1. Download and install the VirtualBox software for your platform from https://www.virtualbox.org
2. Download the virtual machine image This file is rather large (2.0 GB)
3. Start VirtualBox
4. Click on the New button, then fill in the dialog box as follows:
   • IF the button on the bottom of the screen should says Export Mode, then click on it. This will toggle the box so that it provides more options (and the button will change to Guided Mode
   • The type needs to be Linux
   • The Version should be Other Linux (64-bit)
   • The memory size needs to be 4096
   • The radio buttons for hard disks should have Create a virtual hard disk now selected
   
   
   The press the Create button. This will bring you to another dialog box. Select the file size to be 20 GB with the hard disk file type as VDI and the storage on physical hard disk selected to Dynamically allocated.. Then press the Create button.
5. Start the machine by double clicking on the name (CS354VM in my examples). The list of machines is on the left side of your VirtualBox window
6. It will prompt you to select the for the ISO file that you downloaded (linuxmint-20.2-cinnamon-64bit.iso). You will need to select the little folder on the bottom right side of the panel, then select Add, then locate the ISO file you downloaded in the previous step.
   

   

You will then need to proceed through the Linux OS configuration screens. The screen might be a little difficult to read at this point, but, this will be resolved after the next few steps.

1. Select English and then continue
2. Take the default keyboard (English (US) and press Continue
3. Take New York as the default timezone, and press Continue
4. Select your name (use your e-id. For example, I used molloykp). This will auto populate the next 3 fields.
5. Select a password and then press Continue

The system will then execute a few configuration scripts (this took about 2 minutes on my laptop). At the conclusion of this process, you will need to login to the virtual machine using your username and password.

To allow your VM to run more smoothly, install the Guest Additions.

1. Start your VM and log in
2. Click on the devices menu in your OS (not within the VM) and select Insert Guest Additions CD image...
3. The system will then prompt you to run the image, click Run. Enter your VM password when prompted.
4. When completed, you will get a Press Return to close this window..., so press return.
5. Restart your VM.

Some releases of VirtualBox seem to set the display scaling to 200\%. To check this setting, go to the VirtualVM menu, Preferences, then click on the Display icon. Check the scale factor setting and adjust to your preference. I set mine to 100%.

Robotics tasks such as planning and virtual rendering of the robotics within a simulator can be a computationally expensive task. ROS's design utilizes multiprogramming, so enabling your virtual machine to utilize additional cores will improve performance. You can increase the number of CPU core's and video memory available to your virtual machine.

• Shutdown your virtual machine if it is running (otherwise, some of the settings can not be changed)
• On the VirtualBox home screen, select your virtual machine and then click the yellow gear button for settings.
• The click the system button and select processor (as shown in the image below). Increase the CPUs/cores.
• Click on display, and increase video memory to its maximum settings (128 MB) and make sure that Enable 3D acceleration is checked. An example of this configuration is shown below (right).