How to install Debian on VirtualBox in Windows 11

Debian is a stable, secure, and open-source operating system within the Linux family, developed by a global community of volunteers. VirtualBox, by Oracle, is a powerful and user-friendly open-source virtualization platform for running multiple operating systems on a single physical machine. In this post, we will see how to install Debian on VirtualBox.

Install Debian on VirtualBox in Windows 11

If you want to install the Debian Linux distro on VirtualBox in Windows 11/10, , follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Meet all the prerequisites
2. Create the virtual machine
3. Get your machine ready for Debian
4. Install Debian

Let us talk about them in detail.

1] Meet all the prerequisites

The first thing we need to do in this case is install the Oracle VirtualBox utility. If you already have it, you can skip this step, but if you don’t, follow the steps mentioned below to install VirtualBox.

1. Open a browser, and go to virtualbox.org.
2. From the VirtualBox Platform Packages section, click on the platform you wish to install the utility. Your browser will then start downloading the installation media.
3. Once downloaded, double-click on the installation media to initiate the installation process and follow the on-screen instructions to complete it.

After installing VirtualBox, you can move on to the next step.

Debian is a free Linux distro, so, we can go to debian.org and click on the hyperlink to initiate the download process. Once you click the link, your browser will download the Debian ISO file.

Apart from this, you must have 20GB of free space on your hard drive and at least 4GB of memory free when you are going to run music.

Read: How to install Kali Linux on VMWare Workstation

2] Create the virtual machine

Next, we are going to create a virtual machine on top of which we will install Debian. You don’t have to follow our exact configuration, as it is just based on our system resources; you can alter it depending on your organization’s policy and/or your system’s prowess.

To create a virtual machine, follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Open Oracle VirtualBox.
2. Click on the New button to launch the Create Virtual Machine wizard.
3. In the Name field, enter ‘Debian’.
4. Click on the drop-down menu right next to the ISO Image and click on Other.
5. Navigate to the location where you have stored the downloaded ISO image, in most cases, it will be the Downloads folder.
6. Click on Next.
7. You will be asked to enter the credentials. Fill out the field according to your choice and click on Next.
8. Now, use the slider to set the base memory and the number of processors used. We recommend allocating at least 4GB of memory.
9. Click Next.
10. Select Create a Virtual Hard Disk Now, allocate some memory, and click on Next.
11. Check out the Summary and click on Finish.

This will create a virtual machine and then start it. However, you need to make some additional changes, so shut down the machine and proceed to the next step.

Read: How to install Linux Ubuntu on Hyper-V

3] Get your machine ready for Debian

As mentioned earlier, we can not just install Debian straightaway; we need to make a few changes before doing that. Follow the steps mentioned below to do the same.

1. Right-click on the newly created virtual machine and select Settings.
2. When you are on the General tab, go to Advanced and set the Shared Clipboard and Drag’n’Drop options to Bidirectional.
3. Go to the System tab, and use the Arrow keys to change the Boot Order sequence, such that, Optical is at first, and then Hard Disk is at the second. Make sure to deselect all the other booting options.
4. Go to Processor, and then tick the Enable PAE/NX box.
5. Go to Display > Screen, configure the Video Memory and disable Enable 3D Acceleration.

Finally, save the changes we made.

Read: How to install Kali Linux in VirtualBox

4] Install Debian

We have created an environment to install Debian, so, let’s just get on with it. To do so, follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Start the Debian virtual machine.
2. Use your keyboard to continue the installation process, which will take a lot of time.
3. Once done, you will be asked to enter the credentials we set earlier to log into your operating system.
4. Then select a language, date, time, and region and set up your account.

Now, you can go ahead and start using Debian.

Read: How to install Ubuntu in VirtualBox in Windows 11?