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This page will help you get started with using FreedomBox on a virtual machine using VirtualBox. While VirtualBox images are primarily used for testing and development, they can also be used for regular use if you have spare resources on one of your machines. This setup is useful if:

  • You don't own one of the supported hardware devices.

  • You don't use Debian GNU/Linux as your operating system.
  • You don't want to disturb your Debian installation to try out FreedomBox.

Creating a Virtual Machine

  1. Download and verify FreedomBox images for VirtualBox.

  2. Decompress the VDI image.
  3. Create a new VirtualBox VM.

  4. If you want to duplicate the DreamPlug experience, make sure to give it 512 MB RAM.

  5. When it asks you about a "Virtual Hard Disk" select the .vdi file you extracted from the archive.
  6. Make sure to go into your VM's settings and check the "Enable PAE/NX" box in the [System] -> [Processor] screen.

Network Configuration

Configure the network interfaces before booting the Vm. Basically wou will add two network adapters to the freedombox: One to provide internet to the freedombox, and one to access the freedombox virtual machine from your host system.

1. File -> Preferences -> [Network] -> [Host-only Networks]

  • Add a new host-only network with an IPv4 address like 192.168.56.1.

2. VM's settings -> [Network] -> [Adapter 1]

  • The first adapter will provide Internet to your freedombox.
  • If you want your box to be accessible from the local network: Enable the adapter as "Attached to: Bridged Adapter", connected to an interface on the host that can access the internet.
  • If your freedombox should only be accessible from your host only, enable the adapter as "Attached to: NAT". Your freedombox can access the internet

3. VM's settings -> [Network] -> [Adapter 2]

  • Enable as Host-only Adapter using the host-only network from step 1.

That should be enough to let you boot the VM.

Using

You can log in as the following user:

  • Username: fbx

    Password: frdm

After logging in, you can become root with the command sudo su. See the FreedomBox ?usage page for more details.

Tips & Troubleshooting

Networking Problems with macchanger

The package macchanger can cause network problems with VirtualBox. If you have a valid IP address on your guest's host network adapter (like 192.168.56.101) but are not able to ping or access the host (like 192.168.56.1), try uninstalling macchanger:

$ dpkg --remove macchanger --ignore-depends freedombox-setup

You might have to manually remove the script /etc/network/if-prep-up/macchanger.

Mounting Images Locally

If you want to mount images locally, use the following to copy built images off the VirtualBox:

$ mkdir /tmp/vbox-img1 /tmp/vbox-root1
$ vdfuse -f freedombox-unstable_2013.0519_virtualbox-i386-hdd.vdi /tmp/vbox-img1/
$ sudo mount -o loop /tmp/vbox-img1/Partition1 /tmp/vbox-root1
$ cp /tmp/vbox-root1/home/fbx/freedom-maker/build/freedom*vdi ~/
$ sudo umount /tmp/vbox-root1
# $ sudo umount /tmp/vbox-img1 # corruption here.


CategoryFreedomBox