Virtualizing the Raspberry Pi – Raspbian

We present a simple and quick installation of the Raspberry Pi ( Raspbian ) operating system in VirtualBox.

This tutorial provides knowledge to test applications before putting them into production on the Raspberry Pi.

Raspbian is a lightweight operating system and can be used on older machines.
Thus, we present how to download the Raspbian ISO image and the steps to install Raspbian on VirtualBox.

Donwload Raspberry Pi

To download access the page: https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/operating-systems/ then select Raspberry Pi Desktop.

download raspbian
download.

Installing the virtualizing Raspberry Pi – Raspbian

After downloading the image, let’s open the virtualbox and select new, add a name for the VM. Also, select Linux and 64bit.

new vm raspbian
name raspbian
Creating the VM.

Right after that, let’s select the amount of memory = 1024.

1024 memory
1024MB Memory

So let’s create the disc.

create hd
Criar o disco

It will be of the VDI type.

VDI
HD = VDI

Then the disk will be dynamically allocated, saving space.

This configuration provides the virtualizing of the Raspberry Pi – Raspbian without taking up unnecessary space.

dynamic hd
Dynamically allocated
hd size
size 8GB

So let’s start the machine.

start vm
Start

So let’s select the image we downloaded.

raspbian search
Select image ISO
add ISO
Click Add
raspbian ISO
your ISO
choose iso
choose

Now let’s start the installation.

go to raspbian
start

Let’s select Graphical Install.

install raspbian
graphical install

We will use the Guided installation with the entire disc.

Guided Install raspbian
guided – use entire disck

Selecting the virtual disk.

select HD
select disk

We will use all files on the same partition.

confirm
All files in one partition
write on disk
Finish partitioning
confirm raspberry pi
Confirm

After that, select YES to install the GRUB manager.

grub install
Install GRUB yes

So let’s choose the virtual disk.

where install grub
raspbian fish install

Now, the first screen to register username and password and updates.

network set

So finally the Raspbian screen. That way, we can now test the applications.

raspbian show
raspbian

More tutorials:

Turn the raspberry pi into a WIFI router

Installing OpenWRT in VirtualBox.

How to install OpenWrt on Raspberry Pi

How to install Zabbix on Raspberry Pi

Install VNC on Raspberry pi

Raspberry Pi: installation and configuration

Juliana Mascarenhas

Data Scientist and Master in Computer Modeling by LNCC.
Computer Engineer