How to install Lubuntu on VirtualBox (Step by Step Guide)

In this article, we will be looking at how to install Lubuntu on VirtualBox step by step. Before we begin, lets look at what Lubuntu is and its features.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is described as a fast and lightweight operating system with an easy to use user interface. Lubuntu is a Linux operating system, that uses the minimal desktop LXDE/LXQT alongside a selection of light applications. Lubuntu is hardware friendly since it was built to use less hardware resources. Lubuntu was founded by Mario Behling and has seen several improvements and developments over the years by Julien Lavergne.

Lubuntu Features

• Comes with the most advanced desktop interface, using Qt technologies for rendering the widgets and the entire ecosystem
• You can customize almost everything in the desktop via system settings and preferences
• It allows you to view and create compatible Word documents with Abiword word processor and Gnumeric spreadsheet, and read PDF files
• You can browse the web, read your e-mails, download torrents with Transmission, or chat on multiple accounts.
• Its built-in multimedia allows you to listen to music stored on your computer, listen to radio streaming with audacious, as well as watch movies using Gnome-Mplayer
• You can also burn discs with XFBurn
• Comes with ability to get images from your scanner with an easy to use interface, view any kind of graphics, including your favorite photos, or make simple drawings
• It comes with a lot of tools for your daily use, such as a text editor, a calculator, a file (de)compressor, sticky notes and, of course, a Unix-like terminal
• PCManFM is a feature-rich, but lightweight and incredibly fast file manager

Lubuntu Latest Release (Changelog)

Lubuntu is constantly been improved upon and has seen many releases of new features and bug fixes. For up-to-date release, go to Lubuntu Download page. The current version as the time of writing is Lubuntu 21.10 (Impish Indri) featuring LXQT desktop and this is only available on 64-bit OS version. For complete changelog details, see release page.

How to Install Lubuntu on VirtualBox on Windows

Before we begin installing Lubuntu on a VirtualBox, we need to first download the latest version of Lubuntu, and also install VirtualBox on Windows if you have not done that already.

1: Download Latest Lubuntu Version

Click on the link below to download the Lubuntu ISO file. The latest release as at the time of writing is v21.10 (Impish Indri).

• Download Lubuntu 19.04

2: Download and Install VirtualBox on Windows or Pc

If you are running your VirtualBox on a Windows machine, then follow this step-by-step article on how to install Virtualbox on windows. If you are running the VirtualBox on a Linux OS, the steps are no difference from that of a windows install.

3: Create a New Virtual Machine

• Launch your VirtualBox application and click on the New icon

• Next give your VM a name, select your desired machine folder where you will store your VM properties and OS files > select Type as Linux and Version as Ubuntu (64bit). Click Next

• Adjust your memory size or leave as default and click Next

• On Hard disk screen, select “Create a virtual hard disk now”. Click Create

• Now on the Hard disk file type, select VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image). Click Next

• Under Storage on physical hard disk screen, select “Dynamically allocated” and click Next

• On the File location and size screen, make sure you are happy with default location or change if needed. Then adjust size of disk to minimum 20GB. Click Create

4: Install Lubuntu

• Now back on the VirtualBox screen, selected the recently created VM, click on settings to make some changes and add attach the ISO file before we can begin installation

• Now click on Storage and select “Empty” under Controller: IDE. On the right pane, click the CD icon and select “Choose a disk file…”

• Locate the downloaded Lubuntu OS file and select it. Click OK

• Click on the General tab > Advanced and make you have both Shared Clipboard and Drag’n’Drop as bidirectional. Click OK

• Now click the Start button to begin installation

• After a couple of minutes, the installation should be complete

• On the desktop screen, double-click on “Install Lubuntu xxx” where xxx is version

• On the welcome screen, select your preferred language. On Location, select as desired. Keyboard select as desired.

• On partitions screen, select Erase disk and click Next

• Now, enter your user name > login name > computer name > password to enable you log into the desktop. If you desire, you can click the “Log in automatically without asking a password” so system logs you in automatically on reboot. Click next

• On summary screen, review everything and click Install

• Now we wait until the installation is completed. The click on Done to restart the VM

• The system will ask you to remove the medium before pressing Enter to continue the restart. To detach the ISO installer, click on Devices > Optical Drives > Ensure the installer is not checked. Press Enter

Install Post Install Packages

After fresh installation of Lubuntu, there are some recommended packages you need to install to provide better interface between your host computer and the virtual machine. Below is list of recommended packages:

• Virtualbox-guest-utils, virtualbox-guest-x11 – These packages provides you with a better interface between your host computer, and the new Linux operating system running on the virtual machine. These packages allows you to resize your virtual desktop, offer better cursor integration and more responsive input handling.
• Emacs – a very popular editor
• Vim – another very popular editor
• Vim-gtk – a GUI version of vim

To install these packages, open a terminal console and run the following commands. After install, reboot the VM

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11 vim vim-gtk emacs

Is Lubuntu better than Ubuntu?

Lubuntu is described as a lightweight and fast operating system that runs more efficiently even on a hardware with minimal resource requirement. Lubuntu and Ubuntu both have unique appearance and look and feel. Even though Lubuntu is hardware friendly, however Ubuntu is most widely used operating system between the two.

Is Lubuntu still alive?

Lubuntu is certainly alive and it is constantly been updated with new feature releases and bug fixes. The most recent released version is Lubuntu 20.10 (Impish Indri), which will be supported for 9 months until July 2022, while Lubuntu 20.04 LTS will be supported until April 2023.

Is Lubuntu available for 32-bit?

According to update from the developers of Lubuntu, their LXDE / LXQt downstream of Ubuntu Linux will no longer be available for the 32-bit releases starting from 19.04.

Is Lubuntu secure?

Just as every other Linux flavors, Lubuntu is safe, fast and secured, and does not require any virus software for protection. Lubuntu can run a wide range of hardware systems, and comes with lots of applications.

Is Lubuntu good for web development?

Yes of course. If you are a developer that needs lots of hardware resources, you can easily save lots of hardware resources, hence allowing your development tools to use run smoothly.

Do I need antivirus on Linux?

No you don’t as all Linux operating systems are secured and less vulnerable to any virus attack as long as the system is kept up to date. There are little malware variant in the world.

Conclusion

We hope that you have followed our install guide step-by-step to successfully install Lubuntu on VirtualBox on windows. Don’t forget to drop us comment on any question about this guide or for any correction.