Raspberry Pi Forums

Hello everybody

I was wondering, weather I could install a distro exactly the same than the one for the raspberry pi on my computer. Just to get to know the os and learn how to use it. If i understand correctly, the raspbmc is also an own distribution (meaning os?!). This is the one I want to use, since I would like to "play" around with the raspberri pi as a media center and surfing possibilty for my tv.

Now the question, is this possible? I am not very good with computers (though I have a solid working knowledge), but I never used linux or did any programming... I cannot even remember the simplest DOS commands...

So, any ideas?

Cheers
odoM

Sounds to me like your best bet for "getting familiar with Linux" if you don't have a Raspi yet, would probably be to try one of the Ubuntu Live Linux CDs. That way if you screw up, you just need to eject the CD and reboot
When you're more comfortable, you could try installing Debian inside a VirtualBox installation on Windows. I believe raspmc is based on top of Debian. (with the obvious exception that Debian in VirtualBox will be Debian x86, and Debian on the Raspi will be Debian ARM (armel) )

And as mentioned by other forum posters, it couldn't hurt to borrow a couple of books from the library. Good luck and happy learning

This is just my 2-cents worth and I may be wrong but I remember seeing a VM of the RPi which can be downloaded from element17's website: http://www.element14.com/community/grou ... loadcenter I'm assuming that VM is "virtual machine" and doesn't stand for something else.

What I did was load a virtual environment, and then emulate the PI within that using Debian.

See: https://www.virtualbox.org/

However, what I have also done is added Debian on my laptop and at bootup choose between that and Windows.

I prefer the later to practice on tbh

A much easier way to play with a virtual RPi is in this thread
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... =26&t=5743
The download link is in the third post. This works with most versions of Windows.

If you know nothing, but are willing to learn, please read the MagPi magazine www.themagpi.com

It can also stand for Virtual Memory (i.e. swap space) and Virgin Media (a UK cable internet provider) but in this case yes it stands for Virtual Machine

Can a moderator please merge these two threads? http://raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7146

done, thanks

Personally, I would pick a distro with more root access prevention (so you don't foul it up too badly)
and install it to a usb stick or something