This page is an adaptation of Marc Herbert's http://marc.herbert.free.fr/linux/win2linstall.html

Automatic process: instlux

Instlux is an installer that does all of the following for you. You can download it from http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/instlux.

Manual process

The netboot approach

This page will guide you through obtaining the files necessary to boot the Ubuntu installation from a FAT or NTFS partition, thus allowing you to install Ubuntu without any sort of removeable media. This guide assumes that you are running either some NT-based Windows(NT, 2000, XP) or Windows 9x(95, 98, ME).

• Create a directory called boot in the root directory of the first primary partition of your hard drive (usually drive c:\, which it will be referred to as from now on).

• Download linux and initrd.gz from http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/breezy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/ and save them to boot.

The following steps depend on which version of Windows you are using:

Windows 95/98/ME (using Loadlin)

• Download loadlin.exe.gz from ftp://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/pub/linux/loadlin-1.6/update-1.6c/ and unpack it to boot (If your default compression/archive program doesn't like *.gz files, try 7-Zip from www.7-zip.org)

• Choose Reboot in MS-DOS mode in the shutdown menu or press F8 (Ctrl for Win98/ME) during boot and choose command prompt only in order to start Windows in DOS mode

• Get into the boot directory and run loadlin:

cd c:\boot
loadlin linux initrd=initrd.gz vga=normal ramdisk_size=14972 root=/dev/rd/0 rw --

Now you should have a network installation going

Note: On some computers the installer has problems with the video card and you may get a "melting screen". I replaced vga=normal with vga=771 and it worked on my laptop Stjepan Stamenkovic

Windows NT/2000/XP (using Grub)

• Download Grub For Dos from http://sarovar.org/download.php/672/grub_for_dos-0.4.1pre22.tar.gz

(this worked for me--current grub4dos available via http://sarovar.org/projects/grub4dos/(0.4.1pre24 worked for Qrious once he had corrected the wiki :)))

• Extract grldr from the archive to c:\.

• Create a new folder in c:\boot\ called grub.

• Extract menu.lst (Should be in the /boot/grub folder of the archive) to c:\boot\grub The rest of the files in the archive are unnecessary. (If your default compression/archive program doesn't like *.gz files, try 7-Zip from www.7-zip.org or TUGzip from www.tugzip.com.)

• Append c:\grldr="Install Ubuntu" to c:\boot.ini.

To view and edit the Boot.ini file on WindowsXP:
 1. Right-click on My Computer, and then click Properties.
 2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
 3. Under System Startup, click Edit.

Note: Eventhough c:\boot.ini is not shown by the explorer, this file exists and can be also opened in the notepad. Just write the path c:\Boot.ini at the open dialog.

• Open menu.lst in a text editor and paste the following text in the file:

  title Install Ubuntu
  kernel   (hd0,0)/boot/linux vga=normal ramdisk_size=14972 root=/dev/rd/0 rw --
  initrd   (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.gz

• Save menu.lst, reboot, and select "Install Ubuntu" in the windows OS chooser then in GRUB. You now have a network installation of Ubuntu going.

This procedure should be possible using a disk image, but it may be necessary to use a different kernel and pass some special argument in menu.lst to tell it to boot from the CD image (Has been achieved using Knoppix).

It would be nice if someone could automate this process. InstallationUbuntuFromWindows outlines how such an installation system might work.

The CD approach

This approach is documented in the Installation notes, however it seemed appropiate to put a reference to it here.

If you can't boot from the CD-ROM directly it is possible to use the above approach to boot the kernel from the HDD and have the installation follow through on the CD-ROM.

• Create a directory called ubuntu in the root directory of the first primary partition of your hard drive (usually drive c:\, which it will be referred to as from now on).

• Download the ubuntu-installer CD from http://www.ubuntulinux.org/download/ and burn the CD, then copy the contents of the CD to ubuntu.

• Download Grub For Dos fromhttp://sarovar.org/download.php/672/grub_for_dos-0.4.1pre22.tar.gz

(this worked for me--current grub4dos available via http://sarovar.org/projects/grub4dos/

• Extract grldr from the archive to c:\grldr. The rest of the files in the archive are unnecessary. (If your default compression/archive program doesn't like *.gz files, try 7-Zip from www.7-zip.org.)

• Append c:\grldr="Install Ubuntu" to c:\boot.ini.

To view and edit the Boot.ini file on WindowsXP:
1. Right-click on My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
3. Under System Startup, click Edit.

Note: Eventhough c:\boot.ini is not shown by the explorer, this file exists and can be also opened in the notepad. Just write the path c:\Boot.ini at the open dialog.

• Create a new text file called menu.lst and save it to the first primary partition of your hard drive.

• Open menu.lst in a text editor and paste the following text in the file:

  title Install Ubuntu
  kernel   (hd0,0)/ubuntu/install/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 devfs=mount,dall ramdisk_size=17000
  initrd   (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.gz

Just a note: I think that /boot/initrd.gz above should read /ubuntu/install/initrd.gz Rob Pomeroy

Another note (from a different person.) Can you ues this installation method when you're planning on getting rid of windows, or would it fail when you had to format the drive you were getting the .iso image data from? If so (as I suspect is the case,) can you put the data on something like a usb key or pcmcia attached device? How would you access it? Thanks!

• Save menu.lst, reboot with the Ubuntu installer CD in the drive, and select "Install Ubuntu" twice. You now have a CD installation of Ubuntu going.

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