Run OpenSolaris 2008.05 In VirtualBox

This article emphasizes on how to load the OpenSolaris 2008.05 VDI image which was distributed as a part of a resource DVD distributed for college students by Sun Microsystems Inc.

The article is broken down into two parts - Installing VirtualBox and Loading the VDI image in VirtualBox.

Installing VirtualBox

VirtualBox is available in two versions on the resource DVD - 1.6 and 2.0. To install version 1.6 follow these steps -

• For Windows go to virtualbox → 1.6 → win32 → (depending on your processor) amd64/x86
• For Linux go to virtualbox → 1.6 → linux → (depending on your linux flavor) select the required package
• For Mac OS X go to virtualbox → 1.6 → macosx → run the file present in the directory

To install version 2.0 follow these steps -

• For Linux go to virtualbox → 2.0 → linux → (depending on your processor) amd64/x86
• For OpenSolaris go to virtualbox → 2.0 → OpenSolaris → (depending on your processor) amd64/x86

The installation is simple and is similar to the other software that we generally install.

Configuring OpenSolaris 2008.05 in VirtualBox

Copy the "OpenSolaris_2008.05.vdi.gz" file from the opensolaris directory of the DVD and copy it to your hard-disk (This step isn’t necessary but will reduce the time taken for extraction of the final image).

Extract the contents of the file to a directory of your choice using software like Winzip (or) Winrar (or) IZArc.

You will get an *.vdi image which is nearly 8 GB in size (Caution - make sure your partition isn’t a FAT32 partition, as the extraction will be terminated at around 4GB if it is a FAT32 partition). Start VirtualBox by selecting Start → Programs → Sun xVM VirtualBox → VirtualBox. Select New Icon on the screen, a wizard will open which will guide you through the creation of the virtual Operating System, click on Next.

Type a name for the Operating system; it can be any name, no restrictions. Also select the type of the OS that is being used. In this case OpenSolaris. Specify the memory which you want to provide to the new Operating System. Remember your present Operating System is still running, so split the total available RAM accordingly so that both the Operating systems can work comfortably.

Next you will be prompted for a hard-disk to work with, select existing there. A screen, called the virtual disk manager, will appear where we are supposed to add our OpenSolaris image. Click on "Add", then browse through the folders and select the *.vdi OpenSolaris image (i.e. the extracted image). A new entry will be in the added in the virtual disk manager. Click on that entry and then click on Select.

The screen will come back to the hard-disk point. Now go to the next step. Finally a consolidated sheet of the selected options will appear. Select "Finish" here. Now as you can see there is a new Operating System waiting, under the name of OpenSolaris. Double click on it to get OpenSolaris working.