Installing Ubuntu 6.10 on Virtual PC 2007 Step by Step

Update April 24, 2008 – The newest version of Ubuntu, 8.04 is out. Look for complete install instructions here.

Update: October 18, 2007 – Ubuntu 7.10 is now out, for full instructions on installing it, see
https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/installing-ubuntu-710-under-virtual-pc-2007/

Note: If you are looking for instructions for version 6.06, see my post at: https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/12/19/installing-ubuntu-on-virtualpc-step-by-step/. There are still good reasons to install 6.06, mostly because it’s the version targeted as the LS, or Longterm Support version. Many companies will likely stick with 6.06 for some time. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to install Ubuntu 6.10 under VPC 2007, using the standard install model. I’ve come to an important conclusion. It can’t be done. (If you’ve figured out how, leave a comment cluing the rest of us in on it!)

Now, before you become distraught and start with the wailing and gnashing of teeth, note I said “standard install model”. There is a way to get it working.

Before you get started, spend a few minutes getting familiar with VirtualPC if you have not already done so. You can find my step by step instructions for VirtualPC at https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/09/20/virtual-pc-step-by-step/. Keep it handy, at various points I will be referring to it. OK, let’s get started.

First, you need the right installer. Go to the Ubuntu website (http://www.ubuntu.com). Under desktop, click the Download link. Scroll down to the Ubuntu 6.10 area. Click on the region you live in, and find a mirror close to your location. Now, here is the inside trick, instead of “CD Image for desktop and laptop PC’s”, you should instead select “Other installation options”.

~~When the next screen comes up, scroll down to the “Alternate install CD” area. Find the link that says “PC (Intel x86) alternate install CD” and download the ISO it’s associated with.~~ It’s a big download, so be patient.

UPDATE! UPDATE! Ubuntu has changed their site, and so far I haven’t been able to find the alternate cd via their site. For now you can go to http://mirrors.gigenet.com/ubuntu/6.10 and grab the file ubuntu-6.10-alternate-i386.iso. This is the same file I was describing. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post…

Note that selecting the right version is the first thing you have to know, but there’s a few other tweaks you’ll have to do during the install process, so keep reading.

Once you have it downloaded, burn it to a CD or use Virtual CDRom Control Panel (see my post https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/09/13/virtualization/) to load it into a drive.

In Step 1 of my VirtualPC Step by Step you are instructed to create a new machine, please do so. I’ve named mine “Ubuntu 6.10”. In step 2, you are prompted for your OS. You will need to pick Other. In step 3, you are asked about Ram. Ubuntu will run OK under 256 megs, however if you have the available space I’d highly suggest upping it to 512, especially if you intend to get into doing some graphics or mono coding. I’ve selected 512 meg for this tutorial.In step 4 you will want to create a new hard disk, and in step 5 confirm what you’ve selected. OK, now you are up to step 6, installing the OS, which is where this tutorial picks up.Your first screen comes up, but before you start pressing buttons there’s one tweak you have to make. So you can see everything correctly during the install, press the F4 (VGA) button. Select a video mode that ends with 16, in my example you can see I changed to 800 x 600 x 16.

Now you can proceed, press enter to start the “Install in text mode” option.

The first screen to come up asks about your language. I took the default of English, but if you are elsewhere please select your language, then press Enter to continue.

Next you are asked for your location. Select your location, or the one closest to you, and press Enter.

Next you are asked to let the installer determine your keyboard. Take the default, Yes, which will take you to the next screen.

You will then be asked to press a series of keys. Here’s the first screen in the series:
On some screens there may be keys you don’t have, if so just wait for the time out.

After going through each screen, you will see what keyboard pattern Ubuntu detected for you. If it’s correct just click Enter to continue, if not you can go back and reselect.

Next Ubuntu will scan for your CD rom, then begin loading components. Just kick back and wait, it will go through all sorts of detection steps as it finds hardware, networking, and more.

If all went well, you will now be asked for a host name. I took the default of Ubuntu, but you are free to change it. Enter your host name, or just hit Enter to continue.

Next Ubuntu will begin detecting your disks and hardware. Be patient. You will then be asked about partitioning disks. This should be a new partition, so take the default by pressing Enter to continue.

The next screen is the first place you don’t want to take the default. It’s asking you to confirm the partition format plan. Use your left arrow to move the red bar (shown below on No) over to the Yes side, then you can press enter.

Wait while Ubuntu formats your drives.

Next you are asked for your time zone. Select it, then press Enter.

Next you are asked if the system clock is set to UTC. I just took the default of Yes, this is easy enough to fix if it’s wrong.

Next you are asked for your name. Note this is not your login user name, but your real name. Ubuntu will use this in your documents and e-mails. I entered a name, and pressed enter to continue.

On the next screen you are prompted for the user name you want. This is what you will enter when you login. Enter something that suits you, then press enter to continue.

If you’ve done this sort of thing before, you’d probably guess Ubuntu wants your password next, and you’d be right. Enter a password and press enter to continue.

Now you are asked to re-enter the password, to confirm. Do so and press enter to go on.

Now sit back and wait. Ubuntu will start installing itself.

After running for a while, you are next asked about video modes. Use the space bar to toggle the modes you want, and use the arrows to move up and down. When you’ve selected the modes you want, press enter to continue. Below you can see I’ve selected a few common modes for my system.

OK, sit back and wait some more, while Ubuntu installs various software packages. This step takes a loooooooooong time.

Ubuntu has completed it’s install. But don’t hit enter quite yet! First, on the Virtual PC menu pick CD, Release Physical Drive Z: (where z is the drive you are installing Ubuntu from). This will let Ubuntu to boot from your newly installed virtual hard drive instead of the CD. After you’ve released the drive, you can hit Enter to continue.

When the system reboots, you will see your login screen, but it’s going to look very trashy. Don’t worry, we’ll fix in a moment.

Key in your user name, and press Enter. You probably won’t be able to read what you are typing so be careful.

If all went well, you’ll now see another garbled screen where you enter your password. Carefully, do so and press enter.

More garbled screens will appear. When it appears as if Ubuntu has loaded (see below, if you look close you can make out the menu across the top), press the CTRL+ALT+F1 key combo.

This key combo exists the graphic interface and puts Ubuntu in text mode. Key in your user ID, then (when prompted) password to login.

You’ll now see a command line, below.
We need to modify your xorg.conf file to change the color depth. First, let’s back it up. Type in this command:sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backupNote to copy it exactly, Linux is case sensitive, so if you were to type in say x11 instead of X11 your command will fail. Also, because you are attempting to run the command as the root user (the sudo part of the command) you will be prompted for your password.

Now that we’ve backed it up, we need to edit it. Type in this command:sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.confYour new screen should look like this:

Press CTRL+W (Where is) and when prompted key in DefaultDepth and press enter.You should now be landed on DefaultDepth. Cursor over to the 24…

And hit delete twice, then type in 16.
Now hit CTRL+O (WriteOut) to save the file, and press enter to take the default xorg.conf file name. Then hit CTRL+X to exit.

You’re now back at the command prompt. Just type in this command:sudo reboot
and press enter.

Give it several minutes to shut down and restart. If everything worked, you should now see a beautiful, non garbled Ubuntu screen.

Key in your user name and password and you will be logged in to your working copy of Ubuntu 6.10 on Virtual PC 2007!

Installing Ubuntu on VirtualPC Step by Step

Update: October 18, 2007 – Version 7.10 is now out. Complete step by step instructions on installing 7.10 can be found at:
https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/installing-ubuntu-710-under-virtual-pc-2007/

Update: I’ve now determined how to get Ubuntu 6.10 working on VirtualPC 2007. If you are interested in the latest version, see my new post on February 26th, 2007 at https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/installing-ubuntu-610-on-virtual-pc-2007-step-by-step/ or http://shrinkster.com/mff. Note there is still value in installing 6.06, as it’s the version of Ubuntu that will have long term support, and thus be the Linux of choice by many corporations. Also note that while the instructions below were written with 6.06 and VirtualPC 2004, the instructions are the same for 6.06 under Virtual PC 2007. So you’ve decided you’d like to try a Linux distribution, but don’t have a computer to dedicate to it. Further you’re understandably reluctant to mess around with your partitions and try and get dual booting to work. No problem, Virtual PC to the rescue.

First, you will need to obtain a copy of a Linux distribution. One of the most popular today is Ubuntu. Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop for an “Apple like” feel. There’s a variant called Kbuntu which has a much more Windows like look and feel. If you are interested in Mono development (Mono is the open source implementation of the .Net Framework) be aware you will want to use a Gnone desktop, and thus Ubuntu, as my understanding is all of the Mono tools were designed for Gnome.

For this tutorial we’ll be using Ubuntu. To obtain your copy of Ubuntu, simply go to http://www.ubuntu.com , click on the downloads link, and select Ubuntu. I would recommend you use version 6.06, which is the long term supported version. I attempted to use the current version, 6.10, and had major issues with the graphics.

Key Point: Use Version 6.06, not 6.10.

Be aware the image is around 650 Meg in size, so have a good high speed connection. If you are on a dial up, check your newsstands for various Linux magazines. Each month ever one of the Linux magazines comes with a DVD loaded with a variety of distos (Linux speak for distribution).

Once you’ve downloaded the ISO image, you have two choices. First you can simply burn to a CD, using your favorite CD burning software. Make sure you tell it you want to burn from an image, if you just write the ISO file you’ll have a disk with an ISO image, but it will not boot.

Your second choice, the one I’d suggest is to use the Microsoft Virtual CD drive. I blogged about it back on September 13th (https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/09/13/virtualization/ ). Read this post to see how to use it, then jump back here.

Back? Cool. Launch the Virtual CD app, with a drive letter assigned to your Ubuntu image. For this tutorial I’ve mapped my Ubuntu to drive Z.

Now that you have Ubuntu ready, you need to go read my VirtualPC Step by Step post (https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/09/20/virtual-pc-step-by-step/ ). Keep it handy as I will be referring to it frequently for this tutorial.

In Step 1 you are instructed to create a new machine, do so. I’ve named mine “Ubuntu 6.06”. In step 2, you are prompted for your OS. You will need to pick Other. In step 3, you are asked about Ram. Ubuntu will run OK under 256 megs, however if you have the available space I’d suggest upping it to 512, especially if you intend to get into doing some graphics or mono coding.

In step 4 you will want to create a new hard disk, and in step 5 confirm what you’ve selected. OK, now you are up to step 6, installing the OS, which is where this tutorial picks up.

Launch your new Ubuntu 6.06 VPC. (Click on it in the VPC and click Start). When it starts, click on CD, Use physical drive Z: in the menu. In a moment you’ll see a menu that looks like this:

Select the “Start Ubuntu in safe graphics mode” option. It’s very important you pick this option, if you take the default “Start or install Ubuntu” you will get garbled graphics under VPC.

OK, now you have watched the Ubuntu screen flash as it loads, now you should see a screen like this:

While it looks like it, be aware you have not installed Ubuntu. Instead, you are running in what is known as “Live Mode”. This is a feature that is common to most CD distributions of Linux. In Live Mode you can boot your computer and use a Linux distribution without having to install.

Installing is just what we want to do, and Live Mode makes it easy. By now you’ve probably noticed the big icon that says “Install”. Let’s double click this.

The first thing you are prompted for is the language you want to use. Select the language most comfortable to you, then click Forward.

Next you are asked for the city near where you live. You can select your city by either clicking on the map, or selecting from the list. After doing so you will want to set the time, just click on the Set Time… button to do so.

In step 3 we are prompted for the keyboard layout. Since my default is already selected, all I have to do is click Forward, otherwise you should pick your layout and click Forward.

Now Ubuntu needs to get some personal information. Just your name, what you want your login name to be, and the name for your computer. Enter your own information here, then write them down! OK, now you can click Forward.

Getting close, now in step 5 we’re asked about the disk space. Your two options are to install to the entire partition, or manually edit. Since this is a virtual machine, we’ll just take the default of “Erase entire disk:IDE1 master (hda) 17.2 GB Virtual HD” and click Forward.

OK, we’ve finally reached the final step of our install wizard. Just assure yourself that your selections are correct, then click the Install button.

As Ubuntu installs you’ll be able to monitor it via a progress bar:

When the install is done, you are asked if you want to restart, or continue using the Live CD. Let’s pick Restart Now.

Now during the reboot I got to the Ubuntu logo screen, then the VPC just sort of stopped. I wound up clicking the red Cancel x to close the window, and picked turn off. I then returned to my VPC console and clicked Start to restart my Ubuntu machine.

Once Ubuntu is running, you are first prompted for your Username. Enter the user name you provided during the install and press enter when done. Then do the same with your password, pressing enter when you’re done. Ubuntu will crank and grind, then come up to the desktop, and you’re ready to go!

I’m not going to go into details on how to use Ubuntu, but I will point out a few things. Let’s take a quick look at the desktop.

Starting in the upper left, you’ll see the menu:

The Applications menu is where your programs reside. Preinstalled is the Open Office suite, Gimp photo editor, and lots of neat games.

Places is sort of like My Computer, through it you can get to your personal folder, the network, CD / DVD drives, and more.

Through the System menu you can tweak your system settings, similar to Control Panel.

Next to the System menu is a little globe, this will launch the Firefox web browser. To it’s right is an open envelope, you’ve probably guessed this will launch an e-mail program.

By now, you’ve probably noticed this little announcement:

If it went away, just click on the orange icon you see on the screen. This is the notification icon, and will let you know of updates, system messages and more. Through the internet you can download the latest updates to Ubuntu. By the way, next to it you’ll see a little speaker icon, this is the Volume control.

Finally, you’re probably asking yourself how the heck you shutdown in Ubuntu. You can exit safely in one of two ways. First, on the upper right you probably noticed this red icon:

This is the shutdown icon. You can also select System, Quit from the System menu.

There you go, all the steps you need to get up and running with Ubuntu. Both it and Virtual PC are free, so you have no excuse to start experimenting with Ubuntu today.