Live GIS Disc Quick Start for Virtual Machines

= Run OSGeo-Live ISO in VirtualBox =

Here we describe how to install an ISO into the Open Source, VirtualBox Virtual Machine. There are many other alternatives which are similar.


 * System Requirements
 * RAM: 1 Gig, preferably 2Gig if you plan to run other applications as well
 * Spare Hard Disk Space:
 * 5 Gig if running from ISO
 * 12 Gig if downloading just the Virtual Machine
 * 17 Gig if installing locally from an ISO

apt-get install virtualbox-ose
 * Download and install Virtual Box. On linux do the following:



Install a Virtual Machine
Download a Virtual Machine player. VMWare Player is recommended as the image has been built and tested using VMWare, however VMWare is a pain to install due to all the personal details you need to enter). If you are on linux, it is much easier to install VirtualBox, and the applications work almost as well, a few window resize glitches and the like. apt-get install virtualbox-ose

VMWare Server can be used to serve images out using a web browser. It requires 2 Gig of RAM. VMWare Server is not currently recommended as version 2 of VMWare Server and Ubuntu 9.4 or Ubuntu 9.10 has proven to be very flaky.

ISO in VMWare Player (recommended)

 * Run VMWare Player
 * Select "Create New Virtual Machine"
 * Select "Installer Disk Image from ISO"
 * Select Linux/Ubuntu
 * Hard Disk = any size (0 is fine)

Install VM in Virtual Box

 * On recent versions of Virtual Box (tested on Sun Virtual Box 3.0.2) you can add to the virtual disks catalog the vmdk image without any conversion so the only thing you have to do is create a new VM and assign the disk to it.
 * Make a New virtual machine.
 * When asked about the hard drive choose to use and existing image, in the subsequent dialogs add the vmdk you downloaded and choose it.
 * Choose your RAM, video memory and other options.
 * The image should now boot like any other Virtual Box image.

If the above doesn't work try to convert the vmdk to a vbox image
 * As the Live GIS Disc is a VMWare virtual machine, you should convert it to the Virtual Box format. There are detailed instruction at the Ubuntu wiki to convert it on a linux box.

Install VM in VMWare Player
Add details about how to set up the image ...