How do I distribute my slightly customized Linux in VirtualBox?
-
21-08-2019 - |
Question
Suppose I've got some Arch Linux installation which I'd like to distribute among students with (sometimes very) basic Linux knowledge to make them able to compile C programs in an environment very similar to that in the university. (Things like Cygwin or MinGW seem to be inappropriate here.)
I also choose VirtualBox as a holder for the virtual system.
The question is: how do I distribute it? I mean:
- installing VirtualBox on the target machine (if not still installed)
- uncompressing and copying my image file (.VDI)
- registering the image (so that VirtualBox could see it when launched)
- configuring the guest system in VirtualBox (network, memory, etc.)
- optionally installing PuTTY to simplify interfacing with the guest Linux
Should I create an installer? Which one? Or just write some .BAT-scripts? (Target host system is Windows, mostly XP and Vista.) I definately don't want to have a webpage with screen shot explaining where to click and what to press, because it's boring.
Additionaly, what will be the best (the most user-friendly) way to configure network when the guest Linux system is run for the first time?
Solution
I did that once this way:
- I burned a DVD containig: VirtualBox & the image
- I wrote an autostart.exe that: Installed VirtualBox and Putty on the Machine
- It copied the image to the HD
- Then the autostart.exe ran the Virtualbox configuration and added the virtual machine
- Then the virtual machine was started and an auto starting bash script showed the virtual machine's network information, telling the students how to connect via Putty.
- That's it
Also: Include a panic function on the DVD: A simple script that removes the virtual machine's image from the hd and copies the original one from the dvd to the hd. This really saves a LOT of time.