FreeSurfer VitrualBox VM Image

System Requirements:
Tested running on hosts: Windows 10, Mac OS 11.6 (Intel Mac) with VirtualBox 6.1.30.
VM: minimum of 8 GB free RAM from the host, i.e., apart from RAM already in use by the host OS and other applications.
VM: minimum of 2 CPU's/cores from the host.
Host Graphics card: 3D graphics card with its own graphics memory & accelerated OpenGL drivers.
Host Disk Space: ~8GB for virtual image download (compressed *.ova file), ~30G for expanded VM image.
Host: A working network connection.

Suggested Experience Level:
Some familiarity with downloading files, e.g., via a web browser or using commands such as wget, curl from the linux terminal.
Some familiarity with the linux terminal running bash shell including removing, copying, editing files and setting/unsetting environment variables.
Some familiarity with simple bash commands/scripting, e.g., as found in the shell initialization file.

1st time install of VirtualBox on Windows OS host:

Vbox_Windows_install.pdf

1st time install of VirtualBox on Mac OS host:

Vbox_MacOS_install.pdf

Once VirtualBox is installed on your host machine, you can download the 7zip file with the VM image:

FS_7_2_0_Ubuntu_18_04_06.ova.7z

Decryption of the 7zip file requires a pass code which you can obtain by sending an email to the freesurfer mail list. Once you have received the pass code, you can right click on the FS_7_2_0_Ubuntu_18_04_06.ova.7z file and see what options you have under the choices for "Open with". If your current program choices cannot open a 7zip file and/or accept a pass code, then try one of the following utilities which accept pass codes to decrypt archive files:

For decryption on Windows try the free version of WinRAR to expand the 7zip file.

For decryption on MacOS try the free Unarchiver to expand the 7zip file.

For decryption on linux try the package manager programs, e.g., yum, dnf, apt, to download and install a 7z or 7za binary.

Setup and run the virtual image:

Decrypting and expanding the FS_7_2_0_Ubuntu_18_04_06.ova.7z will give you a file without the .7z extension, i.e., you will have a file named FS_7_2_0_Ubuntu_18_04_06.ova. This is the file you ill import into VirtualBox. Some archive programs may delete the original 7zip file. If your archive program places the expanded *file* FS_7_2_0_Ubuntu_18_04_06.ova inside a directory also named FS_7_2_0_Ubuntu_18_04_06.ova, then rename that directory to be something different.

Screenshots to setup the VM were taken from VirtualBox running on MacOS and Windows, but apart from some variations in the GUI on different hosts, the menus options are the same on MacOS, Windows and Linux.

Vbox_load_image.pdf

Share a directory from Windows in the VM or mount an external drive from Windows in the VM:

See this post about how to access (share) a subdirectory from Windows inside the Ubuntu VM. https://www.zachpfeffer.com/single-post/2017/10/12/share-a-directory-between-ubuntu-on-virtualbox-and-windows

This document describes how to access (share) an external drive plugged into the Windows machine in the Ubuntu VM. Vbox_Windows_mount_external_drive.pdf

Example screenshot of VM up and running:

Once the VM starts and you have added your Freesurfer license file, you can start a terminal and it should come up with the environment set to run the 7.2.0 release.

Ubuntu_VM_720.png