3 NeuroDebian Virtual Machine
4 ===========================
10 For those who are not yet running a Debian-based operation system we offer a
11 `virtual machine`_ that can be used with `VirtualBox`_, allowing users to benefit
12 from a Debian-based research environment on other operating systems.
13 This virtual machine initially comes as a compact Debian installation that can,
14 once installed, be equipped with a large variety of neuroscience software with
15 just a few mouse clicks (e.g. AFNI_, Caret_, FSL_, PyMVPA_).
17 .. _virtual machine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine
18 .. _AFNI: http://afni.nimh.nih.gov/afni/
19 .. _Caret: http://brainvis.wustl.edu/wiki/index.php/Caret:About
20 .. _FSL: http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/
21 .. _PyMVPA: http://www.pymvpa.org
27 The virtual machine contains an installation of `Debian 6.0 (squeeze)`_ with a
28 GNOME_ desktop environment. All installed software comes from standard Debian
29 packages, or prospective Debian packages from NeuroDebian. This means that all
30 contained software is readily available for any system running a Debian
31 operating system (or a recent Ubuntu release). The virtual machine can be seen
32 as a showcase of what Debian for neuroscience research feels like. Moreover,
33 once downloaded this virtual machine can be kept up to date, just as any other
34 Debian installation. Using convenient graphical package management tools users
35 will benefit from security bug fixes provided by the Debian project for the
36 whole operating system, as well as from software updates for
37 neuroscience-related packages.
39 .. _Debian 6.0 (squeeze): http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze
40 .. _GNOME: http://www.gnome.org/
46 The following video shows how to get the NeuroDebian virtual machine running
47 on your machine. The installation is shown for Mac OS X. It should, however, be
48 very similar on a Windows box. If you cannot watch the video, please take a
49 look at the written instructions below. You can also watch a `[Virtual machine
50 setup video tutorial] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqfjKV5XaTE>`_.
52 First download and install a recent version of VirtualBox_. VirtualBox is a
53 virtualization software that is freely available for Windows, MacOS X, Solaris,
54 and Linux. VirtualBox comes with a comprehensive manual that should answer
55 potential questions regarding installation and maintenance.
57 .. _VirtualBox: http://www.virtualbox.org
59 Next, download the most recent version of the NeuroDebian virtual machine from
60 the Downloads_ section. Start VirtualBox and select "Import Appliance" from the file
63 .. image:: pics/vm_import_app.jpg
65 The next dialog will ask you to choose a virtual machine. Please navigate to the
66 extracted NeuroDebian download and select the `.ova` (or extracted
67 `.ovf` for older appliances shipped as `.zip`) file.
69 .. image:: pics/vm_import_wizard.jpg
71 You can finish importing of NeuroDebian by clicking on *next* a couple of
72 times. There is no need to change anything, as we will get through the
73 settings in a second. Importing of the virtual machine will take a short
74 while, as it is distributed in a compressed format that now gets extracted
75 (total extracted size about 2 GB). Once imported, the NeuroDebian virtual
76 machine will appear in the list of available machines. Do **not** start it yet,
77 but select NeuroDebian and hit the *Settings* button. In the following dialog
78 you'll have a chance to configure the machine. You can assign the amount of RAM
79 that should be made available to it (for serious fMRI data processing, please
80 allow at least 2 GB). If you have a recent computer with multiple CPU cores,
81 you can also decide how many cores should be used by the virtual machine.
83 .. image:: pics/vm_add_host_folder.jpg
85 However, most important is the *Shared Folders* setup. Shared folders allow the
86 virtual machine to access the local harddrive of the host computer. This is an
87 easy way to access data on the computer without duplicating it or using the
88 network to access it. The virtual machine is preconfigured to access a shared
89 folder named labeled "host". Click on the *add* button to select a folder that
90 shall be accessible by the machine (e.g. your home directory) and put "host" as
91 the folder name and mark it to be auto-mounted. Note, the folder name is simply a label. Your directory will
94 .. image:: pics/vm_host_folder.jpg
96 If you have a large screen you should increase the display memory to
97 32 MB in the *Display* settings. Also you might like to enable the
98 support for 3D Acceleration
100 .. image:: pics/vm_settings_display.jpg
102 Finally, close the settings dialog. You have now completed the setup, and you
103 can start the virtual machine by hitting the *Start* button. A new window will
104 appear showing the boot process. After a short while the NeuroDebian desktop
105 will appear, and a setup wizard will guide your through the final steps of the
106 configuration. You can now explore the system. The virtual machine is connected
107 with your host computer, and shares its Internet connection. Via this
108 connection you can update the contained software packages at any time.
110 .. image:: pics/vm_settings.jpg
112 The virtual machine logs yourself in automatically. The name of the virtual
113 machine user is `brain` and the password is `neurodebian`. The *root* password
114 is also `neurodebian`. In most cases, however, you should not be forced to type
115 the password, since `sudo` is configured to work without it.
119 For increased security you might want to change the default password. You can
120 do so by opening a terminal window and running the ``passwd`` command.
123 Working with the virtual machine
124 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
126 The next video is a demonstration of some basic desktop integration features.
127 It shows how to use the virtual machine in full-screen and seamless mode, shared
128 folder access, software installation, as well as suspending and resuming the
129 virtual machine `[Virtual machine handling video tutorial]
130 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV7fYSEoOeQ>`_
133 .. _chap_vm_troubleshooting:
140 <div class="expandinstructions">Click on an item to expand it</div>
142 Updating the VM or installing new packages doesn't work
143 The VM uses as service that tries to figure out the best/closest package
144 repository for you. In some network environments this service might not work
145 well, or not at all. To check if this is a problem, you can modify the
146 respective configuration by hand. Edit ``/etc/apt/sources.list`` (you need to
147 use ``sudo`` for that) and replace the package repository URL with a mirror
148 close to you. A comprehensive list of mirrors is available at:
149 http://www.debian.org/mirror/list
151 Pick one and replace all ``geomirror.debian.net`` URLs with the new mirror
152 URL. For example, in Canada you might want to change::
154 deb http://i386-geomirror.debian.net/debian squeeze main non-free contrib
158 deb http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main non-free contrib
160 Only modify lines that refer to ``geomirror`` (all of them), but do **not**
161 modify entries for ``security.debian.org``.
163 I cannot hear sounds played in the virtual machine
164 By default the sound is muted. To enable playback launch the mixer applet by
165 clicking on the mixer icon in the task bar. Unmute the master volume control.
166 Now click on the "Volume control" to load the channel mixer dialog. Unmute
167 the "Master" and "PCM" channels and raise the volume as desired. You should
168 now be able to hear sounds played within the virtual machines through your
169 host computer's speakers.
171 My VM lost mounted host directories after upgrading from VirtualBox from 3.x to 4.x
172 NeuroDebian VMs prior 6.0.3 were shipped with guest additions from
173 3.x series of VirtualBox and some initial versions of VirtualBox in
174 4.x series have failed to mount host directories properly.
175 VirtualBox 4.0.8 seems to work fine with guest additions from 3.x
176 series. If you nevertheless want to upgrade guest additions within
177 NeuroDebian VM, please rebuild the version available from the
180 sudo apt-get install -y linux-headers-2.6-amd64 # or -686 for 32bit
181 sudo apt-get install -y -t squeeze-backports virtualbox-ose-guest-dkms \
182 virtualbox-ose-guest-utils virtualbox-ose-guest-x11
192 <div class="expandinstructions">Click on an item to expand it</div>
195 * Updated core system to Debian squeeze 6.0.3
196 * Updated shipped virtualbox-ose guest-utils and guest-x11 to 4.0.10
198 - ``~/host`` is now symlinked to correct path ``/media/sf_host``
199 - ``brain`` user is added to ``vboxsf`` group so mounted host
200 directories should become readily available
202 * Root partition size and swap space got doubled in size (40GB
203 and 2GB correspondingly). Space is allocated dynamically so
204 the actual size of the virtual drive should not grow unless
208 * Updated shipped virtualbox-ose guest-utils and guest-x11 to 4.0.4
210 6.0.3 -- 12 Jun 2011 [Superseded in the archive by 6.0.4]
211 * Updated to Squeeze 6.0.1
212 * Updated VirtualBox guest additions to 4.0.4 from backports.debian.org
213 * Appliance is available as a single file (.ova) ready for the import