I am trying to do some testing in Ubuntu, and need a fresh VM. I am at work running Windows 10. I downloaded the latest version of VirtualBox (6.1.10) and the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop 20.04. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to boot the live CD. I see the VBX splash screen, followed by an Ubuntu splash screen (briefly) but then the screen goes black with a blinking cursor (that does not appear to register keystrokes). Doing a bit of research, it appears that the issue is usually video adapter related, but I have tried maxing out the video memory, selecting all three different adapters, enabling and disabling 3D acceleration, and tried Ubuntu 18.04 and the latest Mint, all with the same result. I use VirtualBox regularly at home on Windows and Linux with no problems. Is there something obvious I am missing now?
1 Answer
Check the sha256sum for the iso that you are attempting to boot from to ensure the download wasn't corrupted. If the checksum fails, the iso is unlikely to boot. I have run into this one a few times.
In Windows 10 you can right click the iso and select "CRC-SHA -> SHA-256" and compare the result to the SHA256SUM posted in the releases area. eg https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04/SHA256SUMS