This tutorial will guide you through installing Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) using Parallels Desktop 4.0 (Build 4.0.3810) for OS X.
Note: the images in this tutorial are rather large (file size). You might need to give this page a moment or two to fully load. Sorry about that.
- To get started, download Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop. Once the download has completed, launch Parallels
- If the New Virtual Machine Assistant doesn’t launch on its own, click the plus sign ( + ) button in the bottom left corner of the Parallels window.
- When the Operating System Detection screen appears, click the Skip Detection button in the bottom left corner.
- On the Select Operating System Type and Version screen, select Linux as the Type: and Ubuntu Linux as the Version:. Click Continue.
- Select Custom as the Virtual Machine Type and then click Continue.
- Now you’ll need to decide how many CPUs you want the virtual machine to have. Select the number from the Number of CPUs: drop-down list. Use the slider to set the amount of memory (RAM) you want your virtual machine to have. On my MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM, I’ve found that 512MB of RAM for the virtual machine (Ubuntu) works quite well, and OS X itself still has enough left so that it doesn’t run too slowly while Ubuntu is running. Click Continue when you’re done.
- On the Hard Disk Options screen, select New image file and then click Continue.
- Now decide how much hard disk space you want to allocate to Ubuntu. If you plan on using it a lot, and are going to install lots of programs, you’ll want a higher number. If you just want to try it out and will be using it for limited tasks, select a lower amount. Whatever number you opt for, select Expanding disk as the type. This will allow you to only use ‘actual’ hard disk space on your Mac as Ubuntu grows in size. So even if you specify 15GB of space for Ubuntu, you’ll only use a few GB initially, and it will grow in size (up to 15GB) as you install programs etc. Click Continue when you’re ready to move on.
- On the Networking Type screen, select Shared Networking, unless you have reason to opt for another choice. Click Continue.
- On the Optimization Options screen, decide if you want more resources allocated to the virtual machine (Ubuntu) or OS X. Generally, you’ll want to select the virtual machine – you might as well have it be as fast as possible while you’re using it. Once again, click Continue.
- Now give your virtual machine a name. Something obvious is generally a good idea. Select More Options and decide if you want to have a shortcut icon created on your Desktop (so you can launch Ubuntu using it) and if you want to share your virtual machine with other users on your Mac. From here you can also change the default location that Parallels will save the virutal machine file, if you’d like. Finally – click the Create button.
- Select the Boot Options section of the Prepare to Install Operating System screen. If you’ve burned Ubuntu to CD, put that CD in your drive now, and make sure Real CD/DVD-ROM Drive is selected. If you want to install Ubuntu directly from the .iso file (as I will be) – select CD/DVD Image, click the Browse… button, navigate to your Ubuntu .iso file and select it. Click Done.
- Ubuntu will now boot. Select Install Ubuntu from the menu – using the arrow keys on your keyboard to move down to that option, then the Enter (return) key to select it.
- Ubuntu will load…
- .. and you’ll be prompted to select your language. Again, use the keyboard arrows and enter key to make your choice.
- Again, select your language for the installation. This time you can use your mouse to make the selection. Click the Forward button to continue.
- Select your Region and City for the time-zone setting. Click Forward.
- Now choose your keyboard layout. Generally this will be auto-detected based on your language preferences, but if it’s not, you can make the change here. Click Forward.
- When asked where you want to put Ubuntu, select Use the entire disk – but make sure that the disk you’re using includes “Virtual HDD” somewhere in the title (this should be the default selection). To possibly ease some fears here – you will NOT be formatting or deleting any of the files on your Mac. Parallels uses a “virtual hard drive” – which is really just a file on your existing drive – as its hard disk. Click Forward.
- Now fill in the required info (name, username, password etc) and click Forward.
- Now you’re done with the configuration stuff. Click the Install button after you review the options you’ve selected. You can always use the Back button to make any corrections.
- At this point, you might want to go make yourself a cup of coffee. Or turn on the TV. Maybe go for a walk. The installation takes quite a while, though it does depend on how fast your Mac is.
- Finally you’ll be prompted to restart Ubuntu. Click the Restart Now button.
- The virtual machine (Ubuntu) will reboot, and you’ll be prompted to login. Enter the user name and password that you specified back in step #20.
- And Ubuntu is now ready to use!
- One last thing you’ll want to do if you used the .iso to install Ubuntu. Escape out of Parallels (click ctrl+alt) and from the Parallels Desktop menu select Devices -> CD/DVD-ROM 1 -> Real CD/DVD-ROM and select your “actual” CD/DVD-ROM. Otherwise Ubuntu will think that your CD/DVD drive is in fact the .iso file.
- That’s it! Enjoy using Ubuntu 9.04 via Parallels Desktop on your Mac! I’ll update this tutorial with the steps required to install Parallels Tools in Ubuntu 9.04 once Parallels updates (currently it doesn’t work).
Hi Ross, this is Alex from Parallels. Thanks so much for this write up on Ubuntu and Parallels.
Alex
I’m sticking with 8.10 until Parallels Tools is available for 9.04.
At point 12:
“If you want to install Ubuntu directly from the .iso file (as I will be) – select CD/DVD Image, click the Browse… button, navigate to your Ubuntu .iso file and select it.”
Specify to select the image in the Download folder and not the one on the desktop.
Andrea
This doesn’t work for me.
As soon as I log in to X I get kicked back out to the login screen.
Whats the fix?
Thanks.
Steve, I met same problem. My Parallels version is 3. Seems that we need to upgrade our Parallels to the newest version to support Ubuntu 904.
If anybody got solution to install Ubuntu 904 in Parallels 3, please tell me. Thanks.
Its pretty dire for a virtualisation system to need to be upgraded to cope with a newer version of xorg (which is what this appears to be).
It seems to be an ongoing issue with the way that Parallels virtualises graphics hardware as I’ve heard of this problem before; people having to upgrade Parallels in order to get it to work with some more recent release of some Linux distribution.
I’ve changed to Suns Virtualbox now.
Steve, thank you for your advice, VBox is powerful enough and free, I think I will delete my Parallels after I get myVBox VM ready XD
hi do you know if parallels tool is now working for ubuntu 9.04 can you give me instructions to install it in ubuntu (absolute beginner…)
Still No tools for 9.04
hey, there is now support for installing parallels tools with ubuntu 9.04 i believe, anyone know ay tutorials on how to do this. I just tried it with terminal, got a GUI installer, rebooted, but still coherence isnt available and the screen wont adjust or maximize with the window, so im thinking i did it wrong,
Any links or other tutorials would be appreciated or email me iconz113@gmail.com
Thanks!
I also installed Parallel Tools in Ubuntu 9.04 with Parallels 4.0 (latest version):
- choose “install parallel tools in Parallels menu – this will mount a cd image in ubuntu
- open terminal application in ubuntu and type “sudo su” followed by your ubuntu password
- drag the install file to the open terminal window type return
- this will show installation for parallels tools
- after reboot parallels tools will be installed
To get Full Screen you need to increase video memory in the Virtual Machine configuration. Mine was defaulted on 2 Mb, and I set it to the preferred size of 16 MB. Still no Coherence or Visual Effects though.
Daniel
Thanks daniel, I got tools installed
Many thanks for this very helpful tutorial. Got me up and running in next to now time and Parallels Tools also installed thanks to Daniel’s comment.
Daniel rocks…. Works like a charm!
Hello Sir,
Please let me know step by step guide for uninstalling ubuntu from my parallel desktop mac os x
thnx in advance for your help
Thanks Daniel! This is only my second day using Linux… all I can say is thank god for the online community, or I’d be banging my head against the wall 10x as much as I already am (it hurts).
Thanks for the kind replies ! Many thanks to Ross, the author of this tutorial. I found this to be a very helpful thread, because I have also never tried Linux before. So I tried it in Parallels and it was easy! As soon as I found out how to install Parallels tools and run full screen I posted my comment. I know using terminal is difficult if you’re new to it, so I was happy to discover the dragging hint
Parallels Desktop Update Fixes regarding Ubuntu
- Problems with installing Parallels Tools in the Ubuntu Linux 9.04 guest OS – fixed.
Source: Parallels tools ReadMe while installing updates.
Great, just intalled 9.10 using this page.
Actually I got as far as the disk partitioning page without this last night, but I baulked at the idea of erasing an “entire disk.” All I needed was for someone to hold my hand and tell me, “look it’s alright, it tells you it’s a virual disk, you don’t need to worry …” Thanks for that.