Running Linux in a Virtual Machine

There are two things you need to run Linux in a virtual machine: a virtual machine application and an image.

Choosing a virtual machine application

If you are running Windows, two popular options for running Linux in a virtual machine are:

• VMWare Player (commercial but free)
• QEMU (open source)
• VirtualBox (commercial w/ free trial and open source)

If you are running OSX, two popular options for running Linux in a virtual machine are:

• Parallels (commercial)
• VMWare Fusion (commercial)

Choosing a virtual machine image

You can do a fresh install of virtually any Linux distribution in most modern virtual machine environments, including Debian and Ubuntu. However, it is easier to start with a prebuilt machine image. Such images are often referred to as virtual appliances.

There are a variety of images available. Please update the list below with your experiences running these virtual machines:

• Debian 4.0 (Etch) image for VMWare Player UNTESTED
• Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) image for VMWare Player UNTESTED
• Ubuntu (Gnome) and kubuntu (KDE) official 7.04, 6.10, 6.06 images for VMWare Player
  • Kubuntu-7.04-desktop-amd64.zip Tested OK
  • Ubuntu-7.04-desktop-amd64.zip Tested OK
• Others?

Note: The amd64 images work with Intel 64 Bit CPU's (ie. Core 2 Duo).

When connected to the university network, NAT will allow internet access for the virtual machine. Ensure that any firewalls are configured to trust the VMWare Virtual Ethernet Adaptor.