HOWTO: try LIVE CD in VirtualBox

Isn't it nice to try the Live CD from any Linux Distro without the need to restart the computer, isn't it? It can be done using a 'virtual pc' program. First of all, why would you use such a program. The point is, before you install a Linux distro, try it, and it doest suits you, don't install it later. I'm going to show you how, using VirtualBox. To introduce you quickly to this application, I'll quote wikiperdia:

Compared with the other established commercial virtualization software such as VMware Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC, VirtualBox lacks some features, but in turn provides others. Such unique features are running virtual machines remotely over the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), iSCSI support and USB support with remote devices over RDP.

Now, how to install it, and get it running. There are two variants of the application. One under a proprietary license, which is good if you want to make commercial use of it, and another called the VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE) released under the GPL.

I'll assume that you know how to install the packages in your distro. If you know, find the package using the search keyword "virtualbox" and install it.

Now, let's get running. The first screen looks like this:

pic 1: My desktop running VirtualBox

Step 1: click New. New window form will show up, click Next there. Under name type whatever you like e.g. LiveCD. Under OS Type select Linux 2.6. That means It will be capable of running every Linux with kernel version 2.6.X.

Step 2: click Next again. Here you decide how much memory to be dedicated to the LiveCD session. Select not less than 256mb, my recommendation. Click Next.

Step 3: here you can make a virtual Hard Disk, if you wish to install it, so you will be able to use it extensively, not only in LiveCD mode, but we don't want that for now, so click Next, and continue on.

Step 4: click Finish. Now locate on the tab details. Click on the label "CD/DVD ROM". Tick "mount cd/dvd drive". Select "iso image file" and locate the CD image you have previously downloaded. Click OK.

Step 5: click Start and have fun!