Ubuntu is already! But some may be a bit hesitant with little knowledge about Linux and still need to run Windows, this way you can get the best of both worlds, you can test Ubuntu Linux without doing damage to your system at all.
I will be running VMware Server 1.0.3 on Windows XP. VMware pretty much pretends to be another computer, so when we get to install Ubuntu, Ubuntu will think its a PC and not a program. The downside of this is you need a pretty good system to run it, because you are essentially running two PCs on the one machine. So you may want to look at the recommended system specs of both Vmware and Ubuntu and see if your system clears both before you start. The system I am installing them on is a P4 2.6Ghz with 3GB Ram.
Once you have checked your system specs we can now get started! Firstly you need to download a copy of VMware Server (130MB), while you are waiting for the VMware to download you may want to sign up so you can get your free license code. It is pretty painless, you just need to supply your email address so they can send you your license.
Now once the download has completed you can start installing VMware, all you need to do is run the file. During installation of VMware server mine complained about not having IIS installed. I didnt want to install IIS so I just clicked ok to continue the installation. IIS is only needed if you are intending using your VMware Images from remote machines. For this guide I will not be doing this.
The installation will finish by itself and may ask you to reboot, mine didn’t ask me to reboot but I did anyway. I wanted to ensure the installation went smoothly. You may not want to reboot, but that is up to you.
Now you can run VMware, to do that you can just run it from your desktop or your start menu, it should automatically bring up the New Virtual Machine Wizard, if it doesn’t just go to New -> Virtual Machine… . First click Next and choose typical, then click next. The choose Linux and where it says Version select ‘Ubuntu. Choose what you want to call your new Virtual Machine and where you want to save it. This doesn’t affect your virtual machine, it is just personal preference. Once you have done that click Next.
Next is where you select what sort of networking you want want to use for you virtual machine. Select Bridged, that way you have full networking from your Ubuntu VM. As the name suggests its sets up a bridge between the network adapter on your PC and VM. Now click next again.
Now you will need to specify how much disk space you want your VM machine to use. I left it at the default (8GB). It really depends what you want to do with your machine and how much space your would need. SO again it is personal choice.
Once you have done that click finish! 
It will take some time to create the disk.
Before we start the install go to the VM Menu and go settings, now instead of using the PCs CD-Rom we will use the ISO of Ubuntu we downloaded, so where is says Select ISO click browse and go to where you downloaded and select the image and click ok.
Once this is done we can start to install Ubuntu! Pless the Green play button and we are away!
First it should bring up the boot menu, select Install Linux. It will now boot into the Ubuntu Live CD, this is a good way to test if Ubuntu is going to like your VM, if it does in a matter of minutes you should be logged into Gnome!
Once you are there you should see an icon which says ‘Install’, double click on that and it will run the installer setup, most of this is personal choice, select your language then click forward, select your time zone then click forward, select your keyboard layout click forward. To prepare the disk select guided and then click forward, migrate settings just click forward as we are not dual booting, enter your user details, password and host then click foward and click ‘install’.
All you need to do is wait for it to install….
Once it has finished click ‘Restart Now’.
When prompted press enter to reboot. Once your VM reboots press the red stop button, go to VM -> settings… then go to CD-rom and change your cd to physical drive. This will stop your VM from booting from the ISO image again.
When you are ready press the green play button and boot into your new Ubuntu VM.
Once you have booted into Ubuntu, log in, and then go to VM -> Install VMware Tools. This will mount a cd on your desktop. Now you will want to open a terminal window in Ubuntu. You can do this by going to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal.
While there type the following:
tar -xvf /media/cdrom0/*.tar.gz ~/vmÂ
cd vm
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
Press enter all the way through, just installs defaults.
Thats it! Your done!
You now have Ubuntu running within XP!Â
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May 6th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Hi,
I tried to do a similar thing and when I boot the new virtual machine after Ubuntu (or Debian Etch) installation I get this error message after the GRUB loader starts any of the options:
Int 14: CR2 c1000000 err 00000002 EIP c03f3c3e CS 00000060 flags 00010006
Stack: 373c0046 00000000 ffffffff c0490000 000013a8 00000080 003a8000 ffffff80
Do you have any idea what’s wrong? I think there should be some problem with the kernel and the virtual machine settings.
BR,
Gabor