My first challenge - Installing Linux on my Mac

mauricioromy

Hello,

I'm just facing my first roadblock while doing this course.

I see Dr. Cooperstein using VMware Workplace to install Linux but I can not find the steps to get Linux installed on my Mac nor installing VMware on my mac. Any advice on how to get started with the Linux Installation on Mac?

KevinCSmallwood

Not certain how much help I can give, but I'll try and, hopefully, others may offer suggestions. I don't have a Mac, so my knowledge of the Mac is limited. I think VMWare Workstation only works on Windows and Linux. VMWare Fusion is required on MacOS, and VMWare Fusion requires a payment (fairly low, I think). A better solution may be to get (free from cost) Oracle VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org for the Mac and install it as your hypervisor. The exact details of using Oracle VirtualBox are way beyond this course, but there is plenty of documentation available at the above-mentioned web site. In a nutshell, download an ISO (.iso) image of the Linux distribution you want (such as Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) and then use Oracle VirtualBox to create a "New" virtual machine on your Mac (I believe just using the default values will result in a usable Virtual Machine for you). After you do that, you can then "Start" the VM that you created. Both "New" and "Start" are available from within the Oracle VirtualBox program (along with a lot of other options).

Other students with Mac knowledge may want to add to this. Thank you.

I hope this gives you a way to make some progress.

KevinCSmallwood

I gave this a little more thought and can use your clarification if I'm not covering some detail. Yes, you do need to download and install a hypervisor on your Mac. I suggest Oracle's VirtualBox. You also need to find and download a Linux distribution that you want to run. You may decide to download several distributions, but you should start with one. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is very popular with starting students. CentOS 9-Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux or OpenSUSE are other choices (especially if these are distributions used by your employer). The easiest way to download an installable Linux distribution is to use your favorite search engine to search for the name of the distribution you want to download. Usually, you will go to the distribution's main web site and then go to where they provide downloads. Sometimes you still have choices to make, but to start out with, look for a "workstation" distribution since they are usually smaller and contain what you need to start out with. If your long-term goal is Linux Systems Administration, a "server" distribution will eventually make sense, but, again, you can start with a "workstation" distribution at this point in time. You may also have the choice of a "minimal" distribution; these are too minimal (as the name implies) to start out with for this course. You are looking for a file that ends with the .iso extension. An ISO file is a disk (think CD or DVD) image. This .iso image will be used by Oracle VirtualBox (or VMWare if you have an appropriate version working on your machine) to create a Linux Virtual Machine. Not right away, but as you progress your Linux exploration, you may find it interesting to create additional VMs (Virtual Machines), as long as you have the available disk space, with other Linux distributions in order to explore other distros. Start with one for this class. If you are curious or desire to learn more about other Linux distros, branch out, but there is no hurry.

Learning how to create and work with VMs is very useful depending on your career objectives. Security engineers use them to test viruses in a "sandbox" environment. Once you see the damage done, you can totally remove the damaged VM and recreate new ones as needed. VM work leads to containers, which are heavily used in Cloud Computing. VMs and containers are also used in DevOps (that mix of development and operations) to provide continuous improvement (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) in developing software products. Note, while this course uses Linux VMs, any operating system can usually run within a VM. Enjoy!