AtishBhattacharya

Title: Ubiquity based tool to migrate existing Wubi installation to a dedicated partition

Student: Atish Bhattacharya

Abstract: Wubi allows new users to install or uninstall Ubuntu into a partition from inside Windows without any hassles and try out Ubuntu. However, one cannot access other data on the partition from within Ubuntu, nor increase the space for the OS. A proper install on a separate partition is the answer, but people don't want to lose their installations and customizations. So I will implement changes to allow Ubiquity to migrate existing Wubi installs to dedicated partitions from the Live CD or USB.

Content:

Your Name

Atish Bhattacharya

Contact information

  • Your Name: Atish Bhattacharya
  • Email Address: atish.2006@gmail.com

  • IRC nickname: atishb
  • Launchpad ID: ~atish.2006
  • Skype username: atish.2006
  • Webpage/blog: --
  • College-University:IIT Kharagpur

  • Major: B.Tech Instrumentation Engineering

Project

Project Name:

Ubiquity based tool to migrate existing Wubi installation to a dedicated partition

Project Description:

Enable easy migration of existing Wubi installations to a dedicated new partition via a customised GUI frontend offering only relevant options and settings from a LIVE CD or USB using Ubiquity

Detailed Description:

When Ubiquity is launched, detect installed OSs

If a Wubi install is found ask user if he wants to migrate

If no, show default Ubiquity steps

Else, Load Partition Manager page (Disable option to completely format drive and install just Ubuntu)

If user selects Manual Partition > Load Partitoner > After user is done resizing/formatting > Select target partition

Mount other partitions via /etc/fstab

Resize and copy existing Wubi image to selected partition using dd (will try partimage for better efficiency)

End of user interaction as all other steps have been done once previously (during Wubi install)

After copying is over, regenerate fstab, do a grub-install and grub-update(maintaining user customisations) and regenerate initramfs

Voila Your Ubuntu now has its own dedicated partition (Wubi may be uninstalled in windows).

If you would be willing and able to do other projects instead, which ones?

The listed idea for Nautilus Improvements: implement smart copy/paste that doesnt stop at errors and calculates directory sizes and space availabilty even before copying to make it failsafe

Why did you like this idea?

I love diving into complex code structures, hacking precariously glued together code elements and the way debconf, debconffilter and d-i are linked together seems very interesting. I also love it for the benefits it would provide to users of Wubi. Smile :)

Please describe a tentative project architecture or an approach to it:

I will try to implement it with plugins as far as possible (mainly for the GUI changes necessitated for reduced user interaction) and hack into the existing code model otherwise

Give us details about the milestones for this project

Mid term evaluatin: Complete abilty to detect and migrate Wubi installs

Final evaluaiton: Customise GUI and polish final product

Why will your proposal benefit Ubuntu?

A Wubi install can get quite constrained after the novelty wears off. Its then a very frustrating experience to either having to keep using it or to lose all your hard work spent on customising and installing new software and go for a fresh install. Allowing users the option to port their Wubi installs to new, dedicated partitions would be a great alternative and go a long way in being user friendly.

Open Source

Please describe any previous Open Source development experience

None

Why are you interested in Open Source?

The fact that I can change code to solve problems that I have faced Smile :) and also potentially troubling many others.

Availability

How long will the project take? When can you begin?

The entire duration of GSOC. From May 1 (thats when my vacations start Smile :) )

How much time do you expect to dedicate to this project? (weekly)

~50 hours, 7-8 hrs everyday except sundays

Where will you based during the summer?

At home in Kolkata, India

Do you have any commitments for the summer? (holidays/work/summer courses)

None

Please designate a back up student (in case you need to withdraw your application)

None yet, but I'll be happy to mention if anybody capable is interested

Other

Have you ever participated in a previous GSoC? (describe your project)

No

Have you applied for any other 2010 Summer of Code projects? If yes, which ones?

Yes. Implementing secure WebDAV support for TYPO3

Why did you apply for the Google Summer of Code ?

To be productive during the summer, and also make a bit of money Smile :)

Why did you choose Ubuntu as a mentoring organisation?

Been using it since Dapper and love it.

Why do you want to participate and why should Ubuntu choose you?

I am good at understanding new projects fast and then modifying and adapting them. I am experienced in developing in C, C++ and python. I have also used java, PHP and bash scripting. I find this project challenging and very useful if successfully implemented . Thus this project is ideal for my talents and likes. In choosing me Ubuntu are likely to get a very interested and motivated student, who may not be very knowledgeable but is a fast learner and will not disappoint.

AtishBhattacharya (last edited 2010-04-09 19:22:40 by proxy2)