August 15th, 2007 by Ross McKillop | 
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This tutorial will take you every single step of the way through installing Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) using Parallels Desktop 3.0 (Build 4128) for OS X. In other words, even your parents should be able to follow along.
Note: if you’re looking for help installing Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) in Parallels, see this tutorial.
1. Who this tutorial is for
2. Background
3. Setting up Parallels for Ubuntu
4. Installing Ubuntu
5. Installing Parallels Tools in Ubuntu
Who this tutorial is for
This tutorial is for anyone with an Intel based Mac who is curious about Linux - specifically Ubuntu, and has about an hour to kill (not including the time it takes to download Ubuntu).
The steps and screenshots used for this tutorial are specific to Parallels Desktop 3.0 (Build 4128) running on a MacBook Pro w/ OS X (10.4.10). With that said, they will be nearly identical if you have a Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook or any other Intel based Apple Mac.
Background
Ubuntu is a free, open source Linux-based operating system with a clear focus on the user and usability (it should “Just Work”). When you finish your Ubuntu installation your system is immediately usable. On the desktop you have a full set of business productivity applications, internet applications, drawing and graphics applications, and games. For more information on Ubuntu, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu.
As you may have noticed, here at Simplehelp we often recommend software, and 90-something percent of the time that software is free. Parallels isn’t free, but it really is worth the cost. It will allow you to run other operating systems (like Ubuntu) on your Mac - without having to worry about any of your OS X settings, documents or files being accidentally deleted. And if you don’t like Ubuntu you can trash it and carry on like it never happened.
One other (major) benefit of using Parallels is that you run the other operating system (in this case Ubuntu) while OS X is running. You don’t need to restart your computer each time you want to switch from OS X to Ubuntu and vice-versa.
Read more about Parallels here: Parallels Desktop 3.0
Before you start - make sure to download Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/download. The file you’ll want to download (as of 8/15/07) is ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso. Also, make sure Parallels Desktop 3.0 is installed.
Setting up Parallels for Ubuntu
- If this is the first time you’re using Parallels, the Wizard will launch automatically. If it’s not the first time you’ve used Parallels, launch the Wizard by selecting File -> New…
- Select Custom and then click the Next > button.
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- In the OS Type: select Linux and in the OS Version: select Other Linux kernel 2.6. Click Next > to continue. NOTE: In the latest version of Parallels, there is an “Ubuntu” choice from the menu. If you’re using the very latest version of Parallels, select it rather than Other Linux kernel 2.6.
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- The amount of memory (RAM) defaults to 256MB. I opted to ‘upgrade’ to 512MB as my MacBook Pro has 2GB. When you’ve made a choice, click Next >.
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- Choose Create a new hard disk image and again, Next >.
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- The default virtual hard disk size will be set to 32000MB (roughly 32GB). If you opt to use an Expanding virtual hard disk, you won’t actually use 32000MB right away, rather, Parallels will allocate space as it’s needed, up to 32000MB. The defaults are a good option. Click Next > after you’ve made your selections.
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- I used Shared Networking as the networking option, but you can make the choice that best suits your needs. Click Next >.
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- Now give this virtual machine a name - anything will do, but something descriptive is always a good idea. If you click the small More Options arrow, you can also choose where the virtual machine files will be stored, and if Parallels should make a shortcut to Ubuntu on your desktop. Click Next >.
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- Here you’ll need to decide if you want to allocate more performance to the virtual machine (Ubuntu in this case) or OS X - when the virtual machine is running. Once you’ve made a choice, click Next >.
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- Click More Options and select ISO image. Then click the Choose… button.
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- Navigate to your Ubuntu .iso file (ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso), select it and click Open.
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- Make sure Start Linux Kernel 2.6 installation is checked, and then click Finish.
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- Ubuntu will now boot up for the first time.
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- Click inside the Parallels window, make sure that Start or install Ubuntu is highlighted, and hit the enter key on your keyboard.
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- Don’t be at all surprised if the video on your screen seems to go “fuzzy” for a while (20-30 seconds).
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- Ubuntu will start up. Because the .iso file you downloaded is a “Live” image, you can actually play around with Ubuntu right now. If you’re not connected to the Internet…
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- select the Network icon from the far right of the menu bar. Choose Wired Network and you should connect to the Internet via OS X.
Installing Ubuntu
- When you’re ready to install Ubuntu, double-click the Install icon on your Ubuntu desktop.
- Select your language from the list in the left column and click Forward.
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- Choose the city closest to you from the Selected city: list and then click Forward.
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- Select the type of keyboard layout you’d like to use, and then click Forward.
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- Make sure Guided - use entire disk and SCSI1 are both selected (they should be by default).
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- Nothing to import, so click Forward
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- Enter your Name, the name you wish to use to login, a password and whatever you want to call your “Ubuntu computer” in the spaces provided. Once again, click Forward.
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- And now finally, click the Install button.
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- Go get a cup of coffee or your beverage of choice. This can take a while.
- When the installation is complete, choose Continue using the live CD instead of Restart now (because we’ll want to make a few changes before using Ubuntu again).
- Power off Ubuntu by clicking the red “Log off” button in the upper-right corner of your Ubuntu desktop.
- And select Shut Down from the menu.
- Don’t be too surprised if Ubuntu freezes at some point, and the video seems to ’scramble’. Use the keyboard-combo to ‘release’ your keyboard and mouse focus from Ubuntu (it will be displayed in the very bottom left corner of your Parallels window). Use the red square Stop Virtual Machine button to completely power off Ubuntu.
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- Back at your Ubuntu configuration window, click the Configuration link.
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- Select CD/DVD-ROM 1 from the left column. On the right frame of the Configuration Editor, select Use CD/DVD-ROM (instead of Use image file). Click OK.
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Installing Parallels Tools in Ubuntu
- Start up Ubuntu again, and after you get to the Ubuntu desktop, use the keyboard-combo to return your keyboard and mouse focus to OS X. Select Actions from the Parallels menu, and Install Parallels Tools… from the drop-down list.
- You’ll get a warning/about pop-up. Click OK to close it (after you read everything, of course).
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- Back in Ubuntu, a File Browser window will appear. Ignore it for now.
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- Select Applications -> Accessories and finally Terminal.
- Enter the command:
sudo sh /cdrom/parallels-tools.run
and enter your password when prompted. After a few moments you’ll be returned to the command prompt. Make sure that the line above the prompt reads Please restart your Xserver or reboot whole VM, and then close the Terminal window. Press ctrl + alt + delete to restart your Xserver (or use the log out button). Once you sign in again, you should notice that you can move your mouse (and keyboard focus) in and out of the Ubuntu/Parallels window without having to use the keyboard combo.
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36 Responses to “How to install Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) in OS X using Parallels Desktop 3.0 - a complete walkthrough”
By david toub on Aug 16, 2007 | Reply
Thank you for an excellent tutorial. I’m new to Ubuntu, to Parallels, and not too experienced with OSX. The tutorial set aside many of my concerns.
By Cube on Aug 17, 2007 | Reply
I can’t seem to work the terminal. it says it couldnt open it. why is it?
By John Bachir on Sep 3, 2007 | Reply
Hi. Thanks a bunch for the tutorial.
When selecting “OS Version”, why select “other linux version 2.6″ instead of “ubuntu” (which i think was available when you wrote this tutorial). What does this effect?
Thanks again,
john
By paul vail on Sep 3, 2007 | Reply
I used the Ubuntu linux option and had no troubles at all. Sound came up, networking — the rest of the tutorial was great, but this little difference didn’t seem to matter.
By Marc S on Sep 14, 2007 | Reply
Using a MBP 2.2 Dual Core with 10.4.10; I am not getting the browser pop at step 3 of the parallels tools install. Can’t mount the CD-ROM either (although it’s connected). Lower right of parallels CD icon states Connect to vmtools-linux.iso and it’s grayed out. So it looks like it’s connected to the right iso. I just can’t mount it for some reason. Using
sudo sh /cdrom/parallels-tools.run
I get
sh: Can’t open parallels-tools.run
when I run mount cdrom I get
mount: can’t find cdrom in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
Am I missing something here? I’ve followed these steps exactly three times to no avail. Thanks everyone!
By Marc S on Sep 14, 2007 | Reply
Nevermind. I had to do the extra step of double clicking the .iso in the browser to ‘open’ it I guess. All good now.
By Dave T on Sep 15, 2007 | Reply
excellent tutorial…one of the best. thanks a lot. I am now up and running with ubunto, parallels and OSX
By jack on Sep 25, 2007 | Reply
Great guide! Easy to follow and thorough. I’m now happily running Ubuntu on my MacBook.
By steve on Oct 10, 2007 | Reply
not working for me. tried 5 times its says boot from hard drive…
I have absolutely no experience with linux
help!!
By John Bickar on Oct 16, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the excellent tutorial! One small troubleshooting tip - the install froze for me on installing an intel “piix” hardware driver. Decreasing the amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine (from 1024 to 512K) solved the problem.
By michael canfield on Oct 24, 2007 | Reply
Installing Ubuntu 7.10 on Parallels 3.00 build 5160 gets to a point where it stops installing with this error: The display server has been shut down about 6 times in the last 90 seconds. It is likely that bad is going on. Waiting for 2 minutes before trying again on display :0. I am selecting the Linux OS install and Ubuntu Linux in the install process. I have repeated the install procedure 5 times at least with the same results. I have also tried the Ubuntu Safe Graphics mode install with the same results. Any thoughts?
Mike
By Michael Canfield on Oct 24, 2007 | Reply
This very nice install procedure works for Ubuntu 7.04. But does not seem to work for Ubuntu 7.10.
Mike
By Breckenridge on Oct 24, 2007 | Reply
Everything works, I just cannot copy/paste between os/x and linux. I have installed 7.10 and not 7.04, would that make any difference?
By Philipp Eversfield on Oct 26, 2007 | Reply
I am writing this in Ubuntu 7.04.
The tutorials were absolutely superb.
It just worked like it should on a mac!
By Ross McKillop on Oct 29, 2007 | Reply
@Breckenridge:
You’d need to install Parallels Tools - which I’m not 100% sure works in 7.10 yet (I haven’t installed it yet, but will in the next few days). In fact I don’t even have Parallels installed right now (just upgraded to Leopard and haven’t reinstalled everything yet - I decided to wipe my drive and upgrade rather than just update). But I think if you select something like “Tools > Install Parallels Tools” from the Parallels menu, it’ll either work (and then you can copy paste/drag drop files between the OS’s) or it’ll be gray’ed out (because Parallels Tools isn’t ready for 7.10 yet).
By Jack Krebs on Nov 9, 2007 | Reply
Just installed on my nw 24″ iMac. Excellent instructions, and easy as pie. Thanks
By Jack Krebs on Nov 9, 2007 | Reply
P.S. I just installed 7.0.4, which is what I use on my regular Linux machine. I didn’t try 7.10.
By 410guy on Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
Yeah…..the same seems to be happening on my comp as well…..
What’s the trouble??
By arkaycee on Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
If you already have another Parallels VM running (say, Windows), at least with Production 3.0, you can’t get the network up in Shared Networking. Bridged Networking for the ubuntu machine makes this all work out ok though, as long as you don’t mind that this will show up on your network as another server alongside your Mac OS X box.
By Mike Peterson on Nov 15, 2007 | Reply
Worked perfect on my MacBook 2GHz 1 G Ram running OSX 10.4.10 running Parallels Build 5610. Thanks a bunch.
By Stephen on Nov 17, 2007 | Reply
Everything seems to work, but not internet. On a macbook pro I can surf wireless using Windows , but not linux (kubuntu 7.04).
How about the kubuntu 7.10 release? why it does not work?
Thank you,
Step
By Sami on Nov 24, 2007 | Reply
Exellent “walktrough” Thanks alot!!
By Brett on Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
Great guide, install went fine but unable to get parallels tools to install. I have the same problem as mark s:
sudo sh /cdrom/parallels-tools.run
gives
sh: Can’t open parallels-tools.run
I can see the cdrom in the file browser and terminal but it just wont install. Sounds like it suddenly worked for mark but not for me. Also 1024×768 is highest res available. If anyone has ideas that would be great.
By Brett on Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
Wow, I was up late trying to get parallels tools installed (see last comment) and I left ubuntu running on my macbook with firefox open. I slept in this morning and when I woke up my girlfriend was using the macbook, still running ubuntu. I said, “oh your using linux, what do you think?” and her response was “Am I?”. She didn’t even realise it wasnt OS X. I’m not making this up.
By niksam on Feb 28, 2008 | Reply
Brett try sudo sh /cdrom/parallels-tools.run
By Professr on Mar 6, 2008 | Reply
@ Michael, I’m having the same problem. I haven’t found any solution to it yet - any suggestions from others?
By kailash on Mar 16, 2008 | Reply
i also face the same mentioned problem with installing parallels TOOLS:
kailash@kailash-laptop:~$ sudo sh /cdrom/parallels-tools.run
[sudo] password for kailash:
sh: Can’t open cdrom/parallels-tools.run
kailash@kailash-laptop:~$
any help? pls reply to kailashamrit@gmx.net
By kailash on Mar 17, 2008 | Reply
SOLVED PROBLEM:
no.15 of the given instructions above is the solution of the problem. after doing so i could easily install parallels tools…
By Chinito77 on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply
Bad luck with Ubuntu 7.10 i386 installs with Parallels 3.0.
At first I picked the Linux/ubuntu option with 1gb of ram and 16mb video. The install would freeze while loading the cupsd file. I get this regardless of live or text install mode.
512ram with 4mb of video:
Receives “The display server has been shut down about 6 times in the last 90 seconds” error. Never fixes it self. I get this regardless of live or text install mode.
1gb ram with 16mb of video and amd64 version of ubuntu:
Receives “Your cpu does not support long mode” error. I find it odd since on the ubuntu site, it says to pick that version if you have an intel pc. I get this regardless of live or safe mode.
1gb ram with 16mb of video and i386 alternate version of ubuntu:
Picked text install and success!!
Glad I have Fios to download a new ubuntu OS quickly each time one didnt work or I would have given up a long time ago. I hope this info helps someone.
By Phoenix on Apr 19, 2008 | Reply
That will never work. You’ve partitioned the memory!