virtualbox.org

Hello, I am having trouble installing Zorin OS on Virtual Box. All was fine until I got to the point for "updates and other software. It seems the app hung up and would go no further. There is a screenshot I have attached along with the version of my host, Win 10. I use an Acer Aspire Laptop E15.
Thanks very much.

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip it, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

Shamefully, I must admit to being a novice, I hope zipped the file correctly.. However, I did attach it as an attachment.
This time in the process I got further. The Zorin screen actually came up, music played, and then I was asked to choose to either try Zorin or download it to the hard drive. I choose "try it" but then after a while nothing happened. I am just not doing something right.
Thanks for your help though.

00:00:06.387218 Host RAM: 3964MB (3.8GB) total, 683MB available
00:00:08.716355 CPUM: Physical host cores: 2
00:00:06.892352 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000001000000 (16 777 216, 16 MB)

Ouch.

VMs need actual RAM, of which your host has barely enough to run the Windows host OS. You need to free up a lot of host RAM by closing down memory hungry apps, and even then I would not give more than 512MB to a VM. The lack of CPU cores will also be a problem, but not much you can do about that. Graphics RAM may need to be increased, e.g. to 32MB.

The basic idea of a VM is to take hardware resources that currently go to waste, and use them to simulate a second PC. Your host doesn't really have idle resources.

I checked out task manager and I only have eight apps in startup. None of them seem "power hungry". I use a 2T USB with Ready Boost, but I know that does not give me much Ram. I have 2T memory on my hard drive, for whatever that is worth. Microsoft Edge was high in task manager, so I disabled that, don't use it anyway. Chrome is high, but I use that. I run a pretty spare Win 10 and have already taken off the bloat apps I do not use. I must be careful about services, though, as I am unsure which I need and which I do not. Not only that, but I ran Bloatbox and that pared things down even more.
I am currently trying to download Zorin again with a download speed of 3,0 mpbs, so it will take most of the day. Just in case my first download was corrupt or something like that. I am determined to get Zorin running, it will just take time.
Thanks.

Disk-based RAM swap like these:

Zorin wrote:2T USB with Ready Boost ... 2T memory on my hard drive

cannot be used to get RAM for a VM. Only the physical RAM sticks, the "actual RAM" that Mpack discusses, count for the VM. And you just don't have enough for a modern OS VM.

Zorin wrote:I am currently trying to download Zorin again

You might save a lot of time by checking if the Zorin website has a MD5 or SHA256 hash of their ISO, then you run the appropriate hash on your ISO and see if the hashes match. If they do, then your ISO is OK, no need to re-download. Web-search how to hash a file.

FWIW the VM's 'hardware' seemed to be running fine in the attached log. Linux OS's take their RAM as they need it, so a Linux VM may very well run on an underprovisioned host, as Mpack pointed out yours is.

Did you try Mpack's recommendations about reducing VM RAM to 512MB, increasing video RAM to 32MB? Also put two processors in the VM. If you still get bad results, please post the VM log from the new bad run again.

If you got to that point, your ISO file is fine. The first thing the installer does is check all the files on it.

I am currently trying to install it with the default settings for Ubuntu and if it is any consolation to you, it is doing much the same thing. Windows task manager shows VirtualBox Virtual Machine using about 15% CPU but nothing on the Zorin screen.

Zorin wrote:I use a 2T USB with Ready Boost, but I know that does not give me much Ram. I have 2T memory on my hard drive, for whatever that is worth.

We were discussing RAM, not disk space. RAM is the CPU's memory (brain cells), disk space is like a diary it keeps. The latter can only compensate to a certain extent for a lack of the former.

A virtual PC needs actual RAM and disk space, just like the physical PC does. And even SSD disk space is nowhere near fast enough to be used as simulated RAM.

FWIW, the smallest Zorin OS Lite already has a system requirement of 10 GB disk space, so I'd suggest to provide a virtual hard disk with much more than 10 GB, perhaps 30 - 50 GB.

mpack wrote:

Zorin wrote:I use a 2T USB with Ready Boost, but I know that does not give me much Ram. I have 2T memory on my hard drive, for whatever that is worth.

We were discussing RAM, not disk space. RAM is the CPU's memory (brain cells), disk space is like a diary it keeps. The latter can only compensate to a certain extent for a lack of the former.

A virtual PC needs actual RAM and disk space, just like the physical PC does. And even SSD disk space is nowhere near fast enough to be used as simulated RAM.

Yes, I know that. I was just providing info for what it is worth.
I downloaded Zorin again, With our low download speed here of 0.03 it took all day and half the night. When I did try it this morning in VirtualBox, it loaded without any errors, but came up with the same results.
Perhaps my system is lacking something? One symptom I have noticed is that the tiles for all of my pictures stay in the tile state and no longer actually show the pictures unless I double-click and bring them up. They used to show the pictures even in the small tile format. I wonder if this could have something to do with why Zorin is not running correctly?
The other things you advised me to do are too technical for me. I am not an IT or Techie, so it's all above my head.

Your actions say that you didn't know all that. You consistently conflate RAM and disk space.

Zorin wrote:Perhaps my system is lacking something?

Yes, your notebook PC lacks RAM, and the VM lacks disk space. These are problems with your physical PC, so downloading the Zorin installer ISO again was never going to help.

@zorin

Have you read this?

https://help.zorin.com/docs/getting-sta ... lution.%20

mpack wrote:Your actions say that you didn't know all that. You consistently conflate RAM and disk space.

Zorin wrote:Perhaps my system is lacking something?

Yes, your notebook PC lacks RAM, and the VM lacks disk space. These are problems with your physical PC, so downloading the Zorin installer ISO again was never going to help.

Perhaps a bit more patience and toleration Might help the situation.

BillG wrote:@zorin

Have you read this?

https://help.zorin.com/docs/getting-sta ... lution.%20

Thanks BillG, I did read that and am now downloading, or at least trying, to download the lite version and see if that helps
Thanks again..