Most of the time, you should be fine using http://demo.mahara.org to test Mahara functionality for the current stable version. In some cases though, you might want to test an upcoming version. If you do not have the possibility to install your own test instance of Mahara, you can use the "live DVD / USB". It is not updated on a regular basis, and primarily made available during the release candidate time to give you the opportunity to test Mahara entirely, including site administrator permissions. If you have an internet connection, the code is updated automatically to the latest code in Mahara master (pre-release).

The live DVD / USB uses Ubuntu as operating system, but you won't have to interact with it much if you are not familiar with it.

When you shut down the image in your VM or shut down the operating system, everything will be reset to the default content that is provided in the Mahara instance.

Setup

Download the iso image file.

Virtual machine

You can install the image in a virtual machine using Virtualbox for example.

Start Virtualbox.
Add a new machine with type "Linux" and version: "Ubuntu (64-bit)".
Set the memory size to at least 1GB (recommended: 2GB). The more memory you give the faster the virtual machine runs.
Set the number of Processors to at least 2 (recommended: 4).
Maximize the Video Memory and Enable 2D Video Acceleration if possible.
Choose "Do not add a virtual hard disk".
In the "Storage" setting, add "Optical Drive" and select the downloaded iso file.
Start the machine.

Bootable disk / USB stick

With a bootable disk or USB stick, you do not need to install anything on your computer. Instead, you will start your computer from the disk or USB, and you will have instant access to the environment.

Create a bootable DVD

Download the disk image.
Burn it on a blank DVD.

Create a bootable USB stick

It depends on your computers operating system on how you can create a bootable USB stick.

Mac: you can use the "UNetbootin USB installer".
Ubuntu: use the "Startup Disk Creator".
Windows: you can use the "Rufus USB installer".

Once you have your bootable medium, insert it into your computer and restart your computer. The device needs to be in the computer during the restart in order to be detected as bootable medium.

If your computer does not boot from the medium directly, you might need to restart your computer again and go into the boot menu. Please check your operating systems instructions on how to do that.

It may take a few minutes for the operating system to start. That depends largely on the speed of your drive.

Use the image

You may want to print out these instructions or have them available on a different device, especially when you created a bootable disk, because you will not be able to access them otherwise.

Please wait until Firefox is loaded and you see a Mahara site. This may take a few minutes as the site tries to load the latest code for Mahara.

Click on the Firefox title bar to remove the keyboard shortcut window information.

Mahara is set up in Firefox. If it doesn't start automatically, you can start it from the left-hand side of the screen:

Open Firefox
Enter "http://localhost/" into the address bar if the Mahara site doesn't open automatically.
Log into any of the accounts that are listed on the homepage of Mahara. They all have "mahara" as password. the usernames are:

anna (site administrator)
paula (student with most content and SmartEvidence collection set up)
james (institution administrator)
percy (institution staff)
petra (institution staff)
polly (user)