FromWindows

Revision 18 as of 2005-11-15 02:10:42

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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 Windows NT, 2000, XP, or any other NT-based Windows. You can also perform a similar procedure on Windows 9x, but I'm not sure exactly how. Marc Herbert's site also desribes a method using LOADLIN, but suspect it's possible using GRUB as well.

* 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/hoary/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/ and save them to boot.

* 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. InstallUbuntuFromWindows 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

* 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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