Ubuntu Windows Installer

[guru]

A Windows based installer for Ubuntu Linux is now available:

We have a development version of a Windows based installer for Ubuntu which is designed to be:

very simple to use

provide a no-risk installation

no repartitioning the hard disk

no changing the windows boot loader

Easy uninstallation.

Low risk

Doesn't use a virtual machine

Doesn't significantly reduce performance of the resulting installation

Resulting installation supports everything a normal install does.

Fast install

src: W2S and http://www.linuxcompatible.org/Ubuntu_Wind...ler_s79665.html

download: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/install.exe/Prototype

[Ambroos]

Great!!! I hate partition resizing! (i once lost all my photo's and music with it)

Now let's try it... Wonder how it works!

[Mathiasdm]

Warning for those intersted: the software is still in alpha/beta!

But yes, it looks very promising :-)

[sourc3]

It looks very very promising. I wanted to develop for Linux for quite a while now. I guess it's time to give it a shot.

[v0ltage789]

Very cool, I will give it a try when its a little more developed.

[markwolfe Veteran]

If people are so afraid (or incapable) of booting a CD to install Linux, what makes anyone think that they will be comfortable when they boot up into a Linux environment? :unsure:

The only "advantage" I see here is that the entire install is in a file that exists within the user's current NTFS Windows filesystem. They boot up into that file (which is really an image of a Linux ext3 filestystem). While that is a nice way to avoid partition table changes, it won't make a user put forth any learning effort.

[Echilon]

Interesting. Part of the fun of installing linux used to be finally getting your devices recognized. This way looks alot less gratifying :p

[markwolfe Veteran]

This doesn't change the hardware detection/useage. This just boots off a virtual partition that is really just a big file on an NTFS drive. So, nothing really changes, operationally, as far as I can tell.

[Quillz]

I still prefer to install via Live DVD.

[Kreuger]

I thought it was just to simplify installation for dual booting

[markwolfe Veteran]

I thought it was just to simplify installation for dual booting

Well, it does do that. It creates a large file on your NTFS filesystem - as large as you would normally partition for Ubuntu. It throws the GRUB boot information into another 512 byte file, instead of the MBR, and adds a C:\boot.ini entry to point to that file (same as any existing procedure to boot Linux using Microsoft's boot loader).

Then it essentially "mounts" the NTFS file as your Ubuntu root partition (and swap, I assume). Voila! Ubuntu booting from an NTFS system that didn't need partitioning, yet still using the *nix standard ext3 filesystem. This part is neat, but not new. It is the same technique that virtual PCs use for hosting an OS. But you don't run Ubuntu through a virtual PC, just using the large NTFS file as a virtual ext3 filesystem.

[ToneKnee]

Any idea what the Hard Drive speed will be like seeing as this isn't a native way of running Linux :s

[markwolfe Veteran]

I would guess it would be a little slower at what NTFS read/write rate is. It has to do the write to its ext3, which is then passed to the NTFS file. But regular running of apps should be identical, as long as it doesn't rely on a lot fo hard drive I/O.

[Neo Collin]

I think its definitely worth a try !!

[gendi]

sounds great, will give this a shot

[MrA]

Any idea what the Hard Drive speed will be like seeing as this isn't a native way of running Linux :s

But it IS is native way of running linux. When you boot linux, you're booting just linux. No windows. This installs Linux onto a disk image on your NTFS driver. When Linux is booted, it mounts the NTFS partition and then mounts the disk image via the loopback device as the root filesystem.

BTW, this technique isn't new. There's another distro which does this (but I've forgotten the name).

[guru]

BTW, this technique isn't new. There's another distro which does this (but I've forgotten the name).

I dont know if its the same tech but I remember BEOS having this feature where you could install it in windows

[-Hiroshi-]

Sounds nice, I'll have to try it when it gets more developed.

[Slimy]

This has huge potential. I will definitely keep an eye out on this one!

[Ethere]

I agree. This is incredibly nice. Bookmarked. :)

[Diffused Mind]

It's still Linux. :/

[Quillz]

It's still Linux:/:/

And your point... ?

[Diffused Mind]

And your point... ?

That theres no point to it. If it was *BSD or something....that's another story.

[LOC Veteran]

Bleh, my Ubuntu here just sits at the first 1% of loading or so. Never finishes. Probably going to uninstall it I suppose. Figured it would be nice to have a simple little Linux install, considering I can't use my sound card yet under Linux I don't see any point in doing a full install of a distro.

[haxaco]

anyone actually tried it instead of putting it off for later? this might work for me since ive had bad times with grub (where it would install itself on another hard drive instead of the one were i had both linux and windows partitions) and now that i have both xp and vista installed here wonder if it would work...