Posted inExperience / Information Technology

Setting up a Ubuntu 10.04 LTS VM in 2022

seasoned_geek by seasoned_geek

Sometimes you need to use a really old version of Ubuntu for maintenance. Here is a quick run down on how to set Ubuntu 10.04 up now that the repos have moved. If you need Ubuntu 8.04 see this post. Basically 4GB RAM, 2 CPU, 30GB disk, 64MB video, enable bidirectional because I’m using the 32-bit version. If you need the ISO you can find it here.

Bidirectional drag and copy
Don’t go over 4GB for 32-bit
Use 2 processors – we didn’t have many quad core then
At least 64MB for video memory
Always set up a shared directory so you can easily transfer files between VM and host

I’m going to assume you can “Start” and navigate to where your ISO is stored. If you cannot there are plenty of examples elsewhere on this blog. When booting the “live” disk, choose to try rather than install directly. The direct install for most Ubuntu live disks doesn’t appear to get much in the way of testing.

After booting live disk
After install

Open a terminal after reboot.

cd /etc/apt
sudo cp sources.list sources.list_orig
sudo gedit sources.list

Replace us.archive with old-releases.

Point to where repos are now
security used to be in different place

You must also replace security.ubuntu.com with old-releases.ubuntu.com. Be certain to uncomment the backports as well.

Save and Quit.

sudo rm -vf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo reboot now

It is important you don’t have any errors on the update. Yes, the rm command will have many.

sudo apt-get install build-essential
cd
mkdir bin
mkdir share
cd bin
nano mount-share

type in the following

sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=$UID,gid=$(id -g) windows-share $HOME/share

Exit and save

If your share directory wasn’t “windows-share” you will need to use the proper name.

chmod +x mount-share
cd
Insert guest additions
Click OK
Click Run

Unlike Ubuntu 8.04, the Run actually runs. It also doesn’t need libxrandr-dev.

Success needs you to press return

Reboot now.

Sadly, if you are on Windows 10, your screen will remain tiny no matter what virtual video hardware you choose. The virtualbox in a Ubuntu 16.04 host seems to support this better. You can still use the tiny screen. Some people claim to not have the problem so perhaps it is an NVidia video card thing?

Roland Hughes started his IT career in the early 1980s. He quickly became a consultant and president of Logikal Solutions, a software consulting firm specializing in OpenVMS application and C++/Qt touchscreen/embedded Linux development. Early in his career he became involved in what is now called cross platform development. Given the dearth of useful books on the subject he ventured into the world of professional author in 1995 writing the first of the "Zinc It!" book series for John Gordon Burke Publisher, Inc.

A decade later he released a massive (nearly 800 pages) tome "The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" which tried to encapsulate the essential skills gained over what was nearly a 20 year career at that point. From there "The Minimum You Need to Know" book series was born.

Three years later he wrote his first novel "Infinite Exposure" which got much notice from people involved in the banking and financial security worlds. Some of the attacks predicted in that book have since come to pass. While it was not originally intended to be a trilogy, it became the first book of "The Earth That Was" trilogy:
Infinite Exposure
Lesedi - The Greatest Lie Ever Told
John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

When he is not consulting Roland Hughes posts about technology and sometimes politics on his blog. He also has regularly scheduled Sunday posts appearing on the Interesting Authors blog.