VM Configuration

We next need to tweak some settings on the Virtual machine we've just set up. So select your new VM and click Settings. Select System and uncheck Enable absolute pointing device as shown below.

System settings

Now move to Display, select the Remote Display tab, check Enable Server and enter a port other than the 3389 default. I chose 33891 as shown below.

Remote Display

Move to Storage, which will show IDE and SATA controllers as shown below. Select the IDE Controller and delete it by clicking the icon shown.

Storage before changes

This will delete the virtual IDE CD/DVD device, so we need to add a SATA one. Click the left icon (Add CD/DVD Device) of the two that are to the right of the SATA controller (mousing over each one will reveal the correct one). Then click the Choose Disk button in the window that pops up and select the Debian ISO you downloaded. When you're done, the Storage settings should look similar to those below.

Storage after changes

On the Audio settings, uncheck Enable Audio.

Audio settings

Moving to Network, change from NAT to Bridged Adapter. Then expand Advanced and change Adapter Type to Paravirtualized Network (virtio-net) as shown below.

Network settings

Finally, for USB, just uncheck Enable USB Controller.

Now click OK to close the Settings window.

We will also create another virtual hard disk to store your Time Machine data on. I suspect we will take a bit of a performance hit storing it in a virtual disk. But hopefully it won’t be noticeable and it will make the configuration easier. I am going to create disk that will expand up to 100 GB, but initially will be empty. Feel free to create one of a size that suits you.

Select your virtual machine and click Settings.

Click Storage then select the SATA Controller. Now click the Add Hard Disk icon (right hand one) and then the Create new disk button in the window that opens, which will launch the wizard. You've seen these screens before, so just enter these settings on the approprirate screens:

1. First screen: VDI
2. Details: Dynamically allocated
3. Location/Name: MyTimeCapsuleData
4. Size: 100 GB
5. Click Create and you are done

That's it for this time. In Part 2, we'll install and configure Debian and Netatalk and show you how to create your own virtual appliance for it all.