Install Ubuntu MATE Daily in a Virtual Machine for Testing

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Prerequisites: a decent computer.
The following specs are OK:

  • Quad Core @ 1.6GHz
  • 6GB RAM
  • Virtualization enabled in the BIOS

Now then, follow the steps:

  • Install VirtualBox from the Software Boutique

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  • In VirtualBox, click "New"

  • Set the memory size to 2048MB and select "Create a virtual hard disk now"

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  • When configuring the disk, select 30 GB as maximum size and a VDI disk Dynamically allocated (should be default)

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  • Your machine now created, let's do a little bit more configuration before starting. Click on "System" and in the "Processor" tab select 2.


  • It's now time to get the Ubuntu MATE ISO on the website.

The ISO tracker will allow you to find the most recent build that needs testing.

Locate the build in question, then from the download instructions copy the download link.

Open a terminal using CTRL + ALT + T and download the ISO:

wget -c http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/daily-live/current/artful-desktop-amd64.iso

Verify when the download completes that the MD5 matches using the md5sum command :
When this post was written the correct MD5 was [ d29c48fd43b1c54ae371dcb06ff02181 ]

  • Insert the ISO in the Virtual Machine by clicking on "Optical Drive" then select the .iso file you've just downloaded.

  • Your machine is now ready to Start!

  • Only thing left is to run the install.

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6 Likes
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Good easy-to-follow guide @ouroumov. Two things I do in Ubuntu based VMs after installation is:

$ sudo apt install virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-x11
$ sudo adduser USERNAME vboxsf

This is to enable fullscreen support, file sharing between host and guest OS (found in Settings > Shared Folders) and shared clipboard (found in Settings > General > Advanced)

I also have virtualbox-dkms installed on my host OS.

1 Like
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Hi @terrowin, Any bad experience with the guest additions (in the form of ISO CD) that comes with VBox? I install build-essential first. Been doing it that way for quite a while and love the ability to share clipboard.

@ouroumov The wget to the ISO is invalid as time marches on… Maybe point to http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/daily-live/current/artful-desktop-amd64.iso ?

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Hi, no but I did have a problem installing them through the terminal the latest beta release of 17.10. Installing them through the ISO did not have this problem.

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The neat thing about this is the guide can be repurposed for installing other systems in a VM and working with that. Nice, easy-to-follow guide for the most part, if only there were appended instructions for Windows and OS X then it would be brilliant.

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It's been a while since I installed either, but if you want to give it a go, my post is a wiki.

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There is only one major problem I’ve had, which is that I cannot find my real hard drive partitions with GParted and thus cannot mount any of them, which is what I’m trying to do here.