After you launch VirtualBox from the Windows Start menu, click on New to create a new virtual machine. When the New Virtual Machine Wizard appears, click Next.
You can call the machine whatever you want. If you're installing Ubuntu, it makes sense to call it Ubuntu, I guess. You should also specify that the operating system is Linux.
VirtualBox will try to guess how much of your memory (or RAM) to allocate for the virtual machine. If you have 1 GB or less of RAM, I would advise you stick with the recommendation. If, however, you have over 1 GB, about a quarter your RAM or less should be fine. For example, if you have 2 GB of RAM, 512 MB is fine to allocate. If you have 4 GB of RAM, 1 GB is fine to allocate. If you have no idea what RAM is or how much of it you have, just go with the default.
Click Next.
If this is your first time using VirtualBox (which it probably is if you need a tutorial on how to use it), then you do want to Create new hard disk and then click Next.
Click Next again.
Theoretically, a dynamically expanding virtual hard drive is best, because it'll take up only what you actually use. I have come upon weird situations, though, when installing new software in a virtualized Ubuntu, in which the virtual hard drive just fills up instead of expanding. So I would actually recommend picking a Fixed-size storage.
Ubuntu's default installation is less than 4 GB. If you plan on adding software or downloading large files in your virtualized UBuntu, you should tack on some buffer.
Click Finish and wait for the virtual hard drive to be created. This is actually just a very large file that lives inside of your Windows installation.
Click Finish
The next thing to do to make the (currently blank) virtual hard drive useful is to add the downloaded Ubuntu disk image (the .iso) boot on your virtual machine. Click on Settings and Storage. Then, under CD/DVD Device, next to Empty, you'll see a little folder icon. Click that, and you can select the Ubuntu .iso you downloaded earlier.
Once you've selected it, click OK.
Then double-click your virtual machine to start it up.
Once it's started up, just follow the regular installation procedure as if you were installing Ubuntu on a real hard drive (instead of a virtual one).
Afterwards, in order to use your virtualized installation (instead of continually booting the live CD), you have to change the CD/DVD Device entry to beEmpty again.
submitted by guest blogger
edu rolando, Brazil
