Ubuntu 11.04 Unity on VMware Fusion and VirtualBox

30 Replies


So I wanted to try out the Canonical’s newest and greatest Ubuntu release and it’s new Unity UI in a sandboxd VM, but was a very sad panda to find that the 3d acceleration wasn’t working properly. After installation I was still looking at Ubuntu’s classic UI which is still good but not what I was looking for. Luckily there’s a 2d version of the UI that doesn’t depend on 3d acceleration and all it takes to add is 3 lines in the terminal.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-2d-team/unity-2d-daily
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install unity-2d-default-settings

Basically above you’re adding the repo for the 2d version, updating your listings and installing it.
Logout, select your login-name, select Unity 2d from the bottom bar and off you go.

UPDATE: Updating to Virtualbox to 4.06 and installing the guest additions plus several reboots got Unity working there, but no luck on the VMware side yet.
UPDATE: I lie. I can’t get the theme to stick in virtualbox. Back to 2d for me.

  • http://whatan00b.com Wyatt

    You, sir, are the man.

    • http://www.mwhahn.com Hahn

      I second that, very much appreciated.

  • http://surrealnotions.com Josh

    If you shut it down and go into the settings, you can enable 3D acceleration. If VMtools are installed, this should also work (hypothetically).

    • http://www.dtamonline.com dtam

      Hypothetically yes. I had tried that first and had no joy. I’m still searching for a solution to getting it to work properly and will update here if I find it.

  • Todd

    Thanks!

    Unity is interesting… I get it’s value on a tablet-type device, I’m at a loss as to the benefit vs the “old school” taskbar on a desktop device tho’. Adapt or die, I guess!

  • http://www.verrytechnical.com Tim

    Thanks for the information, I’ll definitely check this out :) Also, bonus kudos for using sad panda haha.

  • Pingback: 2D Unity Desktop Will Run In Virtual Machines « Verry Technical

  • Paolo

    Hi guys, check out this link on graphics problem in Natty+VirtualBox: http://forum.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=41127&start=0

  • Steve

    Works perfectly with a Thinkpad W520 and VMware. Pretty cool. Thanks.

  • Xavier

    this is working 4 me with vmware 3.1.2 and MBP i7 2011

  • DustyS

    Great article! Much appreciated.

  • Vipin Yadav

    Nice one. I will try it out. thanks

  • Rizzy

    Thanks mate! Works well :)

  • http://www.catalystwebworks.com Jesse McDougall

    Killer. Thanks.

  • Sayem

    Thank you so much :) Unity is on my vmware now.

  • Swiftbrain

    Is not working on VMWare Workstation 7.1.4 build running on Windows 7 “64bit” (I mean the unity 3d Desktop)

    Thanks anyway I shall I try this

  • Fokke Nauta

    Thanks!

    This worked for me in VMWare 6.5 on XP32.
    Now I have Ubuntu with Unity.

  • lnix

    Thanks alot! It worked for me aswell, when I logged on the first time it told me I had hardware that supports Unity and that the next time I log on to choose that option; when I went to the drop down list I didn’t see it. Which eventually brought me here.

    Using VMWare 7.1.4 on Win7 64-bit

  • Gary

    Thanks a lot~ Finally get Unity on my vm !

  • Mark

    Now you just need to do `sudo apt-get install unity-2d-default-settings`

  • Alec Taylor

    Thanks, VMware needs add those lines to it’s configuration (Easy Install + VMware tools)

    :]

  • Gurphatah

    Thank you much!

  • Jduffy

    Thank you sir, this worked perfectly in VMWare.

  • Joel Melashenko

    Thank you!! Have been trying to get Unity to work for a week or so. Those 3 lines did the trick! Thanks again.

  • ZeeshanNaqash

    Error reading https://launchpad.net/api/1.0/~unity-2d-team/+archive/unity-2d-daily:
    Can anyone solve my problem??? I get this error.

  • Nabilah Izatani

    man, youre awesome. thanks.

  • Kemar

    Thanks a lot. Was wondering what happened to Unity since I dual boot it on an older machine previously.

  • Dan

    just showing my love for this tick! works a treat :)

  • SDSD

    …if not work try virtualbox…with guest additions…INSTALLED…

    • d

      nice idea…:-)