Installing Linux on Windows 7 PC using Oracle VM Virtual Box

In previous session, we learnt about a Windows 7 application "Oracle VM VirtualBox". Please view previous session before proceeding further.

Right, once you are done installing with "Oracle VM VirtualBox", you need to first choose the flavour of Linux you are going to install using VirtualBox.

I will go ahead and download Centos OS Linux Flavour.

To download this iso image, open a separate tab and type this address in address bar.

 http://centos.linuxfreedom.com/download.html  

In this website, scroll down and download the first one. Since its 690Meg, it takes time to download. So, wait till the download gets completed.

Since, I have already downloaded this image to a particular location, I will go ahead with our tutorial.

Start VirtualBox application in windows.Best way is to click here on startup menu and search for virtualbox. Click on it to open.

This is very simple interface and easy to install Linux using this application.

Using this application you can create n number of virtual machines depending on your requirement. For today's tutorial, we will create Centos Linux Virtual machine.77

So lets see how to do it.

First select New.

Type Name as you wish. I am going to type "MrTechpathi_Centos"

Based on your name, the type and verison will get updated automatically. If not, select the type as "Linux" and version as "Red Hat".

Click on "Next".

Now, we need to select the memory size.You should be very careful in choosing the amount of memory here because its allocated to virtual Machine from your existing Ram memory.

I am having 3Gig of RAM so, I will go ahead with 1.4GB. VirtualBox actually shows green and pink color in order to show the best and worst case scenarios. So, choose wisely.

Click on "Next"

Here, you need to create a hard driver for your virtual machine. So, you need to

Select option "Create a virtual hard drive now"0. Click on "Create"

Now, select default options from here on. Select VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) as type of your hard drive and click on "Next".

Select "Dynamically allocated" option and click on "next".

Choose the location of virtual harddrive and also size of the harddrive. I will leave the default location unchanged and change the Harddisk size from 8Gig to 32Gig. Choosing Harddisk size again depends on the size of free space available in your Windows 7 harddrive.

Click on "create".

Now we are ready with a virutal machine skeleton.

We need to add iso image to it. Lets do it now.

When you click on "storage", you can see two entries. One IDE and SATA.

Under IDE, you will find Empty entry.Select Empty and  On the right hand side, under attributes, choose a virtual CD or disk file option.

Here you need to select your centos iso image downloaded during initial stages of this tutorial.

Once selected, click on ok.

So, till now, we have created Harddrive for virutal machine and added centos iso image as controller IDE.

Now its time to start the centos virtual machine and install iso image to virtually created harddisk.

Select your virtual machine and click "start".

Please read this message on all pop up messages from here on and press ok.

I would like to mention one important thing here. In order to switch between your virtual machine and Windows 7 PC, you need to press "RightCtrl" button on your keyboard. To make it easier to remember, VirtualBox displays "RightCtrl" at the bottom of virtual machine.

Wait till Linux boots up.

Click on "Login".

Now you have standalone virual centos Linux operating system running on your Windows 7 PC.

To install Centos to your virtual harddrive, select "Install to HardDrive" option on the desktop.

This will start CentOS installer.

From here on its normal installation procedure.

Click on "Next"

Select your preferred country. I will select mine as "United Kingdom".

Select "Basic Storage Devices" and click "Next".

Since we have allocated 32Gig from Windows 7 free space for our virtual harddrive, select "Yes,discard any data".

Name your computer. I will name mine as mrtechpathi and click next.

Select the timezone accordingly.

Mine I have selected as London. Click on "Next"

Enter root password and confirm. Click on "Next".

To use 32Gig virutal harddisk, select "Use all space" and click "Next".

Select "write changes to disk" option to write storage configuration to disk.

Now relax and wait for few minutes for the installation to complete.

So, after few minutes, the installation is done.

Click on Close and proceed.

Now poweroff the virtual machine and restart by pressing Start.

Wait till the Linux Boots-up. Once after the bootup you need to do initial setup. For more details please watch this video.