VirtualBox on Ubuntu 7.04 for an Easy Virtual Machine

As a web developer it is pretty hard to ignore the fact that Internet Explorer has a huge market share. Therefore testing to make sure that your web pages work properly in IE is almost always non-negotiable.

This leaves the happy Ubuntu developer with a need to run Windows in a virtual machine. There are a few options available but one solid choice is the GPL'd VirtualBox from Innotek (yes, similar to the company from Office Space - let's hope they don't burn down).

Here are the steps to install VirtualBox on Feisty Fawn (broken down into 2 parts).

Part 1: Adding the Innotek repository

1. Go to the download page on the VirtualBox site
   
2. Under the VirtualBox binaries heading you will find a list of repositories for debian based systems. Copy the line for feisty (top line at the time of this posting)
3. Now download innotek's public key (this will bring up a simple webpage containing a lot of text - in Firefox: File > Save page as... > and save innotek.asc to the Desktop)
4. Open Synaptic Package Manager, click Settings and then the Third-Party Software tab
   
5. Click add and paste the repository information you copied from the VirtualBox site
   
6. Now click the Authentication tab
   
7. Click the Import Key File button and select the innotek.asc file from your desktop
8. Close the Software Repositories dialogue and click the Reload button in Synaptic Package Manager

Part 2: Installing VirtualBox

1. If you are also reading the VirtualBox instructions, ignore the sentence about additional libraries as the dependencies will be taken care of by Synaptic
2. Use Synaptic Package Manager and search for VirtualBox, Mark it for installation (you'll see the dependent libraries get added) and apply the changes
   
3. After VirtualBox has been installed, you will need to logout of Gnome and log back in again. This is so that the new virtualbox group is actually added (there is likely a more efficient way to do this but I am unaware of it - please let me know if you know)
4. Once you are logged back in, go to Users and Groups, click Manage Groups, select virtualbox and add your user(s) to the group
5. Now you should be able to go to Applications > System Tools and launch VirtualBox

The PDF User Manual on the VirtualBox site is clear and easy to follow so installing an OS like Windows XP should be easy.

So far, VirtualBox has run very well for me. It seems to lack features like seamless mouse integration between the host and guest OS, but those features have never worked well for me. I am just happy to have a stable version of Windows that I can reliably access when needed.