Install Clear Linux (Intel Linux OS) on a Virtual Machine using VirtualBox

The Clear Linux Project for Intel Architecture is building a Linux OS distribution targeted for various cloud use cases. The goal of the Clear Linux OS is to showcase the best of Intel Architecture technology, from low-level kernel features to more complex use cases that span the entire operating system stack. Emphasis is been put on Power and Performance optimizations throughout the operating system as a whole.

Clear Linux Key Features

• With Clear Linux OS stateless feature, it can effectively perform a “factory reset” on the system and you can immediately set it up again
• With Clear Containers, ways are been worked on to improve security of containers by using Intel Virtualization Technology
• Cloud Integrated Advanced Orchestrator (ciao) is a new workload scheduler designed to address limitations in current cloud OS projects
• Clear Linux for Intel Architecture includes a telemetry solution that rapidly detects and responds to quality issues in the field
• Clear Linux OS for Intel Architecture is the first Linux distribution that supports auto proxy
• Mixing is a term we use to describe composing an OS for very specific use cases
• AutoFDO uses a sampling-based profile to drive feedback-directed optimizations
• Function Multiversioning (FMV) is a compiler feature that is capable of optimizing the same code for multiple architectures, automatically selecting the correct architecture-specific version of the code at runtime

How to Install Clear Linux on a Virtual Machine using VirtualBox

Create a virtual machine in VirtualBox

• Download the latest live version (clear-XXXX-live.img.xz)

[su_button url=”https://download.clearlinux.org/image/” target=”blank” icon=”icon: download”]DOWNLOAD THE LIVE IMAGE[/su_button]

• Decompress the downloaded image.
  • On Linux Machine

xz -d clear-XXXX-live.img.xz

• • On a Windows Machine, use 7zip.

• Convert the raw image to VDI format by running either of the following commands (Note: open the command prompt as an Administrator > Change to directory Virtualbox was installed on, in my case “E:\program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox”. Then note to point to directory you extracted the image file to)

VBoxManage convertfromraw e:\Ubuntu\clear-linux\clear-12540-live.img e:\Ubuntu\clear-linux\clear-12540-live.vdi --format VDI

or:

vbox-img convert --srcfilename e:\Ubuntu\clear-linux\clear-12540-live.img --dstfilename e:\Ubuntu\clear-linux\clear-12540-live.vdi --srcformat raw --dstformat vdi

• Now create a new virtual machine using the following settings
  • Type: Linux
  • Version: Linux 2.6 / 3.x / 4.x (64-bit)
  • On Hard disk, select “Use an existing virtual hard disk file”

• Next go to settings to enable EFI support
  • System -> Enable EFI (special OSes only)

Start and Configure Clear Linux OS

• When you start the VM for the first time, Clear Linux will ask for a login user, type root and then enter new password

Now time to get the OS up and running

• Install the bundle that supports VirtualBox modules

swupd bundle-add kernel-lts

• Set a timeout in the bootmanager to shows a menu at boot time

clr-boot-manager set-timeout 10

• Update the bootloader entries

clr-boot-manager update

• Reboot the machine

reboot

• On restart, choose LTS kernel version

(Optional) Unset timeout to boot directly to LTS version

clr-boot-manager set-timeout 0

• Update bootmanger to use always LTS version

clr-boot-manager update

Next Install Guest Additions

• Install the sysadmin-basic bundle

swupd bundle-add sysadmin-basic

• Insert Guest Additions CD image using Devices menu and Install

install-vbox-lga

• Reboot your system

reboot

• Setup the Clear Linux graphical user interface ans start it up

swupd bundle-add os-utils-gui

startxfce4