Originally authored in March 2013, and ported to the blog in 2016. I soon gave up on the Virtual Box and moved to a cheap linux server…

This page is for me, for exactly what I want, and is on the internet in case I need it again. If you find it useful then cool.

All the information on the page comes from Google, and I thank all the techies out there for posting their own longer guides.

Ubuntu in the Oracle virtual box

Download Ubuntu 12.0.4 iso image

Complete install using an iso image

So, create Ubuntu vm
Click on settings etc
disk and then CD
Change CD to point to iso file and start it
and it installs
once done
shut down
and click on cd again to use the native cd drive.

Install the additions by clicking on the menu.

Ensure VM is shutdown (not suspended)
Upped video memory to 128M
Upped system memory to 2G
Do not increase CPU's above 1 as it wont start
Increase CPU to 70% or more so its allowed to use the compute power - limited to 1% at startup


NOTE:
When in scale mode cannot see the menu bar - right ctrl-c and you go back to windowed.

On a new laptop the below killed a nice ubuntu install and wasted hours of my life, so DO NOT do:
#To get screen resolution sorted out
#sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-x11

Stay up to date

Update your APT database with sudo apt-get update, and typing your password, if requested. Install the latest security updates with

sudo apt-get upgrade;

Java 7 from Oracle

Source: http://www.magentodeveloperleedsuk.co.uk/installing-oracle-java-jdk-7-on-ubuntu-12-04-step-by-step/

Download from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7u9-downloads-1859576.html

Version1:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0
sudo mv ./* /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/bin/java" 1
 
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/bin/javac" 1 
 
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javaws" "javaws" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/bin/javaws" 1

Version 2:

# Install Sun Java 6 JDK
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

# Select Sun's Java as the default on your machine.
# See 'sudo update-alternatives --config java' for more information.
#
$ sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun

Install Eclipse

Source: http://www.blogs.digitalworlds.net/softwarenotes/?p=54

sudo mv eclipse-SDK-4.2.1-linux-gtk.tar.gz /opt/
cd /opt/
sudo tar -xzvf eclipse-SDK-4.2.1-linux-gtk.tar.gz
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

now place the following in the Ubuntu desktop file

[Desktop Entry]
 Name=Eclipse
 Type=Application
 Exec=/opt/eclipse/eclipse
 Terminal=false
 Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
 Comment=Integrated Development Environment
 NoDisplay=false
 Categories=Development;IDE
 Name[en]=eclipse.desktop

and drag and drop into the dash bar.

Obtain Git

sudo apt-get install git

Obtain Maven

Download maven from maven.apache.org

tar -zxf apache-maven-3.0.5-bin.tar.gz
sudo cp -R apache-maven-3.0.5 /usr/local
sudo ln -s /usr/local/apache-maven-3.0.5/bin/mvn /usr/bin/mvn  
mvn –version

Mvn plugin for Eclipse

use eclipse help menu, software updates, and url http://download.eclipse.org/technology/m2e/releases

Git plugin for Eclipse

again, help menu, software updates, and url http://download.eclipse.org/egit/updates

Emacs

If you like emacs, eg for Git then sudo apt-get install emacs

Vim

If you want vim sudo apt-get install vim