OS X Daily: “How to Install & Run Ubuntu Linux in VirtualBox” plus 2 more

How to Install & Run Ubuntu Linux in VirtualBox
Remove the Auto-Hiding Dock Delay in Mac OS X
Improve iPad Picture Frame with a Custom Photo Album

How to Install & Run Ubuntu Linux in VirtualBox

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 10:45 AM PDT

Ubuntu Linux in a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox

If you want to experiment with Linux without dual booting and potentially impacting your main operating system, the best way to do so is with virtualization. Virtualization allows you to run Linux directly atop your primary OS, whether it’s Mac OS X or Windows, in a separate virtual machine, with practically no potential for error. It’s completely free and fairly easy to set up, we’ll walk you through the entire process.

Requirements

Download VirtualBox (free) and install it
Download a 64-bit Ubuntu Linux ISO (free) and save it to the desktop
Have at least 512MB RAM free and at least 5GB of hard disk space available

Be sure to meet the above requirements before beginning. Once VirtualBox is installed and the Ubuntu ISO is downloaded, you can proceed with set up and installation.

Installing Ubuntu Linux in VirtualBox

Launch VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine, name it something like “Ubuntu Linux” and set the Operating System to “Linux” and version to “Ubuntu” and set the base memory to at least 512MB or 1GB

Create virtual machine for Ubuntu Linux

Create a new virtual hard disk and check “Start-up Disk”, click Continue and choose VDI as the disk type
Optional: Set the storage details to be “Dynamically allocated” to preserve some initial disk space
Name the virtual disk something obvious like “Linux VM” and make it at least 5GB (8GB recommended) and click “Create” to produce the virtual hard drive
At the VirtualBox Manager screen, select the newly created “Ubuntu Linux” virtual machine and click on the “Settings” button
Click on the “Storage” tab and next to “IDE Controller” click the + icon that looks like a CD to add a new IDE Controller
Click “Choose Disk” and locate the Ubuntu ISO (named something like ” ubuntu-11.10-desktop-amd64.iso”) that you downloaded earlier, then click “OK” and close out of Settings

Create a Linux VM and choose installer ISO

Back at the VirtualBox Manager screen, select the Linux virtual machine and click on “Start” to begin booting the VM

Boot Ubuntu Linux virtual machine in VirtualBox

Let the VM boot and choose “Install Ubuntu” at the welcome screen, create a login and user name, set time zones, and click through the simple installation process until it begins

Install Ubuntu Linux in VirtualBox

How long it takes to install Ubuntu Linux in the virtual machine varies on the speed of the computer and the speed of the internet connection, but somewhere between 20 and 45 minutes is not unusual. When finished, Ubuntu Linux will boot into the desktop and you can start exploring and having fun.

Because Ubuntu is contained within a virtual machine, it’s practically impossible to screw up your host computer, so feel free to explore, try out new commands, install random software, and learn without fear of breaking anything. The only thing you can potentially mess up is the virtual machine itself, which is unlikely but could be simply deleted and reinstalled again if it happened.

Ubuntu Linux desktop

If you enjoyed this post, don’t miss our other VirtualBox how-to guides, including:

VirtualBox works with just about any other operating system you can think of. Being a free solution, it’s performance is not as impressive as VMWare or Parallels though, and if you intend on using virtual machines for production it would be worth considering a paid solution for maximum performance.

Remove the Auto-Hiding Dock Delay in Mac OS X

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 08:46 AM PDT

Hidden Dock in Mac OS X displays faster

If you use a hidden Dock in Mac OS X, you can speed up the time it takes to show the Dock with a defaults write command. This command removes the delay from when a cursor is hovered near the Dock location and to when it’s displayed, it doesn’t change the animation speed of the dock sliding in and out itself.

Remove the Delay for Auto-Hide & Auto-Show of Dock

Launch the Terminal and enter the following defaults write command:

defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0 && killall Dock

The tail end of the command includes killall which will cause the Dock to relaunch in order for changes to take effect. After it has been refreshed, hover over the area of the screen where the Dock is hidden and you’ll notice it shows up immediately, without the fraction of a second delay.

This tip also impacts how to show the Dock in a full screen app, preventing the need for a double-swipe down when in full screen mode, and instead displaying the Dock instantly with a hover in the region.

Return to Default Dock Hide/Show Delay

To return to the default setting and autohide delay, go back to the Terminal and enter the following command:

defaults delete com.apple.Dock autohide-delay && killall Dock

The Dock will again relaunch and settings will return to their default state.

This is a handy tip from MacWorld, thanks for sending it in Eric

Improve iPad Picture Frame with a Custom Photo Album

Posted: 26 Mar 2012 11:14 AM PDT

Picture Frame for iPad

Picture Frame is a great feature of iOS on iPad that turns the device into a rotating gallery of images. The iPad Picture Frame app defaults to flipping through all images contained in the Photos camera roll album, but you can improve the experience by creating a custom photo album and setting that as the only source for the gallery, here’s how:

Tap on “Photos” to open the photos app, then tap on the “Albums” tab
Tap “Edit” and then tap “New Album”, naming it something like “Picture frame”

Create album for iPad Picture Frame

Tap on each photo you want to show in the picture frame then tap “Done”

add pictures to iPad picture frame

Now go back to the iPad home screen and open “Settings”
Tap on “Picture Frame” and select “Albums”, then tap on “Camera Roll” to unselect that, and tap on the newly created “Picture frame” album

Select picture frame album for iPad

Exit out of Settings and return to the lock screen, tap on the flower icon to start Picture Frame with the new gallery

Now Picture Frame won’t bore viewers with screenshots and embarrass you with bad pictures from the Photo Booth app.

If you’re looking for some high res images to show in the picture gallery, don’t miss our recent post with 13 retina iPad wallpapers, they make for great backgrounds and pleasing eye candy.