The release of CBL-Mariner took a lot of people by surprise, but that’s how the technology-ridden world works. Rest assured, Microsoft isn’t replacing Windows with CBL-Mariner. In fact, CBL-Mariner is built to assist Microsoft’s internal engineering team.
Let’s explore CBL-Mariner in-depth and check out the steps for installing it in a virtual machine.
What Is CBL-Mariner?
Microsoft’s Linux Systems Group created and developed CBL-Mariner. It is not just another Linux distribution, for it serves a larger purpose for Microsoft. CBL’s primary objective is to pave the way for the development of Microsoft’s edge products and services in addition to cloud infrastructure development.
The source code for the OS is licensed under different open-source licenses, including the GNU General Public License and the MIT License. It currently exists as a GitHub repo, and there is no ISO image for installing the OS on your machine. The good news is that you can still use the distro by building your own ISO image and installing it on your very own virtual machine.
CBL-Mariner is not new to the tech world. It was previously used internally by Microsoft to maintain the Azure cloud infrastructure. Redmond has improved CBL’s security by hardening the kernel, providing signed updates, using compiler-based hardening, tamper-proof registry along many more features.
How to Install CBL-Mariner in VirtualBox
Converting the source code into an ISO image is probably the simplest way to get the distro up and running in a virtual machine. This method includes downloading the code from the repository and converting it into an ISO image.
For the purpose of this article, the installation has been performed on VirtualBox, which is a popular virtual machine hypervisor.
Step 1: Download VirtualBox
In case you don’t already have VirtualBox installed on your system, you can download it from the website and install it prior to creating the ISO image.
Download: Oracle VirtualBox
Step 2: Installing the Necessary Dependencies
Before starting the actual installation, you will need to install some dependencies on your Linux machine. You may have some of them already, but it is always good to double-check.
To install the dependencies on a Debian-based distro like Ubuntu, type the following:
Output:
Step 3: Cloning the GitHub Repository
The next step is to clone CBL’s official GitHub repository using the git clone command.
Output:
Step 4: Generating the ISO Image
After downloading the source code, the next step is to access a specific directory to generate the ISO image. Enter the following commands one by one to create the ISO for the startup:
Output:
The system will output the ISO file to the /out/images/full directory after a successful conversion.
Step 5: Creating the Virtual Machine
The first step is to open VirtualBox. Then, click on the New button to create a new VM.
Once you click on New, a dialog box will open up. In the name column, type in CBL-Mariner as the operating system. In the Type dropdown, select Linux. Additionally, you need to select Other Linux (64-bit) as the version.
On the next screen, you have to assign the memory size for your machine. Ideally, you can assign 1GB of RAM in this step. If you can assign more, set the memory accordingly. However, there is an upper limit, so it’s best to follow the on-screen instructions.
On the next screen, click on the Create a virtual hard disk now option.
In the screen that follows, select the VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) option.
Then, choose Dynamically allocated as the option for Storage on physical hard disk.
As soon as you click on Next, you will reach the File location and size screen. Enter the path where you would like to save the VDI file. Additionally, you can also select the size of the virtual hard disk. An ideal size is 10GB of disk space but you can assign more if you have plenty of free storage on your system.
Click on Create to complete the creation of the virtual machine.
Step 6: Configuring the Virtual Machine
To configure the virtual machine, you need to click on the newly created virtual machine from the left sidebar. Then, select CBL-Mariner, followed by Settings, and finally the Storage option. In the Storage tab, click on the Optical Drive icon and select the earlier created ISO file.
You can now start the virtual machine with CBL-Mariner’s ISO image by clicking on the Start button.
Step 7: Installing CBL-Mariner on Your VM
Begin installing the ISO file using the graphical installer. Follow the given steps to proceed with the installation.
Choose the Graphical Installer from the list of options at the beginning of the installation.
The following installation steps are very similar to any other Linux distro.
Choose the CBL-Mariner Full option in the installation window for a complete installation. You can also opt for the Core installation option if you don’t want any pre-loaded packages. The choice won’t make much of a difference, as the system barely includes any packages.
To move onto the next screen, accept the License terms.
The following installation window asks for the hard drive partitioning. You can create hard drive partitions according to your need in this window. If you want to move forward with the default partitions, click on Next.
Enter the hostname, username, and password for your system on the next screen. The installation should begin after this. Reboot the virtual machine after installation is successful.
Log in to the system by entering the username and password you specified above.
Congratulations! CBL-Mariner is now installed on your machine. Unfortunately, it starts in command-line mode, so you will have direct access to the terminal window.
Running CBL-Mariner on a Virtual Machine
Installing CBL-Mariner is not a very straightforward process. You don’t get an actual ISO file which makes the installation process tedious. Nevertheless, the installation is very similar to any other conventional distro, especially once you generate the ISO file.
Moreover, the distro is elementary and doesn’t come with a lot of packages. You should try CBL-Mariner if you are excited to see the latest Linux offering from Microsoft.
