How to try out Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx without screwing up your computer

Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid Lynx” (Beta) is a viable alternative operating system to Microsoft Windows. This post details how you can try out Ubuntu without screwing up your computer or dual booting. The method I use is referred to as “virtualization” and relies upon free Sun VirtualBox.org software. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

1. Begin by downloading VirtualBox (~70mb) and an ISO of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (~680mb). I recommend choosing the 32-bit version of Lucid Lynx (lucid-desktop-i386.iso) because it plays nicer with Adobe software (flashplayer and AIR).
2. Install VirtualBox. This requires no instructions.
3. Optional: Enable hardware virtualization in your computer’s BIOS. While this isn’t absolutely essential, it will help with 3D graphics, among other things. HP computers come with hardware virtualization disabled from the factory. Other manufacturers may ship with hardware  virtualization enabled. In any event, VirtualBox will show you a pop-up box if you have hardware virtualization disabled and proceed to the next step.
4. Create a “virtual machine” in VirtualBox:  Run VirtualBox. New -> Next -> Name the Machine anything you want -> Select Linux and Ubuntu (or Ubuntu 64 bit if you decided to download the 64 bit ISO) -> go with a base memory of 384 mb (you can change this later and allocate more RAM to the machine) -> Boot Hard Disk -> Create New Hard Disk (don’t worry.. this is simply a large file in Windows, it doesn’t partition your drive) -> Dynamically Expanding Storage -> leave Location alone ->  choose 8gb for storage (it expands when needed) -> Voila, you’re done.
5. Start the machine -> Next -> CD/DVD -> Select ISO.  Boom.. your machine boots up as if it were a computer starting with an Ubuntu DVD in the drive.
6. Follow on-screen prompts for time, time zone, username, password, etc. Note: The window will “capture” your mouse pointer. To move about the “host” OS (the non-virtualized OS), hit the right Ctrl key. To return to the “guest” OS (the virtualized OS), simply click the VirtualBox machine window.
7. It’ll take about 10 minutes to install Ubuntu but you should have a virtual computer up and running. But, you’re not done yet!
8. Install the “Guest Additions” ISO in the VirtualMachine. This will fix the graphics so you can expand the window or make it full size, Right Ctrl+F).  To install Guest Additions, Right Ctrl+D. This will mount the Guest Additions ISO for VirtualBox. Next, open terminal by clicking Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal.  Then type “cd /etc/mediaVBOXADDITIONS_3.1.6_59338″. Next type “sudo sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run” for 32 bit Ubuntu or “sudo sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run” for 64 bit Ubuntu. Enter your password. After a few minutes you will be prompted to reboot.  You can reboot Ubuntu 10.04 by clicking the power button in the upper right corner.
9. You should be ready to go explore. If you want to install Google Chrome, simply point Firefox (which comes preinstalled) to http://google.com/chrome and select the DEB package for either 32 bit or 64 bit Linux.

Have fun. If you don’t like Ubuntu 10.04, just delete the virtual machine from within VirtualBox or uninstall VirtualBox.

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