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Virtual Machine FAQ

Hardware Resources Requirement

A computer, PC or Mac, with:

  • at least 26 GiB or available disk space (better: 32 GiB)
  • a processor with at least 2 cores (better: 4 cores)
  • at least 4 GiB RAM (better: 8 GiB)
  • OS: Windows, MacOS, Linux (better: the last one 😃)

Installing

Virtualbox Software

  • install the latest available version of Virtualbox
  • install the corresponding Extension Pack (on the same webpage). Be very careful, the version number of the Extension Pack has to be the same as Virtualbox. From within VirtualBox: File -- Parameters -- Extensions -- Add.

Enable Virtualization technology on your computer

If it has not been done yet, you have to enter the BIOS and activate manually either VT-d (for Intel processors), or AMD-V (for AMD). See, for instance, this link (in French) on how to proceed.

Install the VM

Import the virtual machine (the .ova file) through the Virtualbox menu.

VM Quickstart

Resize the screen

Depending on tyour screen resolution, you may need to go to the menu Écran -> Écran virtuel no 1, and modify the scale factor (100%--200%)

Password

The default password is 123456, to change it see the menu Administration -> Users and Groups

Keyboard Permanent Configuration

You are strongly encouraged, on your very first session, to configure your keyboard. If you have an AZERTY keyboard, in a terminal, type the command cpc-fr (if you have a PC), or cmac-fr (if you have a mac). You password will be required. More details below if you need a more complex configuration.

Allowing More (or Less) Resources to the VM

Depending on your computer, you may want to allocate more, or less, RAM resources to the VM. Recommendations: - no less than 1 GiB of RAM - no more than 50% of your total system RAM - 1 processor should be enough, sometimes 2 is needed - you can increase the video memory to 128 MiB - you can configure USB to be USB 3

Two common resource problems are: - the VM stalls: there is not enough RAM dedicated to the VM (especially if you use VSCode) - your (host) computer stalls/heavily swaps : more than 50% RAM is allocated to the VM and/or too many applications are opened on your host computer

Copy/paste between guest and host systems

The option has to be activated in the VM configuration (the VM has to be shut down): presse-papier partagé and glisser-déposer

"Host" escape key

The mouse and the keyboard can be strongly captured by the VM. To get out of this situation, there is a "host" key, the default is right-Ctrl but it can be configured.

Text Editor

Visual Studio Code

VSCode is availabe. In a terminal, launch is as code, or code file.py to edit the file file.py.

Other Editors

In case of troubles with VSCode, gedit and vim are available. Feel free to install any othe text editor of your choice.

Details on the keyboard configuration

The AZERTY (FR) and QWERTY (US) layouts are available by default and you can switch between them.

Switch between the layouts

  • click on the keyboard indicator, in the top right corner, to switch from US <-> FR both ways
  • keyboard shortcut: Alt+Shift
  • on the login screen: it is impossible on the first time, so keep in mind hat the layout is (temporarily) french.

Configure your keyboard permanently

We have written some scripts that allow you to configure your keyboard in the VM, permanently. You are encouraged, during your first session to do it.

  • if you have an AZERTY keyboard on a PC, type in a terminal the command cpc-fr
  • for a QWERTY keyboard on a PC: cpc-us
  • AZERTY on a Mac: cmac-fr
  • to keep the possibility to switch between AZERTY and QWERTY (this is the default behavior): cpc-frus

For more information (Spanish, Chinese, Russian...) see below, as well as the file scripts/clavier.sh and all the other scripts in the folder.

Manually Add/Remove a Layout

In the LXQt Graphical Session

  • in the main menu, go to Preferences -> Keyboard
  • in the "Layout" tab, add/remove the wanted layout and model

NB : if you use the scripts of the previous section, there custom choice will be erased at the restart. To make your custom choices permament, go to the menu

Preferences -> Startup Applications, and the, in "Lancement Automatique", disable "Keyboard Configure".

On the Login Screen

You need to tweak the configuration files of lightdm and of the X server

  • sudo featherpad etc/default/keyboard
  • to add or remove layouts, modify the line Option "XkbLayout" "fr,us" as well as the following lines
  • e.g., to add a chinese and russian layout on a PC-type keyboard : Option "XkbLayout" "fr,us,cn,ru"
  • and if the keyboard is a Mac-type keyboard (with the euro sign) XKBMODEL="macbook79"
  • as well, you need to edit the two files in the folder /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

  • 00-keyboard.conf and 10-evdev.conf (don't forget to use sudo to edit and save)

  • the complete list of keyboard models is there https://gist.github.com/jatcwang/ae3b7019f219b8cdc6798329108c9aee

In Case of an Emergency : Complete Manual Setting

In a terminal, type

setxkbmap -model "pc105" -layout "us"

for a US layout on a PC, or

setxkbmap -model "pc105" -layout "fr"

for a FR layout on a PC, or

setxkbmap -model "macbook78" -layout "fr"

for a FR layout on a Mac without the euro sign.