Problem installing multiple Linux distros using oracle virtual-box .

Dead_Bot · 09-24-2018, 12:21 PM

Hey, I was trying to install multiple linux distros in a single partition on my hard-disk using virtual box. Is it possible to install 3 different distros-(Ubuntu, Kali-linux, Fedora) at the same partition without creating any new partition on my hard-disk. Or do I need to create a different partition for each distro?
I am using Oracle Virtual-Box for testing each distribution separately, and I don't want to create any new partition as it will require me to delete the existing partition and with it delete the existing Ubuntu distro that is already installed in it. Is there a way to install multiple linux distros in the single allocated space without formatting the entire drive while installation using the virtual-box?

I am fairly new to using these so please excuse me if I asked a stupid question, I tried finding the answer this question before but had no luck... So thanks in advance if you know what to do and help me...

hydrurga · 09-24-2018, 12:42 PM

No, you don't need a separate physical partition for each virtual machine. In fact you don't need a separate partition for them at all. In saying that, I personally give my virtual machines a separate partition to allow me to image these offline in a more focussed way.

You don't need to delete an existing partition to create a new one - you can resize a partition to make space.

You should give more details on your disk space and existing partition sizes for a better answer, e.g. the output from:

Code:

sudo parted -l

and

Code:

lsblk

business_kid · 09-24-2018, 12:59 PM

As hydrurga said, no need for separate partitions. When I was dividing space, I left the remainder (135G) as one partition, now mounted on /mnt/virtual. It has three VMs

Code:

bash-4.4$ du -sh /mnt/virtual/*
10G	/mnt/virtual/Mint-19_
29G	/mnt/virtual/Vista
50G	/mnt/virtual/Windoze 10
du: cannot read directory '/mnt/virtual/lost+found': Permission denied
16K	/mnt/virtual/lost+found
bash-4.4$

As you see, the sizes vary, and windows 10 is 2x anything else. But you better get used to it if you need windows, because all the others are approaching EOL. There's not much software installed in them. They could expand a lot with bloatware installed.

michaelk · 09-24-2018, 01:51 PM

Welcome to LinuxQuestions

In addition, a virtual hard drive is just a another very big file to the host operating system and depends on how much free space you have which I assume is Windows. For testing purposes 13-15GB should be sufficient for any default linux installation and can be located on any drive.

If you do not have the necessary free space on your system it is possible depending on the distribution to only install a minimum system or certain packages.

jefro · 09-24-2018, 02:12 PM

I think I'm confused.

Thoughts.

Generally you don't use a physical partition when using a client OS under VM. As above you'd use a single or group of files that are a virtual hard drive. One can in fact use a physical drive or partition under a VM but it is not currently a common task. In fact it tends to break stuff.

In a real install to a physical drive one could load quite a number of Linux OS's on a single partition. It is very uncommon to do that now a days.

JeremyBoden · 09-24-2018, 05:41 PM

By default the space for each VM exists as a sub-directory of '/home/username/VirtualBox VMs'.

Note that the embedded space in 'VirtualBox VMs' can cause problems on the command line, if you forget the quotes!
It can be convenient to add a single directory which you can use as a "shared folder" to copy data around.