Setting up Ubuntu (12.04 LTS) in VirtualBox under OSX Mountain Lion

I've recently needed  to run an Ubuntu VM on my 2012 Mac Book Pro (Retina) and being a cheapskate I reached for VirtualBox.

Initial installation is fairly easy but I immediately ran into a whole host of problems:

• The newest version of Ubuntu (12.10) desktop requires 3D acceleration so it runs like crap.
• I can't see my Mac's Documents folder that I had marked as a shared folder in VirtualBox's settings.
• I couldn't ssh into the VM.

So to save anyone else the trouble I thought I would document the steps I went through here.

#1 System Configuration

Download Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (instead of 12.10). OK so it's not the latest version but not having to wait 2 seconds for the Ubuntu desktop to respond is vital to not loosing patience with the whole setup.
I chose 12.04 LTS 64 bit which is in the downloads section just bellow the download link for the latest version, here (Note: 32-bit is selected by default): http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop.

Using VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/) I set up a VM with the following configuration:

* General
Name: Ubuntu

* System
RAM: 2048 GB
HDD: 8GB , Virtual Disk Image (VDI), dynamically allocated
CPU: 2 x CPU (though this causes a non-optimal settings warning, not sure why).

* Network
Type: NAT
Port forwarding (under 'Advanced' tab in networking):
 name: 'ssh'
 host port: 2222
 guest port: 22

* Shared Folders
Name: Documents, Path : /Users/jamesdoig/Documents
Do not check "Auto mount" (as it's bugged)

#2 Installation
* Under Settings -> Storage place the Ubuntu .iso into the CD/DVD drive and start the virtual machine.

* Go through the Ubuntu installation procedure.
I chose the: English: Macintosh, international keyboard layout to match my Mac Books kb layout.

* Once you have booted into the operating system and logged in: From the virtual box menu select: Device-> Install Guest Additions. Follow the on screen prompts.

* Reboot your VM.

#3 Folder sharing setup

* Sign into Ubuntu and open up a terminal,
Make a directory in /media to mount your shared folder to:
$ sudo mkdir /media/shared
Mount the shared folder (In my case Documents) :
$ sudo mount -t vboxsf Documents /media/shared

This will mount your Documents folder at /media/shared but you will have permission problems.

* Still in your Ubuntu VM terminal do:
$ cat /etc/passwd
and make note of the numbers that appear in the entry for your login name:
e.g: james:x:1000:1000:james,,,:/home/james:/bin/bash
So 1000 in my case.

* Now using your text editor of choice (I installed emacs by this point) :
$ sudo emacs /etc/fstab
and add the line:
Documents   /media/shared  vboxsf  uid=1000,gid=1000,nodev,noexec,nosuid,auto,rw 0 0
Where uid & gid = the number you noted earlier,
'Documents' is the name of the folder you shared in VirtualBox
And '/media/shared' is the mount point your created earlier.

* Reboot your VM.

#4 SSH setup

Open up the Ubuntu terminal and do:
$ sudo apt-get install openssh-server

I'd rebooted the VM a lot during this process so can't be sure if this step also required it.

Now you should be able ssh into your Ubuntu VM from your Mac terminal with:
$ ssh -p 2222 <your login name>@127.0.0.1

#5 Running the VM in headless mode and SSHing in

This step isn't required but I did it for convenience:
In your Mac terminal:
Edit your ~/.bash_profile
e.g: $ emacs ~/.bash_profile
And add the following:

alias ubu='ssh -p 2222 james@127.0.0.1'
alias uvm='VBoxHeadless --startvm "Ubuntu"'
alias uvmx='VBoxManage controlvm "Ubuntu" poweroff'

Where "Ubuntu" is the name you gave the VM in Virtual box.
Also pick aliases that work for you.

Using these I can launch my VM headlessly (Without launching the GUI and VM desktop) from the terminal with: $ uvm
Shut down the vm with: $ uvmx
And ssh into the vm with: $ ubu