Machine Learning Lab Setup

This project documents how I created a virtual machine environment to experiment with PyTorch and HuggingFace Transformers.
The goal was to practice setting up reproducible environments for machine learning libraries on Linux.

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Environment Setup

• Host: VirtualBox
• Guest OS: Arch Linux (installed and configured manually)
• Dependencies: Python 3, pip, CUDA (for GPU acceleration)

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Installation Steps

sudo pacman -Syu

Install Python and pip

sudo pacman -S python python-pip git

Install PyTorch

pip install torch torchvision torchaudio

Install HuggingFace Transformers

pip install transformers

Test Script

from transformers import pipeline

classifier = pipeline("sentiment-analysis")
print(classifier("I love learning about cybersecurity!"))

Expected output:

[{'label': 'POSITIVE', 'score': 0.99}]

What I learned

How to set up Arch Linux in a VirtualBox environment.

How to manage Python dependencies with pip.

Installing and troubleshooting PyTorch and Transformers.

Testing pre-trained NLP models in a secure, isolated VM.

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