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Linux for Starters: Your Guide to Linux – Running VirtualBox – Part 20

Last Updated on May 22, 2022

Create a New Virtual Machine

From the VirtualBox Manager, left-click the New icon to begin the VM creation process. There’s two ways to proceed, Guided or Expert. We recommend you choose the Guided approach.

Enter a descriptive name for the virtual machine. As we type openSUSE-Leap into the Name field, the Version changes to OpenSUSE (64-bit) automatically. It’s important to choose the right operating system and version.

VirtualBox - create virtual machine

Click Next.

Set the amount of memory to be allocated to the virtual machine. The amount of memory you give to the guest operating system will depend on how much RAM your host machine has.

VirtualBox - RAM

As you can see we’ve allocated 8GB of RAM to the guest virtual machine. This is a sensible amount of RAM providing the host machine has at least 16GB of RAM.

Click Next.

We will add a virtual hard drive to the new machine. This is a single file that represents the guest’s hard drive.

VirtualBox - create virtual machine hard disk

Click the Create button.

Choose the Hard disk file. By default that’s VDI. Don’t worry about the other options for your first steps into virtualization.

VirtualBox-create-virtual-machine-hard-disk-file-type-vdi

Click Next.

We can choose from dynamically allocated or fixed size storage. We prefer fixed size for the slight performance boost.

VirtualBox - fixed size hard disk

When you have made the choice, click Next.

We now define the file location for the new virtual hard disk file, and its size.

VirtualBox - create hard disk - file location and size

We’ve chosen 50GB for the size of the virtual hard disk file. This should be more than ample. Click Create to proceed.

VirtualBox - powered off

The VirtualBox Manager now shows an entry for our guest machine.


Page 4 – Settings

Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Set up host machine
Page 2 – Download Guest OS / Install VirtualBox
Page 3 – Create New Virtual Machine
Page 4 – Settings
Page 5 – Power on the Virtual Machine
Page 6 – Guest Additions
Page 7 – Snapshots & Cloning


All articles in this series:

Linux For Starters: Your Guide to Linux
1What is Linux? Why use Linux? What do I need?
2Choose a Linux distribution meeting your specific needs and requirements.
3Make a bootable Ubuntu USB stick in Windows.
4We show you how to install Ubuntu 21.04 on your hard disk.
5Things to do after installing Ubuntu.
6Navigating your way around the Desktop.
7Updating the system, install new software.
8Open source replacements for proprietary Windows desktop software.
9Get started with the power and flexibility of the terminal.
10We cover the basics of files and permissions.
11Getting help from your system.
12Learn all about the file system.
13Manipulating files from the shell.
14Maintain your system with these simple tips.
15Managing users on your system.
16Explore different desktops to GNOME 3.
17Gaming on Linux.
18Protect your privacy with this guide.
19Access the Windows desktop from Linux using a remote desktop client.
20Set up a virtual machine running Ubuntu as the host and openSUSE as the guest.
21Wine lets you run Windows programs on Linux without emulation.
22Extend your GNOME desktop with extensions and themes.
XUseful Linux commands.
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2 Comments
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Ivan
Ivan
2 years ago

How can you find out which distros need Guest Additions?

Rooster
Rooster
2 years ago
Reply to  Ivan

I don’t think there’s a way without trying a distro for yourself. Maybe Oracle should make this type of information available