How to virtualize Ubuntu on Windows Vista

[Afznotermi]

Hello Friends,

I'm running Windows Vista as my operating system. I would like to know that is it possible for me to install Ubuntu on my system. I would like to virtualize Ubuntu on my Windows Vista. So, can any one tell me that how to virtualize Ubuntu on Windows Vista? Any one has any idea about it? Kindly provide me the correct way for doing it. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Devasis]

Trying to boot a Vista partition both natively and from VMware is not going to work. VMWare's emulated machine, hardware-wise, will differ from your actual machine. Add yourself to the vboxusers group. System --> Administration --> Users and Groups--> Manage Groups--> vboxusers--> Properties, click the box next to your user's name. Make sure to restart. Even if Vista is able to sort out the driver issues inherent in switching back and forth from two logically different machines (not likely), the "windows genuine advantage" licensing thing is going force you to re-activate Vista on every switch because Vista will believe you have installed it on a different computer.

[Solomon]

The first step is to download the correct Ubuntu install image. So if you want to run Ubuntu native, and Vista on a virtual machine there in, install Vista that way. In this scenario we can’t use the normal image (ubuntu-6.10-desktop-i386.iso) for one simple but important reason: the Virtual PC 2007 graphics adaptor only supports 16-bit colour depth for its virtual machines, and the Ubuntu Live CD as well as the operating system itself defaults to 24-bit. And if you want to run Vista native, with Ubuntu in a virtual machine under Vista, install another set up that way. You're only talking about a few additional GB of disk space, even if you have both systems virtualized in the other.

[MrChris-]

The latest version of Ubuntu allows users to install Ubuntu inside of their existing Windows OS by using wubi. Vmware Server is a free to download virtual machine tool that allows you to install the various type of operating systems under a virtual environment. This allows the user to utilize Ubuntu without messing with partitioning, which is an added boon for many computer users. While this is all fine and dandy, I suggest flipping this scenario around and install Microsoft Vista or XP inside of Ubuntu by using VirtualBox.

[Calvin K]

VirtualBox will allow you to attach physical hard drives, including existing partitions, to virtual machines. You need to allocate how much memory the virtual drive will have. Before you attempt to install Windows Vista, please make sure that your computer has at least 1GB of RAM (preferably 2GB), 16GB of hard disk space and a genuine Vista CD. Vista requires a good amount of memory, and since my computer has 3 gigs of RAM, I had no problem allocating approx. 1.5 gigs of memory to the virtual system. Systems vary, so adjust this to suit your needs.

[Lillebror]

You can install the vmware or virtual box drivers in the windows install so it doesn't choke on the hardware change booting natively or via raw disk support under vmware. You need to create a new virtual hard disk and make it around 10GB in size. Ubuntu doesn’t need this much, but it’s handy for installing updates and future applications. I would strongly recommend instead dualbooting vista and ubuntu, with just a mini clean virtual xp install in ubuntu for the handful of apps you need (much smaller and lighter than vista) and a third shared FAT32 partition that both operating systems can easily read for sharing data, between both real OSes and the virtualize one.

[JonBoyFishhead]

for windows vista, you have to install "virtual box". then you should be able to install linux on your virtual pc. However, Lillebror is right. I would also have a dual boot with linux and vista. you could even use "damn small linux" it is real small, and i think it is easier to work with, unless you have experience with linux.