Virtual Machine Installation Guilde

Download Image | Unpack Image | Import Image | Launch Image | Questions?

The disk image is very large, around 11GB compressed. Depending on your internet connection it can take a couple hours to download. I tested it on a 10Mbps wired connection at work and it took nearly three hours but on wireless at work it took less than one hour. At home on Comcast it took two hours. Plan accordingly. You might just want to kick off the download before heading to bed.

Download Image

It should go without saying that you'll want to do this on the laptop that you are bringing.

The image can be downloaded in two ways:

  • FTP
    • If you do not have an FTP client a free one like FileZilla works great. Download it at here.
    • Point your FTP client to ftp://ftp.ussg.indiana.edu/. Browse to pub/bflex. Download the image named bflex.rar
    • NOTE: If you are taking the all-day Mach-ii track with Peter Farrell and Kurt Wiersma on Saturday. Please download the bfusion-machii.rar image.
  • Browser

Unpack Image

The disk image is compressed as a .rar rather than .zip because it exceeds zips size limit. You will need a utility that handles .rar files.

  • Windows
    • You can download the free trial of WinRAR at http://rarlabs.com/download.htm.
    • After installing WinRAR navigate to the bflex.rar file and unpack/extract it.
  • Mac
    • You can download the free UnRarX at http://www.unrarx.com/.
    • After installing UnRarX launch the application. It will open a blank window. Drag bflex.rar and drop it on the UnRarX window to extract it.
  • Linux

Import Image

  • In order to play the image you will need to download the free VirtualBox VM player. You can download it at http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads.
  • After installing VirtualBox go to the File menu and choose "Import Appliance".
  • Find the bflex.ovf file that was extracted from the image file. Click continue to import the image. NOTE: This may take a while. Please factor that in.

Launch Image

  • Choose the BFlex image in VirtualBox and click Start.
  • The first time you launch the image it may take up to 20 minutes to be fully started. Do this at a time when you don't need to do other work on your machine as it is resource intensive.
  • Shut down the virtual machine after it has fully launched. It should start up quickly and perform normally on subsequent launches.

Questions?

Have no doubt this does take some time. In the end, though, it does not take any more time then it would to install all of this software individually. Should you encounter any problems or have any questions, contact Matt at webcommunity@iu.edu. Before you do though, make sure you have followed all of the steps above as they are written.

Thanks!