Run Raspberry Pi x86 on your Windows Desktop Computer (Virtual Machine)

Updated 25 August 2017

Running a virtual Raspberry Pi on your computer can be a neat way to experiment in a Raspbian-like environment without being tethered to a physical Pi. In this video, I'll walk you through the process of installing Raspberry Pi Desktop on a virtual machine. A virtual machine is like having a virtual computer inside your computer. The VM will share the same resources as your real machine (ethernet port or wifi for internet access, a windowed or full-screen program will be the VM's virtual monitor). If you don't follow, all will become clear during the video once you see what's going on.

To get started you'll need:

Below is a summary of the basic settings required for the new VM. Check out the video for a full walkthrough of the process or if you'd like to see how to enable file- and clipboard-sharing between your host-machine and your virtual Pi.

Name: Something sensible and short is a good start.
Type: Linux 
Version: Debian (64-bit) (This is what I chose, but other sources indicate that 32-bit versions and other Linux distros work too)
Click Next

Memory size: 1024MB (this is the default and sufficient for most users)
Click Next

Hard disk 
Select Create a virtual hard disk now 
Click Create 
Select VDI (default) 
Click Next 
Select Dynamically allocated (default) 
Click Next 
Select 8GB (default)
Click Create 

Right click on your new VM entry in the list and click settings.

Storage > Controller: IDE: Select the Empty optical-drive entry, and select either the host drive that your CD is inserted into, or browse to the location of your virtual disk image file. I go over this step in more detail at the end of the video.

oracle-vm-virtualbox-cd-image

After attaching the CD/disk image to your VM you're ready to boot!

Click OK, double-click the VM you created to "power on" and you'll be met with an operating system installer prompt. Note that all this is happening on your virtual machine - you're not about the overwrite the operating system that's installed on your computer! Follow along with the prompts to install the operating system. Once complete the virtual machine will reboot.

Further Setup

Our virtual Pi thinks it's a real machine! This means we can't do some basic things yet like resize the window or copy-paste from/to our host machine. This is easily fixed by installing the following VirtualBox guest extensions:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-x11 linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo reboot

Now you can enable the shared clipboard from the VirtualBox settings menu (Advanced > Shared Clipboard - Bidirectional).

Once restarted, you can enable file sharing by executing

sudo adduser pi vboxsf

Shutdown again and select the folders you wish to share from VirtualBox settings menu (Shared Folders > Add). The selected directories will appear in your virtual machine in the /media directory with the prefix sf_

Why run a virtual Raspberry Pi?

If you plan on developing a lot of code or applications for Raspberry Pi this can be a very convenient way to do so from the comfort of your regular machine. You also have the freedom to run several machines at once (RAM permitting) or have multiple virtual Pis setup for different conditions.

References

Raspbian x86 on VirtualBox on a Windows PC

Have a question? Ask the Author of this guide today!

Please enter minimum 20 characters

Your comment will be posted (automatically) on our Support Forum which is publicly accessible. Don't enter private information, such as your phone number.

Expect a quick reply during business hours, many of us check-in over the weekend as well.

Comments


Loading...
Feedback

Please continue if you would like to leave feedback for any of these topics:

  • Website features/issues
  • Content errors/improvements
  • Missing products/categories
  • Product assignments to categories
  • Search results relevance

For all other inquiries (orders status, stock levels, etc), please contact our support team for quick assistance.

Note: click continue and a draft email will be opened to edit. If you don't have an email client on your device, then send a message via the chat icon on the bottom left of our website.

Makers love reviews as much as you do, please follow this link to review the products you have purchased.