4.3.4. Configuring the virtual appliance for your host computer

In VirtualBox, click Machine ‣ Add… and choose the .vbox file that you saved earlier.

Choose the CTGames virtual machine from the list of available machines and then click on the yellow cog labelled Settings. A “CTGamesYYYYMM - Settings” window should pop up.

In the System ‣ Motherboard section give this virtual machine the maximum recommended amount of Base Memory as indicated by the green bar.

In the System ‣ Processor section give this virtual machine the maximum recommended number of CPUs as indicated by the green bar.

In the Display ‣ Screen section give this virtual machine the maximum recommended amount of Video Memory as indicated by the green bar.

In the Shared Folders section, select the /home/tomn/Desktop shared directory that is there already and click the little x button to remove it.

Still in the Shared Folders section, click the little + button to add a new shared directory. As the Folder Path choose the virtualbox_shared directory that you created previously. Check Auto-mount and click OK.

Click OK to close the “CTGamesYYYYMM - Settings” pop-up window.

Choose the CTGames virtual machine from the list of available machines and then click on the green arrow labelled Start to start the virtual machine.

Error handling

If you start the virtual machine on a computer that has never hosted a virtual machine before, you may encounter an error of the form “Failed to open a session for the virtual machine… Not in a hypervisor partition… AMD-V is disabled in the BIOS (or by the host OS).” There are several causes and solutions for this, related to the BIOS and operating system settings for your AMD chip. It would be best to enter these terms (without the quotes) into your favourite search engine and follow the current most popular advice: “virtualbox amd virtualisation disabled in bios”. The equivalent error message for computers with Intel chips is of the form “VT-x is disabled in the BIOS”.

When you start the CTGames virtual machine for the first time you may see two messages regarding “Auto capture keyboard” and “mouse pointer integration”. Just click the \ button on each that has the tooltip “Do not show this message again.”

When Ubuntu starts, sign in with the password given to you by your supervisor. Open a terminal (also called a shell) by holding down the three keys Ctrl-Alt-t, or clicking the shortcut on the Launcher with the tooltip “Terminal”. Resize this terminal window as large as you need.

Tip

If you want to hibernate the virtual machine at any point with the intention to continue from where you left off (for example, if you’re in the middle of a CTGames web app game) close the main VirtualBox app (the window with the title “CTGamesYYYYMM (Running) - Oracle VM VirtualBox”) and choose the option with the label Save the machine state.

Tip

Your Ubuntu guest OS is configured to automatically check for updates each week. If you get a pop-up window asking you to install updates, you should accept. Sometimes you will be asked for the sign-in password. Sometimes you may be asked to shutdown and restart the OS. If you encounter an error with CTGames, by keeping your Ubuntu guest OS up-to-date, it will be easier for another person to replicate the error exactly in order to more quickly find a fix.

Tip

If anyone else could have access to your copy of the virtual appliance, you should change the Ubuntu user sign-in password, because you will be storing a private SSH key in the appliance. One reason you might reasonably choose not change the password is if your virtual appliance is on a computer for which only you have the password and you use disk-level encryption.

Note

The virtual appliance is shipped with one user, with a username of dev. There is no need to create a new user for yourself or change the username. In fact, some of the steps that follow are more convenient if you do not change the username.