4061CEM - Programming and Algorithms 1
Before you begin with the process of using the virtual machine, you will first need to install the software to use it. The first step of this guide is to download the software from here. Once you have downloaded the file, proceed with following the on-screen instructions to install the software. Upon installation of the software, ensure to reboot your machine.
Once the software has been installed and the machine has been restarted, you can download the virtual machine file. This is quite a large file of approximately eight gigabyte, so it may take some time to download (dependant upon your internet connection). You can download the file from the following link:
Download the Virtual Box Virtual Machine
The file you have just downloaded has been compressed using 7-Zip. To uncompress these files you will want to download
a piece of software called The Unarchiver from the macOS store. This can be found at the following link:
Once the application has been installed, you are then required to locate the downloaded virtual machine file, it will be
called 4061CEM VMWare.7z and will most likely be located in your Downloads folder.
Once you have located the file, using the Right Button on the mouse, click on the file and select Get Info. A new
window will open, similar to the one shown in the screenshot below.
Locate the category Open With and expand it. You will then see a drop-down list to select an application to open these
type of files. Search for the application you have just installed: The Unarchiver. Once you have set this, close the
window and whilst holding the Shift key, double-click on the file using the Left Button on the mouse. You may get a
pop-up saying the following:
macOS cannot verify the developer of "4061CEM VMWare.7z". Are you sure you want to open it?
Click on Open and this will begin the process of uncompressing the archive. Once the file has been uncompressed, you
may want to move this to an alternative location. For the purpose of this guide, you shall move the folder to
the Virtual Machines folder that has been created in the USERNAME folder. Where USERNAME is the name of your user
account on the macOS system.
Once you have relocated the virtual machine folder into /Users/<USERNAME>/Virtual Machines, you can proceed with opening the
Virtual Box application. When you first open the application, you will be presented with a screen like the one shown in the
screenshot below.
On this screen you want to select the Add option. This will open a dialogue window whereby you need to find the
virtual machine. As previously discussed; this is located in the /Users/<USERNAME>/Virtual Machines folder. In
the 4061CEM VirtualBox folder is a file called 4061CEM VirtualBox.vbox, as shown in the screenshot below.
Once you have selected this file, it will import it into the software. You will now see in the window the title of the virtual machine and several options. Note that the amount of memory (RAM) being assigned to this virtual machine is four gigabyte. If this is the same (or more than) the RAM currently installed in your machine, you may want to decrease this.
Otherwise, click on the text that says Start. This will begin the process of booting up the virtual machine. The next screen you will see is the virtual machine booting up, and eventually you will be met with a screen like the screenshot below.
The username and password for the virtual machine are as follows:
Username: student
Password: password
Once you have logged in, you will be met with the Kali desktop environment; and you will notice that the integrated development environment for this module is already pre-installed.
Before you can begin using the integrated development environment, there is a final step you need to do. As it currently stands, you are unable to use Python with the IDE and a plugin is required to be installed. However, before you do this you need to activate the IDE. To do this, you need to sign in with the JetBrains credentials you may have already registered for. If not, you can sign up for a student account at the following link:
Signup for a JetBrains Account
Once you have done that, you can load the IDE by clicking the IDE on the desktop. Upon accepting the terms and conditions for the IDE, you will be met with a dialogue window requesting your Jetbrains credentials that you registered earlier; the screenshot of this window is shown below.
You can choose to use the evaluation if you wish to not sign up for a Jetbrains account; however, this will only give you thirty days to use the product. Upon successful activation of the IDE, you can proceed with installation of the plugins required for this module. To install a plugin, when you load JetBrains for the first time you will be presented with a window as shown in the screenshot below.
On the left-hand pane, you can see the label Plugins, click on this label, and you will be presented with a new
window. In this window you can see two tabs: marketplace and installed; ensure you are on the marketplace tab
and search for Python. You will see an option come up, similar to the one in the screenshot below.
Next to the Python plugin is a button with the label Install; click on this button and the plugin will be installed to the IDE. The plugin will now have been installed to the IDE and will be available for use once you have restarted the IDE.
You have now reached the end of this tutorial. The outcome of this tutorial is the successful installation of the virtual machine for this module. The virtual machine will consist of necessary tools for the course (and this module), such as the integrated development environment and Python interpreter.
If you have spotted any errors or issues within this tutorial, you can e-mail Dr Ian Cornelius. Ensure to include in your message a description of the error/issue and a possible resolution.