Download the VirtualBox and Ubuntu iso file

• Go to Oracle VirtualBox’s website (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads) and download the latest version depending on your system.

• Install VirtualBox.

• Go to Ubuntu website (https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop) and download Ubuntu 20.04 iso file which is around 2.86 GB.

Create Ubuntu virtual machine

• Open VirtualBox and click New.

• Type whatever you like for the name of the virtual machine to be created. In this case, I just type “ubuntu”.

• Select “Linux” for “Type” and “Ubuntu (64-bit)” for “Version” (if your compute and the iso file you downloaded are 64-bit of course).

• Keep clicking  Next or Create until you’ve created the Ubuntu virtual machine. (Ignore the one called “alpine”, it’s just another virtual  machine I’ve created. What we need for now is the Ubuntu virtual machine called “ubuntu”.)

• Go to Settings then Dispaly, increase the value of  “Video Memory” to 128 MB. This is needed for full-screening the virtual machine later on.

• Go to Storage on the same page and click “Empty” with a CD pattern in front of it.

• Click the other CD pattern next to “Optical Drive: IDE Secondary Device 0” (shown in the picture above) and then Click “Choose a disk file…” and then go to the folder which stores the Ubuntu iso file just downloaded and choose the Ubuntu iso file.

• Click OK at the left bottom.

• Click Start and wait for it to install.

• Click “Install Ubuntu” when this page shows up.

• Choose the keyboard layout. In this case, I just choose the default one. Then click Continue.

• Choose “Normal installation” or “Minimal installation” as you like. For studying basic Linux, choosing “Minimal installation” is sufficient for now and will save some time downloading and installing all sorts of things. Click “Download updates while installing Ubuntu” and unclick “Install third-part software…”. Then click Continue.

• Click Install now and Continue.

• Choose your time zone. In this case, I choose Shanghai. Then Click Continue.

• Fill in each blank. Then Continue.

• Wait for the installation to complete. It may take quite a while.

• Click Restart Now when the installation is completed.

• Press ENTER to continue. And wait for a while.

• Click the user and type in your password then press ENTER to enter.

• Keep clicking Skip or Next or Done until you get to the desktop.

• Click Install now if you want to update now. Or you can choose Remind Me Later. In this case, I just choose Install now. Wait for the installation to complete. It may take quite a while.

• Click OK when the update finishes. Press CRTL + ALT + T to open the terminal.

• Type in this command and press ENTER: sudo apt install build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)to prepare for full-screening your virtual machine.

• Enter you password which is invisible then press ENTER.

• Type in “y” and press ENTER when this page shows up.

• Wait for the installation to complete.

• Type in “exit” then press ENTER to close the terminal window when the installation is completed.

• Click Devices on the tool bar and choose Insert Guest Additions CD image….

• Click Run.

• Type in your password and click Authenticate.

• Press ENTER to close the window when this pages shows up.

• Press CTRL + ALT + T to open the terminal again. Type in “reboot” then press ENTER to restart the virtual machine.

• Enter your account following the privous steps. Go to View and Virtual Screen 1 and choose the size you like. In this case, I just choose 1920x1200.

• Left CRTL + F to full-screen the virtual machine. And left CTRL + F to exit the full-screen-mode if you want to.

• You can even make the screen “larger” by right clicking in the Ubuntu virtual machine desktop and choosing Display Settings.

• Change Resolution to the largest.

• And click the green Apply then Keep Changes.

• Here you go. You have a full-screened virtual machine now.

• Before you start your journey of exploring Ubuntu Linux, let’s update everything.

• Open your terminal and use sudo apt-get update to update.

• And then use sudo apt-get upgrade to upgrade.

• Congratulations! You’ve managed to full-screen your virtual machine and have everything ready.

Thank you

Written by Dahao Tang.