install and Configure virtualbox
1 Download virtualbox
If you’re on macOS or Windows, head over to www.virtualbox.org and follow the download links. Then run the downloaded binary to install it. If you’re on Linux, VirtualBox is almost certainly in your distro’s repos. On Ubuntu, installing it is just a matter of sudo apt install
virtualbox . Fire it up from the Applications menu (or however your OS calls it).
2 Create a new VM
Hit the New button in the top-left of the VirtualBox interface. We’ll make an Ubuntu 18.10 VM, which we’ve called LXFUbuntu-VM here but you can call it whatever you want. Set the Machine Type box to Linux, and the Version box to Ubuntu (64-bit), unless you want a 32-bit VM. If you’re feeling confident, click the Expert Mode button, otherwise hit Next.
3 Choose your memory size
How much memory you allocate to your virtual machine depends on how you want to use it and how much RAM the host machine has. Modern desktops and applications (particularly web browsers) will happily chew through 2GB, where as booting to the console requires very little. If you allocate too much memory to your VM, the host will suffer.
4 Virtual hard disks
We’ll need some persistent storage for our VM. Modern Linux distros tend to be fussy about installing anywhere with less than 10GB of space, and if you can spare it then allocating more is a wise idea. Choose “Create a virtual hard disk now” to begin the process. If you have a spacious data partition it’s worth storing VMs there to avoid filling up your home folder.
5 Customise virtual storage
Choose the default VDI storage. These files can be fixed or dynamically sized (up to a given maximum). Dynamic storage is obviously much more flexible, and these days you’re unlikely to notice the increased I/O overhead, so go with that. You can specify the file’s location with the tiny icon to the right, otherwise it goes in ~/VirtualBox VMs/.
6 Boot your VM
You’ll need an ISO image to boot your machine. Either download the Ubuntu flavour of your choosing, or copy one over from our DVD. Go to Settings>Storage and select the optical drive, click the tiny disc drop-down on the right and select Choose Virtual Optical Disk File (sic). Locate your ISO, click OK, then hit the green Start arrow. Chocks away!