I can’t answer about VMs or the lockup, but do know that 10GB won’t be even close to enough space. JetPack can download and copy a lot of file content (many GB for drivers and sample applications) even when not talking about the flash side. During the flash an exact copy of the entire TK1 file system is created (about 16GB), then a compressed version is added (another 2-3GB). To create this it needs a sample rootfs (yet another 2 or 3GB). Some of this content is downloaded after JetPack is started, other content is generated. For a command line pure flash I’d suggest having 25GB of free space (space beyond what the operating system occupies). JetPack requires significantly more space than command line, command line flash requires the least amount of space.
For information on flashing the TK1 on command line (which has the fewest requirements for RAM, disk, and other system resources) see:
[url]https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/982779/jetson-tk1/how-to-perform-a-correct-fresh-ubuntu-install-on-jetson-tk1/post/5040584/#5040584[/url]