Quote: Original post by Glass_Knife
Any one else tried this with Virtual PC.

Since I haven't used Virtualbox, does it make a huge file for the whole file system, or does it add to it.

I looked at VMWare, but only the player is free, is that correct. Is it true that you need to buy it to make your own virtual environments? If that's the case, then is the an Ubuntu 8.10 out there for free?

Sorry for all the silly question, but you gotta start somewhere, and when it comes to forums, Gamedev is the best.

Thanks again.

Yeah I tried it with on and off with Ubuntu but it's hit or miss with VirtualPC(will usually get a black screen during install unless you use some command line hacks) so I've switched to VirtualBox which seems to work alot better with Linux distro's and is updated alot more often than virtualpc.
Save yourself some grief and use latest VirtualBox which I know works with Ubuntu since that's what I"m using whenever I have to do something with Ubuntu.
Here someone actually took step-by-step screenshots on how easy it is so you'll see what a nobrainer it is to do and you'll wonder why you never bothered before since it's just like installing any other program.
And if your cpu used hardware virtualization it will run just about as fast as if you took the time to do a proper dualboot. The only things that will be missing will be 3D acceleration and networking is a pain to get right.

Quote: Original post by DrHalan
I would reccomend trying Ubuntu as live CD it is the easiest way.

I agree, if you're only trying it out, this would be a truly easy option.

I know this is quite a few posts up but it may still be helpful.

Quote: Original post by Glass_Knife
I looked at VMWare, but only the player is free, is that correct. Is it true that you need to buy it to make your own virtual environments? If that's the case, then is the an Ubuntu 8.10 out there for free?

VMWare server is a much better product than their player. I think it makes more sense as well, create a virtual machine, boot it, install what ever you want.

I also tried to get Ubuntu working in VPC for work, but I couldn't. I ended up installing VirtualBox. It's awesome. VPC is no longer on my computer.

Basic directions for VirtualBox:

1. Start Virtualbox


2. Click 'New' to make a new vm


3. Give it a name and choose Ubuntu from the OS type menu


4. Choose the base memory size. This depends on how much you have on your host machine. If you have a gig or more, I'd recommend 512 megs. You can change this later (just like with a real PC).


5. Next create a hard disk. Virtualbox uses a very large file as the hard disk for you vm. You can use a fixed size or dynamic hard drive. A dynamic one will resize to as large as you need, but is a bit slower.


6. Finish creating the vm.


7. Select your new vm from the menu.


8. Click settings


9. Under CD/DVD, check the 'mount cd drive' option.


10. Click the Radio button for using an Iso image and select you Ubuntu CD Iso


11. Click OK and then power on the VM.


12. You should now be greeted by the Ubuntu installer.


13. After installing, unmount the CD drive so that you don't just go back to the Live CD

You should now be all setup.

HTH