How to use Virtual Box – A Short Guide

2018.09.23


This week I wanted to talk about virtual machines and hypervisors. To elaborate, a virtual machines a “machine” that is sharing physical hardware with another machine but is logically seen as another machine by said physical machine. They share storage, memory, processor etc, except they see each other as separate machines. It took me a while to wrap my head around it, but at some point I figured it out through trial and error. So many (vm) casualties!! ha. Dont get attached to your vms though. But dont fret, once you figure out how it works, you’ll find it immensely useful for firing up a kali box, or practice on some pen testing skills or anything. Anyways, there are a couple of applications to achieve this, but I am only going to talk about virtual box since its open source, and open source is always Queeeeen! [add image here]

1. Download First things first, you need to go and download Virtual Box and can do so at: https://www.virtualbox.org/ Download according to your machine. Pretty simple so far.
Then you need to download an ISO. This is the all data contained for a virtual machine in one easily downloadable image. Think of this like a prepackaged laptop. The OS is in there, applications are in there. All the things. So you can imagine its a prety big file. These files are called ISO files, because (according to wiki) it originated from ISO 9660. Anyways! You can choose to download some of the following linux based machines (they’re all open source too):


Random Cee fact: Fedora was my introduction into a linux environment. My boss thought it was time for me to learn it since I had been on the team for a while and thought I should understand the environment. So he arbitrarily chose Fedora. Maybe as a lark? Nevertheless, Fedora will always have a special place in my heart. 🙂

2. Stahhhhp! Think about your available resources now
You need to take into account that this machine will be sharing resources with your actual physical machine, so you’ll need to make sure you have ENOUGH resources to sustain this (i.e. storage, memory etc). If you don’t have enough you will run into trouble. For now since this may be your first time doing this, make sure you have at least double the amount. (if it’s not your first time then why are you here? Are you not entertained? 🙂 )

3. Create a New Virtual Machine
Give it a name, and choose its OS. They’re all Linux but their version will be dependent on what kind of machine you current own (e.g. 32 bit or 64 bit). [add image here]

4. Give it some Memory
You should be fine with giving it 1024 MB. [add image here]

5. Create a Virtual Hard Disk
Since this is your first time create a virtual machine, you’ll be selecting Create a virtual hard disk now. [add image here]

6. Select a Hard disk File Type
Since we already downloaded an ISO image, we’ll select the VDI option. [add image here]

7. Storage on Physical Hard Disk
Choose how the physical machine will allocate storage for the virtual machine. Select Dynamically allocated

8. File Location and Size
Decide on where the machine will be stored and how big the storage will be. The default for where it’s filed (i.e. the directory) is fine, no need to move it, and for the storage I’d give it a bit more than the recommended, just in case… [add image here]

9. Start and Install the ISO
Click the Start arrow and then select the folder icon and locate where the downloaded ISO image is at. [add image here]

10. Final Items
Once your past all that, you should be able to move on through. Then you will need to give root a password and make sure its not weak. It’ll take a bit to install the ISO, around 5 -10 mins and you may need to reboot. This depends on which ISO you chose. Once its all download youre all set!
So I chose not to show a Kali vm specifically in this post because I thought that deserved a separate post all together. VM and Kali are two different things and deserve there separate respected post. My next post may be on a Kali VM and exploring it further.
But for now, here is what you will see if you chose to create a Fedora VM.

Errors you might encounter below.
First: If you are asked to reinstall the ISO, it may be that you need to delete the ISO from the optical disk, which you can do so by selecting the Storage tab, and right click the Fedora ISO and select Remove Attachment. This will make it appear to the machine as the machine will start normally. [add image here]
Second: If your vm is crazy slow, it may be that your Memory default settings need to be changed. You can do this by selecting the System tab, and change the 1024MB youve allocated to a bit more. This will vary. Remember back to Step 2 and tweak accordingly (or through trial and error). Maybe close all the things your currently running on your machine, and see how it goes. Sorry if this isnt exact, but its not, cause I don’t know the current processor youre using, but you do (or will after this). [add image here]
After you get it going your set. You now have a basic understanding of how Virtual box works. YAY go you! 😀
Thats all for now. Hope this was helpful and I’ll see you in the next post! Take Care! 🙂


#techtools


< >