WubiGuide
ContentsBRTableOfContents |
Introduction
What is Wubi?
Wubi is a Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with just a few clicks. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, Wubi is for you.
How to use this guide
The standard installation has default settings that will work for most people. For general information on Wubi see the [http://wubi-installer.org Wubi official website]. You might also be interested in the [http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=234 Wubi Forum].
Please note that this guide is only for issues directly related to the Wubi installer; for general Ubuntu questions please use appropriate resources like [http://help.ubuntu.com/ the official Ubuntu documentation] or [http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=131 ubuntuforums] or [http://www.ubuntuguide.org ubuntuguide].
Quick Trobleshooting
- If you want to use a pre-downloaded ISO place it in the same folder as the wubi executable. The ISO will be ignored if it's the wrong version or if it is corrupted.
- If you do not see "Ubuntu" in the boot menu, make sure you have the appropriate rights. The entry should be in C:\boot.ini for Windows XP (the file might be hidden) or you can use EasyBCD for accessing the Vista bootloader
- If you see the boot menu, but cannot boot into Windows or Ubuntu try to run "chkdsk /r" from Windows (you can use the recovery console available in the Windows CD)
- If you still have boot problems after running chkdsk /r, press ESC when you see a countdown, you should see a menu with a few boot options, try them out.
- Wubi does not support software raid 0 (fakeraid), you have to install into a partition outside of the raid array.
If none of the above helps, read the Known Issues section, and if even that cannot address your issues, feel free to ask for help on http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=234
Wubi 8.04
Wubi 8.04 is getting there... You can find experimental versions in http://wubi-installer.org/devel/minefield/ The more stable 8.04 version (beta) is available via the main dowload button on http://wubi-installer.org. It is recommended to uninstall previous Wubi versions before trying out Wubi 8.04.
Upgrading from 7.04 to 7.10
Upgrading from 7.04 to 7.10 is NOT supported, due to the fundamental differences between 7.04 and 7.10. The best route is to uninstall and install Wubi-8.04 (you can save the old installation files and access them from 8.04) or [http://lubi.sourceforge.net/lvpm.html move your 7.04 installation to a dedicated partition via LVPM], then [http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading upgrade using the standard upgrade-manager tool].
Upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04 might work, but it has not been tested yet.
Upgrading from 8.04 to 8.10 will be fully supported.
Inclusion into official Ubuntu
Wubi was born as an independent project and hence the 7.04 and 7.10 versions were unofficial. But Wubi 8.04 is fully supported and has now been shipping within the Ubuntu Live CD since the 8.04 Alpha-5 release.
Installation
How do I make Ubuntu the default boot option?
Ubuntu is not installed as the default boot option, you have to select it in the windows boot menu. To change that, in windows XP go to control_panel > system > advanced > startup_and_recovery and edit the "Default Operating System", if you want you can change the timeout as well.
How do I install on a machine with no internet connection?
Wubi works with a physical Ubuntu Desktop 8.04 Live CD. Wubi.exe is available on the CD itself.
If you do not have a CD, try to find a computer with internet access, and download both Wubi and the required ISO:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=198355
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current (daily ISO build)
Then copy both files within the same folder on the machine with no internet acces. Then run the Wubi executable. If you have internet access on the machine where you plan to install Ubuntu, you only need Wubi (the first link), Wubi will automatically download the other file as required.
Where do I find older versions of Wubi?
Here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=198355
How can I use a manually downloaded ISO?
You need to download the appropriate ISO of the appropriate version. Place the ISO in the same folder where you have Wubi-X.XX-XXX.exe. Then run Wubi.
- Wubi 8.04 requires the 8.04 DESKTOP ISO
- Wubi 7.10 requires the 7.10 DESKTOP ISO
- Wubi 7.04 requires the 7.04 ALTERNATE ISO
Why is the AMD64 version of Ubuntu getting downloaded and installed?
You probably have a 64 bit machine, the 64AMD installation is appropriate for all 64 bit architectures whether AMD or Intel.
Can I force Wubi to download and install a 32 bit version of Ubuntu?
Yes either pre-download the appropriate 32 bit ISO manually and place it in the same folder as Wubi.exe or start Wubi with the "--32bit" argument.
Can I force Wubi to install even if I have <= 256MB of memory?
Yes start Wubi with the argument "--skipmemorycheck". The installer may not work in such conditions.
Can I force Wubi to install even if I have < 5GB of free disk space?
Yes start Wubi with the argument "--skipspacecheck". 3GB are needed though (plus the space for ISO), do not stretch that...
Can I force Wubi to skip the md5 checks?
Yes start Wubi with the argument "--skipmd5check".
How do I install multiple distros?
You can install your favorite distro from within Wubi (see the advanced settings) and then once you are in Ubuntu, you can install the other desktop environments as normal packages. Each desktop environment is available as a single package (e.g. kubuntu-desktop). You will not have to reboot to change the desktop, simply log-off and choose the desktop environment in the options at login.
What Operating Systems are supported?
Windows Vista, XP, and 2000 are known to be working fine with Wubi. Windows 98 should also work, but it has not been thoroughly tested. Windows ME is not supported. Linux is supported through Lubi http://lubi.sourceforge.net/.
How do I reinstall Wubi?
Run Wubi.exe again. Wubi will detect that there is an existing installation and you will be shown an option to uninstall. You probably want to backup the installation files (the ISO) in order to avoid to have to download them again. Note that when you reinstall, the system virtual drive (root.disk) is reset.
What happens if the installation gets interrupted?
You will have to run Wubi again from within Windows (which in turns might force you to uninstall first).
How big should the the virtual disks be?
The default size is calculated automatically based on your free space, you can change that in the settings. The space is not actually fully used, a barebone installation take less than 3GB including all the preinstalled software (office suite, games, graphics applications, etc...), but if the virtual disks were of 2-3GB you would soon run out of space once you start installing extra software. 8GB should be enough in most cases. Remember that on FAT filesystems the virtual disks cannot be larger than 4GB (Wubi will split larger allocations over several virtual disks). Remember also that Wubi requires a larger free space than the one required by the virtual disk themselves, that is because it has to grab an ISO (700MB) plus some headroom. So Wubi will not install if you have less than 5GB free.
Uninstallation
How do I uninstall Wubi?
Run the uninstaller in add-remove programs. Or use C:\ubuntu\uninstall.exe.
How do I manually uninstall Wubi?
Remove C:\ubuntu (C:\wubi in 7.04) and C:\wubildr*. Then edit C:\boot.ini and delete the Ubuntu/Wubi line. C:\boot.ini is normally protected. To edit it, go to control_panel > system > advanced > startup_and_recovery and press Edit. For Vista use EasyBCD to edit the boot menu.
To remove Wubi from the add/remove list, delete the registry key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi
Known Issues
Please see https://bugs.launchpad.net/wubi for an exhaustive list.
Booting problems: Error 15, file not found
A common reason is that Wubi does not support software raid (aka fakeraid), you have to install into a partition outside of the raid array. Pure hardware raids should be ok.
Another possible cause of problems is if you used an Alternate ISO instead of a Desktop ISO with Wubi 8.04.
If the boot problem happens after the Ubuntu installation (after second reboot) and you have multiple disks, sometimes the disk order at boot is wrong (it is a known bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub/+bug/8497). In such cases, edit c:\ubuntu\disks\boot\grub\menu.lst, and modify all the lines that contain "root (hd0,0)/ubuntu/disks". You have to change the first number after "(hd" that denotes the installation disk. As a rule of thumb if it is "(hd0" try to change it to "(hd1", and if it is "(hd1" change it to "(hd0". Also change the line that starts with "# groot (hd0,0)/ubuntu/disks". Once in Ubuntu run "sudo update-grub".
If your filesystem is corrupted that can also create booting problems, please run "chckdsk /r" from within a Windows DOS terminal within the drive where you installed Wubi.
Often installing Wubi on a different disk/partition will work.
Booting problems: Error 13
The ISO/CD you used to install from might be corrupted, please reinstall downloading a new ISO/CD. You can check the integrity of the ISO/CD by calculating its md5 sum and comparing the result with the value on the website you downloaded from. If they match it is a good ISO/CD, otherwise it is corrupted. Md5 tools can easily be found on the web.
Booting problems: hang during boot sequence or black screen
Sometimes the ACPI is not fully supported and can hang the boot process or you may experience video problems (black screen). In such cases, after you select "Ubuntu" at boot, press "ESC" and choose one of the other options.
Poor disk performance
This is usually due to a fragmented drive or to low memory (frequent swapping).
You can use jkdefrag to defragment from within windows.
- unzip
- run: jkdefrag c:\ubuntu (or c:\wubi in 7.04)
Video Problems
If such issues manifest before Linux-side installation (after first reboot but before second reboot), press "esc" at boot after selecting Ubuntu. Select "Safe graphics mode".
If you experience problems after installation, press "Ctrl+Alt+F1" and run:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
Select the Vesa driver and leave all other options at default. Then reboot. That will allow you to boot into a safe graphic mode (limited resolution) you should then be able to install the appropriate drivers or try other solutions as appropriate.
Corrupted NTFS filesystem
All reported cases of damaged filesystems so far were from people that hard rebooted (pulling the plug).
When you hard reboot, you can always damage your filesystem whether you use wubi or not. What happens is that new users sometimes get stacked with wubi/ubuntu and since they do not know what to do they tend to hard-reboot more often than necessary. Sometimes they get lucky, sometimes they do not. Since wubi sits on top of ntfs of course when they do not get lucky, ntfs gets corrupted. Sometimes people blame Wubi for that even though a quick googling will show you that there are tons of people experiencing ntfs corruption without having ever used wubi or ntfs-3g (and a full software industry lurking on that...), most of them after a hard reboot...
If ntfs filesystem gets corrupted you have to run chkdsk /r from the windows recovery console on the Windows CD (or other recovery CD available on the web) or in the msdos console (if you can boot into Windows). At the moment there is no fsck for ntfs on the Linux side, otherwise it would be possible to fix errors automatically within Linux itself, as it happens for other filesystems, without having to rely on Windows tools.
Best advise is to simply avoid hard rebooting. Whatever the OS.
I can see the Ubuntu desktop but I cannot save my settings
This is probably because the installation was interrupted, and you are not in a Wubi installation but in a read only demo environment. You will have to run Wubi again from within Windows (which may ask you to uninstall first).
Other Errors
- For errors within the Windows frontend, please see the wubi logs in the %temp% folder.
- For grub errors, immediately after reboot, press the insert key rapidly after selecting Wubi and/or press esc at the countdown after selecting "Ubuntu" and use "c" or "e" to enter the appropriate boot options manually
- If you end up in a busybox console or see some tty message after first reboot, see if there is a /casper.log file
- For installation problems (after reboot), press esc at the countdown and select "verbose mode". Then once the installer problem occurs, press ctrl+alt+f1 to access the logs. The relevant ones are /var/log/installer/* and /var/log/syslog.
- For post installation problems see the logs in /var/log
Feel free to ask in the Wubi forum for help: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=234
Misc
Can I back up the installation files?
Yes just copy C:\ubuntu\disks\root.disk somewhere else (in 7.04 the relevant files are called C:\wubi\disks\*.virtual.disk). Old installation files can be mounted within Ubuntu and any relevant data can be copied over the new installation.
How do I create a virtual disk in Ubuntu?
Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Teminal), and enter these commands (this will create a 10 GB extra.virtual.disk, adjust line 2 to change these):
{{{cd /host/ubuntu/disks sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=extra.disk bs=1MB count=1 seek=10000 sudo mkfs.ext3 -F extra.disk}}}
How do I create a virtual disk in Windows?
You can use qemu-img for that. Another dirty trick (but working) is to copy any other file of the desired size to c:\wubi\disks and rename it "root.disk", "home.disk", "swap.disk" or "extra.disk". That's the wubi equivalent of buying (and installing) a new hard disk 
If you are running Windows XP (may work in Windows 2000 and Vista as well) you can create a file by using the fsutil that is included with Windows. The command format is fsutil file createnew filename filesize where filename is the file you wish to create and filesize is the size of the file to be created in bytes.
How do I resize the virtual disks?
For Wubi 7.04 and 7.10 you can use LVPM, at http://lubi.sourceforge.net/lvpm.html For Wubi 8.04 you will have to do it manually as LVPM has not been updated for 8.04 yet.
How can I get more virtual disk space manually?
A good trick is to check what directory is taking most space (usually /usr or /home). And move that folder to a dedicated virtual disk. Let's assume you want to move /home to a dedicated virtual disk. Boot in rescue mode (press esc after selecting "Ubuntu" and go for the second option) and run the following commands (tip: you can save them to a file and run the file using "sh filename"):
cd /host/ubuntu/disks # Create a new virtual home.disk of 15000 MB dd if=/dev/zero of=home.disk bs=1MB count=1 seek=15000 mkfs.ext3 -F home.disk # Backup the original directory, and create an empty dir with the same name mv /home /home.backup mkdir /home # Make sure the new file gets mounted at boot echo "/host/ubuntu/disks/home.disk /home ext3 loop 0 0" >> /etc/fstab mount /home # Copy over the old files cp -a /home.backup/* /home # Reboot reboot
If you are happy with the result, you can now remove /home.backup
How do I access the Windows drives?
The Windows partition where you installed Wubi is available as /host within Ubuntu All the other partitions will be available under /media/
If you are using Wubi-7.04 (7.10 and 8.04 users can skip this), write support for ntfs is disabled by default, to enable it:
- Make sure you have internet access (see the network icon on the top right)
- Open the "Applications" menu and select "Add/Remove..."
- In the listbox on the right select: "Show All Available Applications"
- Search for "NTFS" and select "NTFS Configuration Tool". Click OK to install it
Run the configuration tool under Applications > System Tools > NTFS Configuration Tool
- Select "Enable write support for internal device". Click OK to set it up.
How do I get rid of the virtual disks and switch to real partitions, and/or get rid of Windows entirely?
Existing Wubi/Lubi 7.04/7.10 installations can be upgraded to a full, real ubuntu install with dedicated partitions using LVPM. The main site for LVPM is at http://lubi.sourceforge.net/ and the guide and support forum is at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=438591. LVPM does not yet work with Wubi 8.04.
How can I access my Wubi install and repair my install if it won't boot?
Boot the Ubuntu Desktop CD, or another LiveCD, then mount the windows partition:
sudo mkdir /win sudo mount /dev/sda1 /win
Replace sda1 with the appropriate device (a = disk, 1 = partition number), then mount the virtual disk therein
sudo mkdir /vdisk sudo mount -o loop /win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /vdisk
Now the content of the virtual disk will be visible under /vdisk. 7.04 users will have to install ntfs-3g first and specify it as fstype to gain r/w access.
To check the filesystem you can use:
sudo fsck /win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk
How to reboot cleanly even when the keyboard/mouse are frozen
There are normally several ways to reboot cleanly using key combinations such as:
- CTRL + ALT + Backspace (Kills the graphic session)
- CTRL + ALT + DEL
- ALT+ SYSRQ + R then CTRL + ALT + DEL
- ALT+ SYSRQ + R + S + U + B
Wubi Customization
Can you add Ubuntu-flavor-XYZ to Wubi?
If you want your distribution included into the official release of Wubi, that needs to be approved. A live CD ISO must be available to do that (Wubi uses a ubiquity based installer).
Can I recompile my own version of Wubi to support my Ubuntu-based distro?
Yes, Wubi can be easily rebranded and modified. Get the wubi source code and modify the files in the ./data directory as you see fit. In particular you may want to change isolist.ini and the artwork (image names have to match the headers in isolist.ini).
To compile on a Debian based system run:
{{{make prerequisites #only to be done once make make test #to test the installation within wine}}}
Can I use Wubi for non-Ubuntu based distributions?
It should be fairly straightforward to modify the frontend (feel free to ask if you need any help), as shown above. Your Linux distribution must have a mechanism to do unattended installation using a preseed file. Wubi takes advantages of debian-installer/ubiquity preseeding, if you use a different mechanism, you will have to modify src/wubi/installer_preseed.nsh. The make prerequisite scripts might need to be updated a bit too since they are debian specific.
Note that upstream files (Linux-side) need to be changed as well since normal distributions are generally not capable of targeting and booting (and rebooting) off a loop device. This task was originally accomplished by the Lupin project, but since 7.10 a lot of functionality has been moved upstream. Hence you might want to have a look at:
- Other affected files: update-grub, grub-installer, /etc/init.d/umountfs, /etc/init.d/umountroot, /etc/init/d/sendsigs
Where is the source code?
[https://code.launchpad.net/wubi Wubi (Windows frontend)]
[https://code.launchpad.net/lupin Lupin (Linux backend)]
[https://code.launchpad.net/lubi Lubi (Linux frontend)]
[https://code.launchpad.net/lvpm LVPM (Migrates virtual disks to real partitions)]
What is the license?
The code is distributed under [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html#TOC1 GPL version 2 and above], however, the Linux kernel itself is licensed under the GPL version 2 only.