How to install CentOS 8 with VirtualBox 6.1 on Windows 10

CentOS is a widely used Linux distribution based on RedHat Linux. In this guide, I am going to show you step-by-step how to install CentOS 8 in a VirtualBox virtual machine. The host OS is Windows 10.

The tutorial consists of two parts:

Setting up a virtual machine in VirtualBox.
Installing CentOS itself into that virtual machine

Let’s get started without wasting any further time.

Pre-requisites

The following are some of the requirements that need to be fulfilled before this installation.

2 GB RAM
2 GHz or higher processor
20 GB Hard Disk
64-bit x86 System

How to get CentOS 8.0?

To install CentOS 8.0 on VirtualBox, follow these steps:

Step 1. Open the URL https://www.centos.org/download/ in your favorite browser.

Step 2. Click the “Get CentOS Now”. A new window will appear.

Step 3. Click “CentOS Linux DVD ISO” shown in the below image.

Step 4. Click any one of the links to download the CentOS ISO file.

As you can see it is a 6.6 GB file. Therefore, please wait until the file is downloaded.

Step 5. Once the CentOS is downloaded, it is ready to be installed on VirtualBox. Open VirtualBox, click the “New” button to create a new virtual machine.

Step 6. Enter the name of the virtual machine in “Name” textbox e.g. “CentOS”. Now automatically, “Type” will be selected as “Linux” and version will be chosen as “Red Hat (64-bit). When you are done, click “Next”.

Step 7. The memory size given here is 1024 MB. It is a minimum requirement. You can increase it according to the memory available on your system. Click “Next” when you are done.

Step 8.“Create a virtual hard disk now” option is checked by default. Click “Create” to proceed.

Step 9. The next interface is about the hard disk file type. By default, it is VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) and it is a standard. Click “Next” to proceed.

Step 10. In the next step, we need storage on a physical hard drive. By default, it is “Dynamically allocated”. Click “Next” when you are done.

Step 11. The minimum virtual hard disk which CentOS needs is 8GB but again it depends on your computer. You can adjust it according to the hard disk size of your system. Provide the path of your virtual hard disk as shown in the below image.

Click “Create” to continue.

Step 12. The CentOS virtual machine is created on VirtualBox. We have downloaded the ISO file but we have not yet located the ISO file. For this purpose, select CentOS virtual machine and click “Settings”.

Step 13. In the settings option, click “Storage”, where we can locate our already downloaded ISO file.

Step 14. Go to the “Controller: IDE” option in the storage interface, and click on the “Empty” option.

Step 15. Select the round CD icon on the right side and then select “Choose/Create a Virtual Optical Disk”.

Step 16. Click the “Add” icon and select the already downloaded ISO file.

Step 17. After adding the ISO file, click “Ok” to proceed.

Step 18. Now the configuration of CentOS for the virtual machine has been created. It is ready to start.

Click on the CentOS virtual machine and then click on the “Start” button present on the top.

Step 19. Choose “Install CentOS Linux 8.0.1905” and press “Enter” from your keyboard. The installation of CentOS will start immediately.

Step 20. Wait for the process to finish, press an “Enter Key” when you are prompted.

Step 21. Choose your desired language for installation and click Continue when you are done. We have chosen English (United States).

Step 22. We have three major setting categories and those are Localization, Software, and System.

Step 23. Let’s start with the localization category, click the “Keyboard” option.

Step 24. By default, it has chosen “English” You can adjust it accordingly by clicking on the”+” icon. Click “Done” to continue.

Step 25. In the localization category, click the “Language Support”.

Step 26. By default, it has chosen “English”. You can adjust it accordingly. Click “Done” to continue.

Step 27. The next setting is Time & Date in the localization category. Click “Time & Date” to correctly adjust time and date according to your region.

Step 28. Select your region and city from the drop-down list. Click “Done” to save the new settings.

Step 29. Click “Security Policy” from the System category as shown below.

Step 30. You can add policies. Click “Done” to continue.

Step 31. In the software category, click the “Installation Source”.

Step 32. As we have already given the ISO file path and it is auto-detected here. We do not need to do anything. Click “Done” to continue.

Step 33. In the software category, click the “Software Selection”.

Step 34. “Server with GUI” is already chosen so there is no need to change it. Click “Done” to continue.

Step 35. Click “Installation Destination” from the System category.

Step 36. Size is already given, remember to select “Automatic Partitioning”. Click “Done” to continue.

Step 37. Once all of the above settings are saved, you will notice that the “Begin Installation” button is enabled. Click it to start the installation.

Step 38. The installation will start immediately. Sit back and relax while it completes. In the meantime, you can set the root password and create a user. Click the “Root Password”.

Step 39. Provide a strong root password and reenter to verify. Click “Done” when you are finished.

Step 40. After finishing providing the root password. You can go ahead creating a user. Click a “User creation” icon present on the window in step 38.

Provide the following details.

Full name
User name
Password
Confirm password

When you have provided the above details, click “Done” to continue.

Step 41. You have to restart the system when you are done with the installation. Click Devices -> Optical Devices. Uncheck “CentOS-8-x86_64-1905-dvd1.iso” to boot the system from the hard drive and not again from the bootable USB.