Installation & setup

  • Get the installation files

    • Download the OVA file containing the IRAF VM image (gemini-IRAF-CO7.ova) from Google Drive. This is 6GB in size, so will take a while to transfer.

    • To ensure the integrity of the download, you can open a terminal window (see Starting the VM & logging in), type shasum Downloads/gemini-IRAF-CO7.ova (substituting whatever path you downloaded it to) and verify that the resulting checksum is 1881ae0afa3e9699ccec861b508a630787cf566d; if not, you should try downloading again.

    • Download the DMG file for the free version of Virtual Box from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads, under OS X hosts. A checksum is also available on that page, which you can verify using shasum -a 256 filename.dmg.

  • Install Virtual Box

    • Once the downloads are complete, go to Downloads and select the VirtualBox DMG file to start the installer. Follow the instructions, entering your personal password when prompted to do so. Your administrator may have to perform this step, if you do not have software installation privileges.

  • Import the VM image

    • Ensure that you have more than 16GB of available disk space for the VM image in your home directory (if necessary, you may reclaim 6GB afterwards by deleting the OVA file).

    • Start the “VirtualBox” application.

      ../_images/file_menu.png

      The main VirtualBox Manager window and File menu.

    • Go to File in the menu bar at the top of the screen, then Import appliance. Press the icon to the right of the File box, go to Downloads (or wherever you put the OVA file) and select gemini-IRAF-CO7.ova. Press Continue in the main window.

      Alternatively, double clicking on gemini-IRAF-CO7.ova may open it in Virtual Box automatically, depending on your settings.

      • Accept the default settings.

      • Press Import and wait for the process to complete.

  • Configure networking

    • With the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager window selected, go to File in the menu bar at the top of the screen and select Host Network Manager.

    • Press Create at the top left of the Host Network Manager window. This should automatically add an entry with network address 192.168.56.1/24 in the table beneath. Don’t enable DHCP Server (unless you’re already using it for another purpose). Close the window.

  • Make sure gemini-IRAF-CO7 is selected on the left-hand side of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager window.

  • Configure a shared data directory.

    • Under your home directory (or another writeable location) on your host machine, create a subdirectory for exchanging data files between the host and the VM, eg. vm_transfer/.

    • In the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager window, press Settings, then Shared Folders in the top row of icons, then the + icon to the right of the main table. In the sub-window that pops up, set the Folder Path to the directory you created on the host machine (eg. /Users/<username>/vm_transfer) and the Mount Point to /home/irafuser/vm_transfer (or similar). Select the Auto-mount option (and Make Permanent, if you have it). Press OK and then OK again in the parent window.