Installing Ubuntu 17.10 Linux into VirtualBox on an iMac
(OS Sierra) with Retina display resolution:
This article shows the steps to setup Linux in a virtual environment on a mac with a very high resolution display with high DPI.
Associated video: YouTube: Installing Ubuntu 17 on Mac in VirtualBox
and Mac Virtual Box Ubuntu 17 adjusting to full HiDPI
Associated video: YouTube: Installing Ubuntu 17 on Mac in VirtualBox
and Mac Virtual Box Ubuntu 17 adjusting to full HiDPI
It covers the following:
- Downloading Ubuntu 17
- Downloading VirtualBox and installing it
- Installing Ubuntu into VirtualBox
- Setting up VirtualBox Guest additions
- Fixing display flickering
- Settings for Ubuntu and VirtualBox to take full advantage of a high DPI display
- Some recommended settings
- Flickering of ubuntu display need to be solved
- Installing guest additions was tricky
- Getting Ubuntu 17 to take advantage of full display resolution
Downloading Ubuntu 17:
Downloading VirtualBox and installing it:
download from:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.2.0/VirtualBox-5.2.0-118431-OSX.dmg
open downloaded dmg disk image:
Click the New button in upper left in VirtualBox window
open downloaded dmg disk image:
Double click on #1, and follow prompts and accept defaults.
Once installed, use Spotlight or Launch Pad to find VirtualBox and open it.
Installing Ubuntu into VirtualBox
Click the New button in upper left in VirtualBox window
Add a name of your choice for image.
Select Linux and Ubuntu (64-bit) as shown
Click Continue
On the Screens that follow I recommend the following
This will start your image and then ask where is the disk image is located to start up.
Here you will choose your downloaded Ubuntu iso file in your download folder on your mac from step 1 above. Click on the little folder to right of pulldown menu. Shown here with a red circle around it:
This opens a file open dialog box, find our download named 'ubuntu-17.10-desktop-amd64.iso', open it and click the Start button show above.
Be patient, it will take a while and you may see a Firmware Bug message, just ignore it. It takes a while to get to the next dialog in ubuntu, but it will have two buttons, and you want to press this one:
Click on the Run button, enter your password when prompted and click authenticate.
When you see this:
Then press Return key as instructed.
Note: if later you get a pop up dialog asking to update the Guest Additions to the next version, close it and do not update.
Guest editions is now installed, we have to change some settings in VirtualBox to make use of it.
Click the power icon in the upper right of ubuntu window, then click the power icon in the resulting dialog and click to power off.
Go back to the VirtualBox window, it should be open the whole time you are running Ubuntu.
You image will still be selected in yellow, go to the top and click the settings gear button.
Under the General sections, go to the advanced tab and turn on Shared Clipboard to the bidirectional setting.
Click OK.
Go back to the settings and click it. Choose the Shared Folder section:
Select Linux and Ubuntu (64-bit) as shown
Click Continue
On the Screens that follow I recommend the following
- Memory size: set to at least 4 GB (4096 MB)
- Hard disk: accept default (Create a virtual disk now)
- Hard disk file type: accept default (VDI)
- Storage on physical hard disk: accept default (Dynamically allocated)
- File Location and Size:
- Can accept default name and location, or change it
- Size of virtual hard drive in megabytes: I recommend 35 GB
This will start your image and then ask where is the disk image is located to start up.
Here you will choose your downloaded Ubuntu iso file in your download folder on your mac from step 1 above. Click on the little folder to right of pulldown menu. Shown here with a red circle around it:
This opens a file open dialog box, find our download named 'ubuntu-17.10-desktop-amd64.iso', open it and click the Start button show above.
Be patient, it will take a while and you may see a Firmware Bug message, just ignore it. It takes a while to get to the next dialog in ubuntu, but it will have two buttons, and you want to press this one:
check box to do updates and click Continue:
Note: if you do not see the Continue button on any of the following steps when expected, make the window for ubuntu a bit wider till you can see it.
On the Installation Type screen, just click Install Now (with the erase disk selection selected)
Click Continue on the 'Write the changes to disks' dialog.
On the Where are you screen, click your timezone if it is not already selected, and click Continue.
On the Keyboard layout screen, click Continue unless you know your keyboard is some other standard.
On the Who are you screen, fill in your name, username, and password (remember your password!)
I recommend selecting the Log in automatically, since you are running on mac in virtuaBox, I feel I don't need this level of protection since I already have to log into my mac OS. But you can choose what you want. Click Continue when ready.
Now the install process will start. It takes a lot of time (several minutes) so be patient. You will see this dialog when it is done:
click the Restart Now button.
Be patient.
If you see a message "Please remove the installation medium, then press ENTER". Just press your Enter (Return) key since VirtualBox will automatically remove the CD iso image.
Your Ubuntu Gnome desktop will now show up:
Flickering of ubuntu display need to be solved:
First Issue should now show up, the screen will flash white every once in awhile.
To fix this, go the the power Icon in the upper right of screen:
Click it and then click your account name, you should now see a Log Off option. Click it.
Then confirm this by clicking Log Out button on the new screen.
After a little while you should be a big button with your name on it. Click it.
Now in the resulting password screen find the little gear just to left of Sign In button and click it.
Choose Ubuntu on Xorg option, then enter your password and click the Sign In button. Wait for it to start back up, and the flickering should be gone, except rarely.
Once you are back to the desktop, I recommend changing two settings in ubuntu.
Disable the lockscreen and the power option that blanks the screen:
Open the settings by going to the icon of 9 white dots in the lower left corner (Show Applications Icon). Type settings into the find box at top and click on the settings tile icon that shows up.
Under the Privacy section, click on the Screen Lock menu, and turn off screen lock as shown here:
Then close the dialog with the little x button to right of Screen Lock dialog box.
Now under the Power selection on left, choose the Blank Screen pulldown and choose Never.
Now close the Settings application with Alt+F4 or use the top right close button with little x.
Setting up VirtualBox Guest additions:
Installing Guest Additions the normal way is another issue with Ubuntu 17.10 in VirtualBox, since the will not install and gets errors. To solve this we have to install the previous editions as follows:
Now you are going to go to your mac and open a browser. We are going to download a older versions of Guest Additions to your download folder. Type the following URL into your browser, or link from this article here: http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox
scroll down and click the version number 5.1.30/
click on VBoxGuestAdditions_5.1.30.iso to download it to your downloads folder on your mac.
Switch back to your ubuntu window, at the bottom you will see a lot of icons. Find the one that looks like a CD-Rom disk, click it and you will see a menu pop up with the top option as
Choose disk image...
Click on Choose disk image...
In the resulting open dialog, go to your downloads area and select the VBoxGuestAdditions_5.1.30.iso file and open it.
after a little time, you should see the following dialog pop up:
Click on the Run button, enter your password when prompted and click authenticate.
When you see this:
Then press Return key as instructed.
Note: if later you get a pop up dialog asking to update the Guest Additions to the next version, close it and do not update.
Guest editions is now installed, we have to change some settings in VirtualBox to make use of it.
Click the power icon in the upper right of ubuntu window, then click the power icon in the resulting dialog and click to power off.
Go back to the VirtualBox window, it should be open the whole time you are running Ubuntu.
You image will still be selected in yellow, go to the top and click the settings gear button.
Under the General sections, go to the advanced tab and turn on Shared Clipboard to the bidirectional setting.
Click OK.
Go back to the settings and click it. Choose the Shared Folder section:
Click the little folder with the plus to the far right. Select the arrow on the folder path text box and select other. Now pick the folder you wish to share with your ubuntu image, I usually share my main drive folder or my user folder.
Select Automount and click OK. (automount will automatically mount the mac folder into the ubuntu image when you start it)
Click OK to leave the settings.
Guest Additions are now all set.
Getting Ubuntu 17 to take advantage of full display resolution:
Before going back to ubuntu, go back to settings for your image in VirtualBox.
Go to the display settings area.
I recommend changing the display memory to 32 MB.
Now turn on the Use unscaled hiDPI setting. This will allow ubuntu to map to every pixel on a high DPI display like the retina mac screens.
Click OK.
Now double click on your image tile to power it up.
You will see that everything in the ubuntu desktop is really small now. That means the hiDPI setting is working.
Now open settings in Ubuntu as before. go to Devices/Displays. If you have a small window the option we are looking for will not be listed. We are looking for the Scale option.
To fix this, we need to make the window bigger. Go to the bottom of the ubuntu window display icon, click on it and choose Virtual Screen 1, go to the largest setting of 1920 x 1200
You should see a setting option now under devices/displays that has a 200% button, click it and then click the Apply button in upper right corner. Click the keep changes button.
NOTE: This 200% scale setting will not keep when you change the window size So you may have to go back into settings and choose 200% again. Pick a good window size and keep it. I recommend making the size almost fill the screen
Also note that if the fonts are too big for your taste, you can install the app Gnome Tweak and change the font size scale to a number less than 1.0 to make them smaller.
BUG: when you go to full screen width window with the full screen cmd+f option or using the full screen mac icon, there is a bug and instead of your window being full screen, it will be 1/4 full screen width. We will have to wait for Ubuntu or VirtualBox to fix this in a future release.
Please enjoy Ubuntu now on your mac.
Associated video: YouTube: Installing Ubuntu 17 on Mac in VirtualBox
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