wubi.exe installation of Ubuntu 10.10

floyd.pepper

Hi all,

I installed Ubuntu 10.10 over the weekend via wubi.exe. It's sitting happily in my Windows 7 disk.

I spent quite a while making it look and act as I wanted. I also downloaded and built a number of software libraries that I use for some development projects that I work on in my spare time.

I knew a little about wubi before the install but I'm kinda disappointed now to learn that this is seen as a temporary solution and that I should do a full installation with partitioned disks.

My question is - is wubi considered a short term solution or can I use it full time?

If I need to change, I've seen that there is a script wubi-to-own-partition or something...but it's quite old (2008 is the latest update) so I'm worried that I might end up borking my ubuntu and windows installations.

Cheers in advance,
Floyd

Stuxnet

ya its limited, its really a gateway for peeps looking to try out linux for the first time, and its a great tool for that !
but if your looking for better performance etc you'll want to set up ubuntu on a seperate partition,

setup; 2-4 gigs.. /swap partition
4-5 gig partition for the ubuntu install itself is loads.. "/" root partition
and as much space as you can afford partition for your.. /home folder, all your settings and downloads get saved here, just point the installer to all these partitions when you install

you could do all the above on one partition, but if you've to re-install for whatever reason down the line its a p.i.t.a, this way you just install the os again at / partition, all your stuff is safe in /home, and your desktop settings will all be the same again after new install (providing you use the same user name)

floyd.pepper

cheers. what would you use to partition the disk? i want to keep the entire install to about 20-25 gigs if I can.

Stuxnet

you said you have windows 7, that has a built in partitioning tool;

start>type: admin tools

>comp management >disk management

my own choice is a gparted live cd

floyd.pepper

thanks for the link. have downloaded the gparted iso and will tackle it this weekend.

just before I go through the process though...apart from the limitations that you pointed out earlier...if I'm quite happy to live with them for now then I suppose it would be OK to stick with WUBI for as long as I want, right?

Stuxnet

ya ! use it as long as it works for you !

croo

Last time I installed ubuntu on a system that had windows already, it offered to split the disk for me... offered and did all the work. It was all very painless.

Mathiasb

Yep, no need for seperate tools, the Ubuntu install does everything for you.

floyd.pepper

Hi Croo & Mathiasb,

I was talking specifically talking about installing Ubuntu within windows using the wubi installer. It installs Ubuntu as a program in windows and therefore does not partition or reformat you HDD - therefore is a safer option when testing on a new machine and can also be uninstalled through the windows interface leaving your disk in tact.

This method also has limitations as iPwnage pointed out in an earlier post.

Mathiasb

Yeah, I thought you wanted to migrate from WUBI to a "native HDD" install? Sorry if I misunderstood.

Stuxnet

Mathiasb wrote: »

Yeah, I thought you wanted to migrate from WUBI to a "native HDD" install? Sorry if I misunderstood.

so did i, the partition stuff i was talking about was for non-wubi install..just to clarify
:cool:

Mathiasb

iPwnage wrote: »

so did i, the partition stuff i was talking about was for non-wubi install..just to clarify
:cool:

So I understood you correctly then? The Ubuntu install (not WUBI) will take care of any repartitioning/resizing etc automatically without destroying any data. So you basically just point and click.

Stuxnet

Mathiasb wrote: »

So I understood you correctly then? The Ubuntu install (not WUBI) will take care of any repartitioning/resizing etc automatically without destroying any data. So you basically just point and click.

yes it can under advanced install settings !

imo tho its better for someone that maybe hasn't repartitioned before, to do it first, from windows a familiar environment, have it ready for the installer, then its just a matter of pointing the installer to / /swap & /home

:cool:

what ever suits !