Download And Install The Virtual Machine

The Virtual Machine

A Virtual Machine is basically a whole computer that runs inside your computer and shares it’s resources. For instance, you could be running windows on a Virtual Machine that is running in MacOS that is on your actual computer. We’ll be installing a Virtual Machine that has Ubuntu Linux that can run on whatever system you happen to currently be running. This Virtual Machine already has all of the software and modules that you’ll need for the class.

Get Virtual Box

You must first download the Virtual Box environment from:

On this page, click on the Downloads link and then choose the version appropriate for your laptop. Make sure you download and install both the Virtual Box platform package and the Virtual Box Extension Pack (same one for all kinds of laptops). You must first install the Virtual Box and start it. Then, double click on the extension pack to install it. (On windows, we are recommending that you use version 4.3.12 instead of the most current version.)

After installation, you can remove the downloaded files.

Get The Virtual Machine

Download ‘Ubuntu.ova’ from

Open Virtual Box, click the file menu and then click import appliance. Navigate to where you saved the .ova file and start the process of loading the virtual machine. Accept all requests for default settings.

Now, right click on Ubuntu in the left-hand side panel and enable PAE mode in settings.

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Once this has loaded, inside of Virtual Box, double-click on the Ubuntu machine to get it started. It may take a view moments. The VM will log you in automatically as the student account with pass password. (Used for installing software too)

Error Condition

In some circumstances you may get an error:

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Ubuntu.
A new node couldn't be inserted because one with the same name exists. (VERR_CFGM_NODE_EXISTS).
Result Code:    E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:      Console
Interface:      IConsole {8ab7c520-2442-4b66-8d74-4ff1e195d2b6}

This is related to an issue with the USB configuration. Should this occur, right click on Ubuntu again and go to settings. Go to the USB tab and disable USB. Then double click on Ubuntu to start the virtual machine.

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Poke Around

Now it’ll be a good idea to just poke around. The environment is not entirely dissimilar to windows, so you should be able to find your way around. Everything that you’ll need for the class has already been installed, but you should try to use it all anyway.

  • Register and set up your Dropbox account.

  • Open Wing IDE, type print “hello world!” and hit the green play button.

  • Also:

    • Download the Test File
    • Open it in Wing IDE
    • Push the green play button
    • Look for error messages in the text output area. We’ve already tested the python installation on the VM, so this should be fine.

  • Open Firefox and watch a youtube video about the mimic octopus to test your internet connection in the VM.

  • Enjoy.