(I just want to download the applicance -> it's here)
BiodiversityBox is a preconfired Linux system for biodiversity informatics works.
It is distributed as a virtual applicance so it can be very easily installed within VirtualBox (basically a PC-in-a-window) on any Windows / Mac or Linux machine.
The following software is installed, configured and reay-to-use:
Something's missing? Don't hesitate to report it with an issue!
/iptdata
To document.
To document.
Due to the VirtualBox platform, BiodiversityBox works like a different computer running within a window on your host machine. Therefore, some configuration is generally needed for a smoother integration between the two.
At first start, BiodiversityBox is configured for an American English (QWERTY) keyboard. You can configure other layouts by right-clicking on the small flag icon on the right on the menu bar, then "Keyboard settings" -> Layout tab. Once you've added keyboard layouts, you can switch between them by (left) clicking on the flag icon in the menu bar.
Alternatively, you can change the keyboard layout by using the setxkbmap
command in the terminal. Example for a French layout:
In most cases, the NAT (Network Address Translation)
or Bridged networking
modes should allow BiodiversityBox to access the Internet.
If not, don't hesitate to consult the relevant documentation for Virtualbox.
To be written/fixed.
Virtual machines are, by definition, heavy (you have basically two systems running in parallel on a single computer). It's therefore important to carefully decide how to share memory between BiodiversityBox and your host operating system.
This can be configured in Virtualbox. BiodiversityBox comes configured to use 2Gb of memory. If possible (if your machine has 4Gb+ of memory), we encourage you to allocate more memory to BiodiversityBox. You should also take care of not starving the host operating system.
We also advise you to experiment with a few different values and, when working in BiodiversityBox, to close any unnecessary application (web browsers, ...) in your host operating system.
To be written/fixed.
The following user accounts are provided:
sudo
command for administrative tasks)BiodiversityBox is based on Arch Linux, for maximum flexibility and frequent, rolling releases.
Since we're not doing anything especially fancy, you should be able to perform tasks the "Arch way" (following their wiki) and installing new packages With Pacman
and AUR.
BiodiversityBox is distributed in the Open Virtualization Format: while you can't just install it on a "physical computer", other virtualization packages such as VMWare will also work. If you cannot install any virtualization solution on your local computer, it may be possible to run this in the cloud with remote screen access (to be investigated and documented).