How to Install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on VMware Workstation Player

23 Jun

This is a simple and to-the-point guide to install Ubuntu on VMware Workstation Player. Previously, we enabled virtualization on our computer running Windows 10. Afterward, we installed the latest version of VMware 16 Player on our computer that is freely available for personal use. Now we are going to boot our first Ubuntu Linux VM on the workstation player.

With VMware, we can download the operating system of our choice and run it and that’s the beauty of the VMware platform.

Let’s download and run Ubuntu 18.04 on the VMware player.

The latest version of Ubuntu is 20.04, you can download this image from the download section. Since we are downloading Ubuntu 18.04, you need to open the following URL:

https://releases.ubuntu.com/18.04/

You’ll find everything related to this image here. Scroll down below and you’ll find the torrent file as well. Click the following link and our download will start right away. You’ve to be patient, it will be a 2GB download.

After the download is complete, open VMware Player to create a new Ubuntu virtual machine. Click on Create a New Virtual Machine option on the VMware Player home screen.

It will start a wizard to create a new virtual machine. In the first step, it will ask the image location where we downloaded the Ubuntu image. Click on the browse button and give the complete path of your image.

Select the image from your computer.

VMware will detect the image and it will let us know the architecture and release of the operating system.

Click Next and now put your name, username, and password. You are going to use these credentials later to log in to the VM.

In the next step, give a name to your virtual machine. It is useful to name the VM to avoid any confusion in the future when you have installed multiple VMs. The location means the destination folder where the VM will be created, you can change that as well.

The next step is very important. We need to specify the disk space capacity for the virtual machine. You can increase or decrease the disk space size with the arrows against maximum disk size. I will keep the recommended capacity which is 20 GB.

Click next to proceed.

It is the last step of creating the machine, click finish to start the next process of installing Ubuntu. If you want to modify any setting, you can go back to do that.

To enjoy all the features of the VMware player, I’ll strongly recommend downloading and install the VMware tools. You can do that later as well. I’ll click the download and install button to do it now.

The installation is in progress now. VMware will verify the installation configuration and copy the files etc. You can go to the kitchen and grab a cup of tea until the installation is complete. VMware will handle the rest of the stuff.

Congratulations! The installation is complete. It’s time to login into our brand new Ubuntu virtual machine.

Put the username and password credentials that we set earlier.

After completing all the steps to install Ubuntu on VMware, the virtual machine is running on our Windows 10 PC.

Moving forward, we are going to get started with Docker and want to learn more about Docker. We have successfully completed all the prerequisites needed to run Docker. We are ready to install Docker and get our hands dirty with it.

Happy Docking!