Setting up a Virtual Machine for CS-3013, Operating Systems
lefttopCS-3013, Operating SystemsC-Term 201800CS-3013, Operating SystemsC-Term 2018 Setting up your Virtual MachineHugh C. Lauer, Teaching ProfessorRobert J. Walls, Assistant ProfessorWorcester Polytechnic InstituteProgramming projects in CS-3013 (Operating Systems) at WPI have been carried out on Virtual Machines for many years. By now, all students of “systems” courses in Computer Science at WPI should be familiar with the virtual machine concept and their practical use. We have configured a virtual machine particularly for this course; you may download it from the following URL:– you already have a Linux virtual machine — for example, from a course in a previous term –- please set that one aside and use this one.This is a 2.6 gigabyte file, so choose a download venue carefully. If you live off campus with a slow network connection, you should download it to a USB flash drive using a public computer on campus and then carry it to your own computer off campus. Once downloaded, you may open this file on your own Windows, Macintosh, or Linux laptop or desktop computer using the free Virtual Box or VMware Player application. Since Virtual Box is much more widely used on campus, these instruction focus on that application.Getting startedOpen the Virtual Box application. In the File menu, select Import Virtual Appliance. You will see a new window entitled Appliance to Import. Click the icon to the right of the text box to navigate to the CS3013_Virtual_Machine.ova file that you just downloaded. Then click Next.This brings up a window named Appliance settings, resembling REF _Ref503101302 \h Figure 1, as follows:–Figure 1You need to make two adjustments:–In the line labeled “CPU,” double-click on the number “1” and change it to a larger number of virtual processors. We suggest half the total number of processors on your computer. In the line label “RAM” in REF _Ref503101302 \h Figure 1, double-click on “8192” and change it to the number of megabytes of RAM that you are willing to dedicate to your virtual machine. We suggest that you allocate half the total amount of physical RAM installed.Note:If you have (or have ever had) other virtual machines on this computer, it is important to check box at the bottom of REF _Ref503101302 \h \* MERGEFORMAT Figure 1, labeled “Reinitialize MAC addresses of all network cards.” Otherwise, you may end up with multiple virtual machines with the same MAC addresses. Very, very bad things happen when two or more machines with the same MAC address are connected to the same network. For purposes of networking, your host computer acts like a local area network.Next, click the Import button at the bottom of REF _Ref503101302 \h Figure 1 to import the virtual appliance. When the virtual machine has been extracted, you will be presented with a window resembling REF _Ref402105390 \h Figure 2:–Figure 2If you have other virtual machines managed by VirtualBox, they will be listed in the left panel along with your newly extracted one. If you extract this one more than once, the separate instances will be independent of each other and will be distinguished by numerical suffixes.At this point, it is possible to adjust the settings of your virtual machine, including its name. Select your machine in the left panel of REF _Ref402105390 \h Figure 2 and click the large Settings button. You can also change the number of processors, amount of RAM, number of displays, etc. Scroll the window to see additional parameters and settings of the selected machine.To start a virtual machine, select it in the left panel of Virtual Box and click the green arrow labeled Start at the top of REF _Ref402105390 \h Figure 2. When the virtual machine starts, you should see a dialog box like this:–Figure 3Read this dialog box carefully! It tells you some important things.You may choose to use the entire screen for your virtual machine, or you may operate your virtual machine in a window. See below for further discussions on managing the virtual machine display.Starting your Virtual Machine for the first timeOnce you have started your virtual machine in VirtualBox (or other virtualization platform), the virtual machine will go thru the Linux boot sequence, displaying a black screen with text messages. Eventually, you will be presented with the Ubuntu desktop login screen resembling the one shown in REF _Ref237925543 \h Figure 4 below in a VirtualBox window. You simply need to type the password in the box to log in.The user ID installed on this virtual machine is student, and the password is C-Term18 (note capitalization). This user has administrative privileges via both the Ubuntu System Settings interface (see below) and the su and sudo commands in a Linux command shell. You can switch to Full-screen Mode by selecting the first menu item in the View menu of Virtual Box. In Full-screen Mode, the Virtual Box menu bar pops up when you move the cursor to the center of the bottom edge of the screen; you can exit Full-screen Mode by selecting the same menu item from the View menu of the popup menu bar.Figure 4Note:Transfer the input focus of the mouse and keyboard to the virtual machine by clicking in its window. To return the input focus to the host desktop by clicking somewhere else in the host desktop. If the input focus is in the wrong place, the virtual machine won’t hear your typing and won’t notice your moving the mouse.After you log in, you will see the Ubuntu desktop, like REF _Ref402171464 \h Figure 5. Figure 5A toolbar of useful commands is on the left. The top icon allows you to search your (virtual) computer for applications and online sources. The second icon on the left is equivalent to the Finder in Macintosh or the Windows Explorer in Windows. Note also the Firefox icon is third from the top. You can delete items from this toolbar by right-clicking on them and selecting the Unlock from Launcher menu item.The “gear and wrench” icon at the bottom brings up a system settings window.To bring up a Linux command shell, type CTRL-ALT-T in the Ubuntu desktop.Installing Virtual Box “Guest Additions”In the Devices menu of Virtual Box itself (in either Full-screen mode or window mode), select the last item — i.e., Insert Guest Additions CD image …. This loads a virtual CD-ROM containing a set of tools that make it easier to switch between, and communicate between, the virtual machine and the host machine. The CD-ROM with automatically start and ask for your administrative password (i.e., is C-Term18 ). After entering your password, these tools will be installed automatically.Note: The Guest additions are very useful. Although we already installed them before making the .ova file for this virtual machine, some Guest Addition tools are specific to the host machine. Therefore, it is important to install them again.Establishing a User IdentityNext, please add a user account in your own name. To do this, click the gear & wrench icon at the middle of the toolbar — i.e., or select the System Settings menu command from the “gear” icon in the upper right of the screen to bring up the System Settings window of REF _Ref402193047 \h Figure 6:–Figure 6Select User Accounts in the lower right to bring up the following User Accounts window:–Figure 7Click the padlock icon in the upper right, labeled Unlock, and provide the password of the user student when requested. You can now click the “+” in the lower left to add a new user. Enter a user name for yourself and be sure to set the Account Type to Administrator. Click Add, and the new user will appear in the list of users, but without a password. Select this user and click next to Password to enter a password for this user or to enable the user to log in without a password.Finally, relock the User Accounts window by clicking on the padlock, log out by selecting Log out from the gear icon in the upper right, and then log in with the identity of the new user. Be sure to test the new account to make sure that you still have administrator privileges. Once you are confident that you can administer your virtual machine under the new identity, you may delete or disable the user named WPI Student.Changing the Display SizeIt is a nuisance to try to work with a virtual display of the guest system that does not fit into a window or on the screen of the host system. The display size can be changed by resizing the window or or by invoking the View > Switch to full screen menu command from the VirtualBox menu bar. The virtual machine should automatically resize its virtual display to exactly fit. If it does not, invoke the View > Auto resize guest display menu command from the VirtualBox menu bar. In order for this to work, you must be logged into the virtual machine, and it must not be locked.Switching between host and guestNormally, you can move the cursor between the host system and the guest system simply by moving the mouse and clicking in a guest or host window. From time to time, you may need to access the virtualization system menu, which is not normally visible in full screen mode. The VirtualBox menu can be accessed by moving the cursor to the bottom center of the virtual display. A popup menu like the following appears:–Figure 8USB DevicesYour virtual machine and Ubuntu support the usual assortment of flash drives. If you plug in a USB device while the input focus is in the guest operating system, it will open in the guest or host system, depending up the settings of VMware Player or VirtualBox. If it opens in the guest system, you can access the device from the desktop by clicking on the Dash Home tool. Note:In VirtualBox, the first time you do this may cause a VirtualBox USB driver to be installed After the driver is installed, you can use the menu of REF _Ref402196019 \h Figure 8 to control whether the device connects to the host or guest. By this means, you transfer data between them by copying the data onto the flash drive, and then disconnect it from the one and connect it to the other.Accessing E-mail and the WebThe virtual machine comes with the Firefox web browser already installed. You may use this to access course notes, project assignments, and other information from within the virtual machine. You will also need it to submit your project assignments to Canvas or to InstructAssist.You can access your e-mail using any of several tools. Ubuntu comes with Thunderbird already installed. Alternatively, you can use Firefox to access your e-mail service via the web.Warning: Don’t rely on your virtual machine for permanent storage of important messages or files. One of the virtues of a virtual machine is that if something goes wrong, you can throw it away and start over. However, this means that everything stored on it is gone and cannot be retrieved.Suspending, Restarting, and Moving your Virtual MachineA highly useful feature of VirtualBox is that you can suspend a virtual machine and resume it later. In Ubuntu, simply click on the “gear” icon in the extreme upper right corner of REF _Ref402171464 \h Figure 5, and select the Suspend menu command. Moreover, you can log out of the host machine, return later, log again, and resume your suspended virtual machine.You can even suspend a virtual machine, move it to another host system, and resume it. You may get a dialog box saying that it noticed that your machine is in a different place than before and asking if you copied or moved it. Respond to this dialog saying that you moved it, so that Virtual Box does not gratuitously change the MAC address.Disaster PreventionDuring the first few years of using virtual machines in Operating Systems courses at WPI, students stumbled on idiosyncrasies that rendered their virtual machines totally inoperable, trapping their work inside. As we have refined our courses over the years, this kind of disaster occurs much less frequently, but still occasionally.Therefore, it is always a good idea to back up your own work. The best way to do this is to copy the relevant files onto a USB flash drive or to e-mail them to yourself. From time to time, we have tried other methods of protecting students from lost work — e.g., configuring virtual machines with separate drives for the /home directory — but none has been very practical.ConclusionThat’s it. Enjoy your virtual machine. You are now ready for your first CS-3013 project. When you are ready to take a break, suspend your virtual machine, exit VirtualBox, and then resume later. ................
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