Ubuntu – How to install Ubuntu on a VirtualBox client from an ISO image

bootisovirtualbox

I have the ISO image file (that is, *.iso) and I am trying to boot my VirtualBox installation with this image. Is it possible? I know how to mount my ISO image to my filesystem (on my host machine), but I don't think VirtualBox boots an OS from a location on my file system.

I've even tried to mimic mounting, such that VirtualBox thinks it has to boot from the CD drive, but this failed.

What is the correct way to boot an OS from an ISO image in VirtualBox?

My host machine is Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and my VirtualBox version is 4.1.4.

Best Answer

I would venture to say you are overcomplicating things! You only need to mount the iso in the virtual machine.

Right click on the VM you want to run the .iso in
Click on 'Storage' (On Oracle VM virtualBox, Click on 'Settings' first to get to 'Storage')
Under IDE Controller There should be an icon that shows a CD with a + sign on it, to create a new disc drive as shown highlighted in yellow color in the below snapshot:
A box will come up, click Choose Disk
Choose your .iso

Should boot into the iso like it's in the disc drive.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Mount a VirtualBox drive image (vdi)

You can convert into standard image and then mount it.

VBoxManage clonehd --format RAW ubuntu.vdi ubuntu.img

Then

mount -t ext3 -o loop,rw ./ubuntu.img /mnt

You will need to KNOW the type of file system, ext3 in this case. After it is mounted, go in and edit away with the editor of your choice. Don't confuse files inside the /mnt location with the running host, or it will be bad.

To check details about your VDI file, run: VBoxManage showhdinfo ubuntu.vdi.

Source: [SOLVED] Open .vdi with archive manager? - ubuntuforums.org

Ubuntu – install Ubuntu from an ISO file on Windows

When you mount an ISO image as a virtual disk, this happens at the OS level. Not at the hardware level. When your running operating system stops, the virtual device goes away. So no, it is not possible to boot a physical machine from a virtual drive.

Whether or not you need to create physical installation media depends on how you want to install Ubuntu:

If you want Ubuntu installed separately from Windows--either alongside it or replacing it--then you need to create real physical installation media. You can burn the ISO image to a DVD (or to a CD, if you're installing Ubuntu 12.04 or earlier). Or you can write it to a USB flash drive.

If you want to install Ubuntu inside Windows with Wubi (so that it is contained within the pre-existing Windows partition and booted using the Windows boot loader), then you do not need to create physical installation media:

If you have mounted the ISO image as a virtual disk, just run wubi.exe on the virtual disk. This will install a Wubi Ubuntu system.
Alternatively, just put wubi.exe (you can download it here) in the same folder as the ISO image, preferably with no other files. Make sure you use the right version of wubi.exe--it must be for the same version of Ubuntu as the ISO image itself. Then just run wubi.exe, and it will automatically detect and use the contents of the ISO image.

If you are doing one of these things and it is not working, then:

Check the integrity of the ISO image you downloaded.
If what you're doing involves physical installation media (a CD/DVD or a USB flash drive), make sure you're creating it properly, if it's a CD/DVD try burning it at the slowest possible speed, and whether it's CD/DVD/USB, if you can even begin to boot from it, then check the installation media itself for defects (see also this video).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Mount a VirtualBox drive image (vdi)

Ubuntu – install Ubuntu from an ISO file on Windows

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