How to Install Lubuntu in VM - Tutorial

In this post, we will discuss how to install lubuntu in a VM environment with illustrative screenshots. This tutorial can be extended to any flavour of Ubuntu and the procedure is just the same. Our VM environment would be Oracle Virtual Box. You can download a copy of Virtual box, follow the installation steps and be ready to use the guide below to setup your lubuntu virtual machine. We will be installing Lubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) in this blog post. The step by step guide to setup this VM instance is provided below:

1.Start Oracle Virtual Box

Once you have installed Oracle Virtual Box, open it from your machine. You will see a welcome screen as shown below:

Oracle Virtual Box - To Install Lubuntu VM - Launch Screen

2.Specify VM Name and Select Operating System (Ubuntu)

Now, click on New. You will get a screen that will prompt for Name and Operating System. Enter the Name as Lubuntu. Type should be Linux and Version Ubuntu 32 bit. Depending on your system you can also select a 64 bit machine if applicable. A screenshot of this selection is shown below

Specify Operating System as Ubuntu and Provide VM Name

3. Specify Memory Size for VM

In this step, you will specify the amount of RAM that will be allocated to the VM. In general, lubuntu is not very memory intensive. I would recommend providing 1 GB as minimum for getting a better performance. However, you may wish to alter this setting depending on your system configuration. Use the slider to change it to a value you wish, as per the screenshot below

Specify Amount of RAM for Lubuntu VM

4. Create Virtual Hard Drive for Lubuntu Environment

Here, you can choose the option "Create a virtual hard drive now" and go with the recommended size of 8 GB. This can be specified later choosing other options but for lubuntu 8 GB should be sufficient unless you are trying to use heavy programs. Once you have selected an option, click on "create".

Create Virtual Hard Drive for VM

In the next screen, there will be an option to select hard drive file type. Specify VDI - Virtual Box Disk Image and click on Next. This is shown below:

Specify Hard Drive File Type for VM

Going further, you will get an option to select "Storage on  physical hard drive". This will have two options - fixed and dynamically allocated. Use Fixed Size as an option and click on Next. You will be prompted to choose File location and size.Here you can choose where your lubuntu VM environment will be installed and also change the size of the hard drive if required. This is shown below:

Specify File Location and Size - Lubuntu Installation

Click on create at the end of this screen.

At the end of this step, you should see a machine created for you which is capable of holding your lubuntu environment, as shown below:

Lubuntu Virtual Machine Created - Powered Off State

We have not installed lubuntu into this machine yet. We will be doing it soon - by turning the VM on. This would be explained at the next blog post, where we will install and get lubuntu running. Stay connected.