Technical and VM queries

Q. What are the minimum technical requirements?

To fully benefit from the virtual format, participants will require minimum computational

specifications and internet access. You can use a PC running Windows or Linux, or a Mac running OSX. In all you will need admin rights to the machine in order to install the VM. The minimum recommended requirements are:

• Webcam and microphone (for interactive video-conferencing, e.g. Zoom)

• 8GB RAM

• i5 processor

• 80 GB free hard disk space

• 8Mbps download speed

Q: What is the size of the VM? Can I run it from an external drive?

A: The VM is ~24 GB zipped, but unpacks to ~60GB unzipped. It can run on an external HD, but this must be a high speed connection (usb3/usb c)

Q: Do we download virtual box first? then VM?

You will have to download the virtual box to launch the VM you download in line with the OS you are running on your computer/ laptop

Q: I have just followed the provided tutorial and installed the virtual box to the very end. But when I start up the virtual machine (ubuntu) I am only seeing a black screen. What could be the issue?

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A: This needs to be dealt with on a case by case basis as there might be a few reasons and solutions.

• Not enough RAM allocated.

• Possibility of a corrupted download

• Try increasing the guest's video ram

• Try rebooting in headless mode and once booted select "Show"

• Otherwise send your VMs log that will be somewhere here:

  ~/VirtualBox VMs/ngs2021/Logs/VBox.log . We can then have a look and see if there is anything we can identify as the problem.

Q: We have serious problems downloading the VM. For someone who already uses Ubuntu 64-bits, is it necessary to download the VM?

A: Yes. There is a lot of software and data on the VM which they won't have.

Q: Is there a link or a resource on Vula to download the virtual machine? or do we just download any preferred virtual machine online?

A: There are announcements on Vula giving details of how to download the virtual machine. Please do not just use any virtual machine as it won’t have the software and data required for the course.

Q: My PC is running windows, and I have successfully downloaded the file through the link, but I can't install the extracted file named NGSBioRC_2021.vdi. Please how do I progress from here?

My analysis gave that also: The VM was set up with virtual box version 6.0.x which is no longer supported. So I select a higher version 6.1. But when I have to choose the system type, I cannot select the Ubuntu (64-bits) only ubuntu 32-bits was available. Also MD5 number didn't match

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A: With regard to the md5, did you run the check against the zipped or unzipped file?

A: The issue with 32 bit VM is detailed in the document about common issues you may see during installation. Essentially, you need to go to your BIOS and change a setting.

Q: The file is too large and it’s taking a lot of time...

A: It needs to be that large to include all of the data and software needed for the course. Be patient, it may take several hours to download

Q: [Do linux users also required to install the VM?]{.mark}

[A: Yes. There is a lot of software and data on the VM which they won't have.]{.mark}

Q: My Virtual Machine is not loading on the Virtuabox platform. I have tried all thing possible as stated on the documentation provided with the download. I have another virtuabox machine and it loads. Is it possible to carry on with that one?

A: No. The virtual machine for the course contains required software and data which won’t be available on your virtual machine.

Q: I have been working on Linux using another VM (CentOS 8 64-bit) that I power it on using program called (VMware workstation pro). is it possible to use this machine through the course or do I need to download the VM you mentioned ?

A: You will need to download the mentioned VM. Your VM will not contain the course data or all of the software required for the course.

Q: How can I solve the problem below

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A: That looks like you don't have admin rights on your PC. Either install as the admin user or ask someone with admin rights to the install.

Q: Can a Staff download the VM onto a pendrive for the participants to copy instead of each person downloading on their own? This will also minimize band width challenges I believe

A: This is fine to do. I wouldn't advise running from the pen drive though.

Q: I downloaded the vm file but I can't open them neither on ubuntu nor windows. as I couldn't download the oracle and I dunno the command line for unubtu.

A: You will need to install VirtualBox even on Ubuntu.

Q: Can i download and install it on external hard drive and work from it??

A: You can. The external drive will need to be USB3.0 or better and I wouldn't recommend running from a pen drive.

Q: How much hard drive space is needed? I have a 64-bit OS, with 4GB RAM,. How much of hard drive space will be needed for the installation?

A: I think 60 to 80GB will be enough space. The VM file initially expands out to 38GB but will grow as the course goes on.

Q: Do linux users also required to install the VM?

A: Yes. There is a lot of software and data on the VM which they won't have.

Q: I am not able to see working VM. I got message Auto Capture keyboar optons turned on. This wil cause the Virtual Machine to automatically capture the keyboar every time the VM winow is activated and make it unavialable to other applications running on your host machines: When the keyboar is captured, all keystrokes including system ones like Alt-TAB) will be directed to the VM. Abd U see image like the following.

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A: The message about autocapture isn't something to worry about. You can close that. However it looks like your VM has booted into grub. This shouldn't happen automatically. Please try closing it and restarting as an initial step.

Q: Can I use my linux Ubuntu 2020 machine directly? I have make a directory of NGS-2021 in my machine. So I don't know if it is necessary installing and working on VM.

A: Unfortunately, you will need to install VirtualBox and download the virtual machine file. It contains software and data which you won't have on a standard Ubuntu 2020 LTS build.

Q: Some colleagues with 64 bit processor laptop were unable to load Ubuntu64 bit during installation. Please what could be responsible for that.

A: I got the same issue, then I download ubuntu it helped

Q: So if we have already downloaded virtual machine in other projects, we will have to download it again for this course?

A: Yes, you have to download the VM specific for this course. It has all the software and materials for this course.

Q: HP Workstation Issue

If anyone is running the VM on an HP Workstation running Windows 10, they may see the following error:

“Error relaunching VirtualBox VM process: 5”

Followed by:

 ”Please try reinstalling VirtualBox.

where: supR3HardenedWinReSpawn what: 5 VERR_INVALID_NAME (-104) -

Invalid (malformed) file/path name. [/i]”

It can be resolved by uninstalling the HP Sure Click security software, followed by restarting the workstation.

Q: Problem with new Macs

A: Currently, the main software we use for this course, VirtualBox, is not compatible with the new Apple M1 chipset. If your computer is a new Mac using this chipset, please try to source a machine using an Intel processor.

Q: VM image works only on 64 bit processor. Unable to have it working on 32 bit processor on window 7

The downloaded Ubuntu image will only work on a 64 bit processor. Please check if virtualisation is enabled in your BIOS and try again.  

 

Q: I have issues with the file downloads. I use a Mac OS and can't seen to open any of them as expected even with unarchiver. Please is there a .dmg for mac users OR anything else?

You need to install and open VirtualBox first. After that go through the instructions you have downloaded on how to attach the NGSBioRC_2021.vdi image.

 

Q: After downloading the VirtualBox through the following link: [https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_6_0 [virtualbox.org]]{.underline} The next step is downloading the installer for the current operating system. Which installer is meant?

On the page there is an option to download an installer for every OS. Just select the appropriate installer according to your OS.

VM Download queries

Q: During the process of downloading and after 4G download, the process was cancelled and I get a failed message with no file

Q: Every time you download VM and it stops downloading, does it start from zero when you say resume

Q: I tried to download the VM. But at the end downloading, I received a "Fail - Forbidden notification.

If it is related to Google then here are some suggestions: [https://appuals.com/how-to-fix-failed-forbidden-error-when-downloading-from-google-drive/ [appuals.com]]{.underline}

Try the Globus method if direct download links are not working.