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Eeny, meeny, miny, moe pick a Distro by the Toe

A little background, I bought a tripod for my cell phone to record grub start up. Total flop. Now I want to setup Virtualbox and use screen capture of grub booting there.

After problems with libssl 1.1.0 being incompatible with newer kernel headers and Kernel 4.14.34 being incompatible with Virtualbox 5.1 I've finally got it setup where it's now asking me for a bootable CD to install.

So which Distro should I pick?

  • I've allocated 2 GB of RAM even though VB recommended 1 GB of RAM.
  • I've allocated 10 GB of SSD space.

Since all I want to run is sudo update-grub and then reboot and make a GIF with peek of grub booting up, what is the smallest (and reliable) distro to install in VB in Ubuntu 16.04?

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  • I would say Lubuntu. Under the hood it's still Ubuntu so it should behave similarly. – Aaron Franke Jul 03 '18 at 23:21
  • @AaronFranke Good point. Plus if I have any problems I can post a question here. I started downloading Manjaro 17.1.11 which runs on Arch Linux and uses XFCE desktop because of good reviews but there are good points to sticking with what you know. My main concern was compatibility with Virtualbox with Ubuntu 16.04 given the problems I encountered today. I'm hoping someone who's used Virtualbox will list pro's and con's based on experience. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jul 03 '18 at 23:35
  • Ubuntu has problems with VirtualBox because VirtualBox has poor graphics support, it is designed for simple 2D interfaces or CLI only (for example, you can't run Windows Aero in VirtualBox very well, and Ubuntu uses a 3D accelerated DE). So your options are 1. Use a DE with less graphical effects (LXDE such as Lubuntu, XFCE such as in Xubuntu or Manjaro XFCE) or 2. If one wants to use full Ubuntu with graphical effects you should use VMware Workstation Player which has much better support for graphics. – Aaron Franke Jul 04 '18 at 01:41
  • @AaronFranke This is great advise about graphics under VB. I only want to boot into grub gfxmenu (graphical effects menu). Then up arrow/down arrow through menu options. Then select a Distro (16.04, 18.04, Windows 10). After the distro starts up end the recording and close the VB. The point of the project is to record how grub works. I won't actually use the Distro I install grub from into VB (other than running sudo-update grub from the command line). Hope that makes sense. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jul 04 '18 at 01:49
  • What is wrong with Virtual Box 5.2.14? – Takkat Jul 04 '18 at 07:44
  • @Takkat I was getting libssl dependency errors with newer kernel headers. I had to boot all the way back to 4.4.0-130 and reinstall virtualbox which defaulted to version 5.1.34. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jul 04 '18 at 10:00
  • @AaronFranke Manjaro is a 1.9 GB image. After downloading I couldn't burn it to external DVD USB 2.0 attached to USB 3.0 powered hub. Had to burn it from old laptop with internal DVD optical drive. After installation to VM it crashed with "FATAL" error probably because when I created the VM image I selected 64-bit Ubuntu. Rebooting the next day system froze at BIOS because Manjaro boot was still in external USB DVD which wouldn't boot through USB to USB 3.0 hub to USB 2.0 external drive. Almost had a heart attack. Are there installation instructions for LUBUNTU in Ubuntu VM with boxes to tick? – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jul 06 '18 at 00:59
  • Don't burn a disc. Point VirtualBox directly to the ISO image. – Aaron Franke Jul 06 '18 at 07:15
  • @AaronFranke Success with Lubuntu! Thanks for all your advise. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jul 08 '18 at 23:38

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I ended up going with Lubuntu 16.04. I had many problems setting up Virtualbox but I guess everyone does. In the end I had to downgrade x upgrade grub resolution from 1920x1080 to 1600x1200 to record the grub screen:

image3o.gif

Advantages of Lubuntu 16.04 over Manjaro

  • You get the familiar Debian commands like sudo apt install.
  • You can copy many of the same script used in Ubuntu 16.04.
  • If you have questions about Lubuntu many answers are already here in Ask Ubuntu
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