How to Install Microsoft’s CBL-Mariner on VirtualBox – Guide
Want to try Microsoft’s new CBL-Mariner Linux distribution? Fortunately, you can easily install it on your system using VirtualBox. Microsoft has released its own Linux distribution – the Common Base Linux Mariner (CBL-Mariner). It’s a general notion that Linux and Windows are arch-rivals, considering the fact that they are constantly trying to win over computer users with their offerings. The launch of the CBL-Mariner took a lot of people by surprise, but that’s how the tech-driven world works. Rest assured, Microsoft is not replacing Windows with CBL-Mariner. In fact, CBL-Mariner was created to assist Microsoft’s internal engineering team. Let’s explore CBL-Mariner in depth and look at the steps to install it on a virtual machine.
What is CBL-Mariner?
Microsoft’s Linux Systems Group created and developed the CBL-Mariner. It’s not just another Linux distribution, it serves a greater purpose for Microsoft. CBL’s main objective is to pave the way for the development of cutting-edge Microsoft products and services, in addition to the development of cloud infrastructure. The operating system source code is licensed under different open source licenses, including the GNU General Public License and the MIT License. It currently exists as a GitHub repository and there is no ISO image to install the OS on your machine. The good news is that you can still use the distro by building your own ISO image and installing it on your virtual machine. CBL-Mariner is not new to the world of technology. Previously, it was used internally by Microsoft to maintain the Azure cloud infrastructure. Redmond has improved CBL security by hardening the kernel, providing signed updates, using compiler-based protection, tamper-proof logging, and many others features.
How to Install CBL-Mariner on VirtualBox
Converting the source code to an ISO image is probably the simplest way to get the distro up and running in a virtual machine. This method includes downloading code from the repository and converting it to an ISO image. For the purpose of this article, installation was performed on VirtualBox, which is a popular virtual machine hypervisor.
Step 1: Download VirtualBox
If you don’t already have VirtualBox installed on your system, you can download it from the website and install it before creating the ISO image.
Step 2: Installing the required dependencies
Before starting the actual installation, you will need to install some dependencies on your Linux machine. You may already have some of them, but it’s always good to double check. To install dependencies on a Debian-based distribution like Ubuntu, type the following
Step 3: Cloning the GitHub repository
The next step is to clone the official CBL GitHub repository using the git clone command.
Step 4: Generating the ISO image
After downloading the source code, the next step is to access a specific directory to generate the ISO image. Enter the following commands one by one to create the ISO for boot The system will send the ISO file to the / out / images / full after a successful conversion.
Step 5: Creating the virtual machine
The first step is to open VirtualBox. Then click on the New button to create a new VM. After clicking on New, a dialog will open up. In the name column, type CBL-Mariner as the operating system. At the Model drop-down list, select Linux. Also, you need to select Other Linux (64 bit) as the version. On the next screen, you should assign the memory size to your machine. Ideally, you can assign 1GB of RAM in this step. If you can allocate more, set the memory accordingly. However, there is an upper limit, so it’s best to follow the onscreen instructions. On the next screen, click on the Create a virtual hard drive now option. so choose dynamically allocated as the option to Physical Hard Disk Storage. As soon as you click on Next, you will reach the Location and file size screen. Enter the path where you would like to save the VDI File. In addition, you can also select the size of the virtual hard disk. An ideal size is 10GB of disk space, but you can allocate more space if you have plenty of free storage space on your system. click in I create to complete the creation of the virtual machine.
Step 6: Configuring the Virtual Machine
To configure the virtual machine, you need to click on the newly created virtual machine in the left sidebar. So select CBL-Mariner, followed by Definitions, and finally the Store option. On the Storage tab, click on optical drive icon and select the ISO file created earlier. Now you can start the virtual machine with the CBL-Mariner ISO image by clicking on the To start button.
Step 7: Installing CBL-Mariner on your VM
Start installing the ISO file using the graphical installer. Follow the steps provided to proceed with the installation. Choose the Graphic Installer in the list of options at the beginning of the installation. Choose the CBL-Mariner Full option in the installation window for a complete installation. You can also opt for the Core installation option if you don’t want any preloaded packages. The choice won’t make much difference as the system hardly includes packages. Congratulations! CBL-Mariner is now installed on your machine. Unfortunately, it starts in command line mode, so you’ll have direct access to the terminal window.
Running CBL-Mariner in a virtual machine
Installing CBL-Mariner is not a very simple process. You don’t get a real ISO file, which makes the installation process tedious. However, installation is very similar to any other conventional distro, especially after generating the ISO file.
Final note
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