Running Ubuntu on a
Windows Virtual Machine
There are a number of ways of running
Ubuntu on a Windows machine, and here is a description of such way. Please note
that if you are using the lab computers,
you don’t need to do any of this — all the necessary software is already there.
The following describes one way of running
Ubuntu on a virtual machine on a personal Windows computer.
§ Save a copy of the latest Ubuntu ISO to a convenient
folder on your computer.
§ Download and install VMware
Player 6. This version is free for personal use. Later versions are not
free.
§ Run VMware and create a new Ubuntu virtual machine using the ISO file
you downloaded from the first step.
It is possible to run into problems
installing VM Tools, and it may be safer to install it from the Ubuntu Terminal
in the virtual machine like this:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop
Unfortunately, it can be tricky to install
virtual machines on some computers. If VMware doesn’t work for you, you might
have more success with VirtualBox
(which is what I am using on my laptop in class), or read about other ways
to install Ubuntu on Windows.
John Edgar (johnwill@sfu.ca)