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I'm looking to install a few isolated applications that have a GUI onto multiple VirtualBox images. What is the smallest Ubuntu VirtualBox image file size with a GUI?

Zanna
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Patoshi パトシ
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    Very interesting question. Opening a Lubuntu guest in VirtualBox with installed Guest Additions, I get 320x80, not counting Status and Title Bars. Any size greater than this, you can do. – Redbob Sep 14 '17 at 04:13
  • @Redbob I believe the OP is asking as in smallest image size on disk, MB/GB etc.. Can the OP confirm? – nullmeta Sep 14 '17 at 13:30
  • Really, @nullmeta, otherwise he would have mentioned "resolution". it depends on what OP are proposed to run, specially talking about GUI. Lubuntu and Xubuntu are recommended, as they are lightweight. – Redbob Sep 14 '17 at 13:40
  • Yes I meant file size not resolution. – Patoshi パトシ Sep 14 '17 at 15:39
  • @Patoshiパトシ What kind of GUI, the dependencies of your programs and their GUI dependencies are important... can you name your programs? – Ravexina Aug 22 '18 at 20:27
  • microWattOS is Ubuntu based distro with i3 as their DE. The image fit into a CD. So it is below 700MB. Their latest still based on 16.04 though. Also Bodhi Linux just released a new image based on 18.04, about the same size. They use Enlightment as their DE. Maybe you can look into them. – aasril Aug 23 '18 at 08:48
  • Do you want the smallest VDI file size (hard drive) or OVA file (exported appliance)? – Niclas Börlin Aug 23 '18 at 12:23
  • There is also CrunchEee, specially made for really EeePC made by Asus (10 inch) and with few power/RAM, but this OS isn't in english – damadam Aug 23 '18 at 12:56
  • you can also watch at this post, more detailled : https://askubuntu.com/questions/206407/how-do-i-find-out-which-version-and-derivative-of-ubuntu-is-right-for-my-hardwar/1049504#1049504 – damadam Aug 23 '18 at 12:58

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Lubuntu 16.04 is probably best and needs 4 GB minimum

I asked a similar for the smallest footprint / fastest flavour of Ubuntu here: Is one distribution better for Virtualbox 5.1 inside Ubuntu 16.04? and the answer was Lubuntu.

I created my Lubuntu 16.04 Virtual Image at 7 GB:

Lubuntu allocated.png

With nothing of significance installed other than the base packages it's showing 3.9 GB used and 3.5 GB available:

Lubuntu used

So I would say the minimum you could get away with is 4 GB using Lubuntu 16.04.

That said, my Ubuntu Unity 16.04.5 LTS installation with reams of applications installed and 3 kernel chains only takes up 9.8 GB. Next time around I'll probably just go with this version and forgo the extra effort of learning new interfaces and applications such as File Manager and File Editor.

WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • Huh? You got all the bounty even though it was awarded by the community and though I posted first? I thoughts it would be split evenly... – Fabby Aug 31 '18 at 09:07
  • @Fabby The OP appears to have accepted the answer based on the green checkmark but I don't remember that happening. Maybe the OP manually awarded the bounty? – WinEunuuchs2Unix Aug 31 '18 at 10:33
  • Makes sense: OP accepted pretty pictures, Community user awarded bounty straight after! Congratulations! ;-) – Fabby Aug 31 '18 at 12:10
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The smallest official (and on-topic here) Ubuntu flavour with a GUI is Lubuntu and the minimal disk size is 3GB and the minimum memory requirements are 512MB resulting in 3.5 GB for a VM. (theoretical minimum, anything more is better)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Fabby
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  • @dschinn1001 that's hard to have HDD/SSD that have a size under 4 GB, even the RAM have a higher size now (but old computer that have more than 20 years old can have a problem with that though) – damadam Aug 28 '18 at 08:56
  • @damadam the OP is asking about a Virtual Machine (A computer inside a computer), so it's just a file... – Fabby Aug 28 '18 at 08:58
  • @damadam - sorry, I have misread the infos after command free - also, lubuntu here on an antique laptop is only using 1 GB of 50 GB hard-disk - but would mean then, that less than 4 GB is required. – dschinn1001 Sep 03 '18 at 22:53
  • @dschinn1001 We're going by official numbers... Yes, it can be done with less, but then the instructions become much more eleborate – Fabby Sep 03 '18 at 22:55