Oracle Virtualbox - running Ubuntu on a mac host

mtblinux

I am looking for some advice regarding running Ubuntu as a guest operating system on a VM, using Oracle Virtualbox. I am using a mid 2015 mac with OS 12.7.1, and had around 26GB free space before I installed Virtualbox.

I can create a VM with the latest iso / image from Ubuntu, and run it, but after a couple of minutes, the UI stalls, and I cannot do anything.

I have tried increasing graphics RAM (via Settings > Display) from 16 to 128MB, as suggested here: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=105245, but the problem persists.

If anyone has any advice to offer, that would be much appreciated.

KevinCSmallwood

I wish I could help. I don't own a Mac and never have, so I don't have any experience with this. Maybe someone else in this Forum can help? I did ask some others in The Linux Foundation and was told that VMWare Fusion is now free to Mac users for personal use. Here is an article that may help get that hypervisor: https://www.macobserver.com/tips/how-to/download-vmware-fusion-mac/

I was also told that "parallels," which is a Mac app, is another hypervisor that may help. You may want to use your favorite search engine to find out more about "parallels." Sorry I can't be of more help. If you solve this, please post a follow-up describing how you solved it because I'm certain another new Linux student will appreciate it.

Likewise, if any readers have solved this problem, please help. Thanks!!!

KevinCSmallwood

Here is more information I got from another colleague:

"There are basically four hypervisors for macOS: qemu (FOSS), VMware Fusion (free), VirtualBox (FOSS), and Parallels ($). Qemu is available from the Mac App Store for $10 or it can be downloaded directly from the UTM folks, which is a GUI front-end for qemu. Fusion is free for "personal use".

I've found these hypervisors to do a fine job when running arm64 Linux (specifically, aarch64). But any of them attempting to run x86 code pretty much drops them to their knees.

In terms of compatibility with various Linux distros, you'll find that one release of distro X may not work, but an earlier or later version will be fine. It's sort of like the late 90's, before the install process was graphical — and installing Linux on a laptop required all kinds of trial and error in turning off some options while turning on others.

If the student feels that it's possibly a hypervisor problem, Oracle/VBox have Ubuntu images that can be readily downloaded. They are known to work, so if they don't work for the student, it's clearly a hypervisor problem..."

Again, I hope this helps!

mtblinux

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your advice. Will try it out when I get a chance and reply here, in case my findings are of any use to someone else in the future.

mtblinux

The following was found with a mid 2015 macbook pro, running Monterey, 12.7.1

VirtualBox:

• amd64 Ubuntu distribution works, but is incredibly laggy, and will sometimes stall with a black or a white screen. If you are following along with the course, or doing anything other than basic navigation in the VM itself, your computer will probably grind to a standstill quite quickly. Though a quick internet search says Activity Monitor stats aren't to be trusted, the CPU consumption is consistently over 100%
• arm64 Ubuntu distribution fails to load. At present, it takes a bit of digging to find a desktop and not a server distribution of arm Ubuntu, but it can be found at https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/24.10/release/. Failure message is 'The virtual machine failed to boot. That might be caused by a missing operating system or misconfigured boot order'

VMWare Fusion

I have been unable to download this one. The Broadcom site appears to require you to build up some reputation of sorts in order to get access to it, though someone on Reddit mentioned you can download it via Homebrew: https://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/1cry8ej/workstationfusion_pro_free_for_personal_use_and/

Unfortuately when I run the command to install via homebrew - it requires MacOS Ventura or greater. According to this page, my computer is too old for that: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102861

Qemu

Unable to download this also, using the Homebrew command from here: https://www.qemu.org/download/#macos
Unfortunately, I had to wait well over an hour while a plethora of dependencies were installed, only to get the following message. Fun:

Error: You are using macOS 12.
We (and Apple) do not provide support for this old version.
It is expected behaviour that some formulae will fail to build in this old version.
It is expected behaviour that Homebrew will be buggy and slow.
Do not create any issues about this on Homebrew's GitHub repositories.
Do not create any issues even if you think this message is unrelated.
Any opened issues will be immediately closed without response.
Do not ask for help from Homebrew or its maintainers on social media.
You may ask for help in Homebrew's discussions but are unlikely to receive a response.
Try to figure out the problem yourself and submit a fix as a pull request.
We will review it but may or may not accept it.

Think I'll be ebaying for a linux machine...

KevinCSmallwood

Thanks for the update! Sorry that you have an "old" machine. Sigh. I hope you can find an inexpensive x86-based machine. I wish I could have helped more.

mtblinux

Thanks for your help Kevin!