Using VB to install Linux Mint
 

I am wanting to add Linux Mint to my computer, but I do not have the room to really do a real install on my computer beside Ubuntu and Vista, so I want to install it on a VirtualBox machine. I have a few questions before I do so.
A.) Is all this reversible?
B.) It will not affect my current system. Like, if something goes wrong with the install for some reason, it will not affect my current Ubuntu OS, which I will be installing it under.
C.) When it asks you to create a hard drive, that is reversible, right? And it's only used when you are using VB?
D.) About the hard drive you have to create. I have 2 partitions partitions that I use mainly, my / Linux partition, and OS, which is my Windows NTFS partition. If I create the hard drive on OS, will that mess up the VB?

Thanks if anyone helps. Sorry if these seem like stupid questions.

Hi -
A: Yes
Specifically, you're not installing Linux Mint on your PC - you're installing it on a VIRTUAL Image (a set of data files that Virtual Box can "run"). When you're done with the VM, you can just delete it :) Nothing on your PC is affected.

A: Absolutely not. That's the beauty of using VM's: you can do just about anything you want without affecting your "real" OS.

A: The "hard drive" is a VIRTUAL hard drive in your Virtual Image. It does NOT affect any of the "real" filesystems on your physical host.

A: I'd just create a virtual 20GB hard drive, then install Mint on it.
Remember: creating the virtual hard drive does NOT affect anything on your "real" system.
And just because you allocate 20GB, you don't actually *use* 20GB.
Creating a 20GB virtual hard drive probably won't use much "real" disk space at all.

'Hope that helps!

I would add to this that what it does do on your existing system is create a file the size that you choose, ie if you want a 20GB hard disk for the virtual system
then it will create a 20GB file (meaning it will take up this amount of space on your drive)

That is only true in one of two cases. If you create a virtual harddrive you can choose between two options:
1. Use a growing file: The harddisk-file uses only so much space on your real harddisk as is used on the virtual harddisk.
2. Use a static file: The harddisk-file allocates as much space as you set the virtual harddisk-size at creation time.

I almost anytime choose option 1, even if it will decrease the performance of the virtual harddisk slightly.

Hi, TobiSGD:

Absolutely correct:
Me too :)

But the main point is to allay the OP's concerns that maybe installing Linux Mint on a VM might somehow trash his "live" system. It shouldn't :). To repeat:

Thanks for correction guys ... I had thought about that after :redface: but figure still good to let OP know that space will be used.

Okay, thank you for all the help guys. Now I have one more question. I'm kinda confused. When you start the macine the first time, it doens't have a OS, but it asks to press F12 for boot devices... What do I press? I'm would geuss that I have to burn a .iso to a disc and choose cd-rom, but is there a way to do it without burning a cd?

Yes, you can mount the ISO direct into the VM, you can do that under Settings in the Storage menu. I would recommend to read the excellent Virtualbox manual.

Okay, so I got Mint running on VB, but I have a problem. It is automatically setting the display to 800x600. My screen is 1280x800. When I first ran it it said that it is running in 16 bit color mode when it is really 32 bit. When I got to display settings it will not let me choose anything higher... Any suggestions?

Have you installed the Guest Additions as described in the excellent VirtualBox Manual?

Okay, I'm working on that now.

Okay, so I tried it once, but then I realized that everything might not have went right because I hadn't updated the system. So I updated it and ran, here is what is what it says:Now on the manual you gave me the link to, it said that to add a higher resulution, I had to edit my /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add the resulution. I went to do that, but there is no xorg.conf. Now what? Is there something wront with X11?

In this point the manual is slightly outdated, normally a simple reboot would help, after that you can set the resolution with Mint's graphical tool.

Um, I think I tried that. I rebooted, and it told me that Guest Additions had been added. I read this, then went to the Monitors application, which is one of the things in the Menu. It still doesn't have 1280x800 . Is there a way to just manually set the res to that, from terminal perhaps.

Um, a friendly little bunp ;)