Howto: Install Ubuntu without a CD

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Originally Posted by reagen

......... instead just got stuck in some DOS like OS. when i check it seems i am running "ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-16-generic" . it asks me to log in and when i did it just stand there with a "reagen@reagen:~$ " . waiting for command i dunno of. since everything is running fine, ....

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have you tried a

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startx

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yet?

Works Great !

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Originally Posted by johnraff

It sounds as if you've installed just the basic command-line-only system. Maybe you forgot to select one of the desktop setups during the installation process. Two options I'd say:
1)go back and do it over again, this time choosing "ubuntu desktop" or whatever when that menu comes up (arrows to go up and down, spacebar to select),or
2)carry on and install the ubuntu desktop (if that's what you want) by typing

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sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

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at that command prompt you get. You'll be asked for your password, then a whole lot more stuff will install.

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Quote:

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have you tried a
Code:
startx
yet?

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Thanks for all the help. It works, and right now I'm trying stuff on my Ubuntu! Although "Panel Encountered problem while loading 'OAFIID:GNOME_Panel_TrashApplet'" keeps popping up everytime I log in...
Well, I guess that ain't much of a problem....
Thanks for everything, you're the best!

If you boot off a USB drive, you can install it from there. Download the Ubuntu ISO, create a bootable USB drive and extract the ISO contents to the drive. See source for detailed instructions.

I am trying to install Ubuntu 9.10 as a frugal install using Unetbootin (latest version) to an ntfs partition that has an existing Windows XP on it.

1. Is this possible? I am told it is but can I really install without destroying the Windows partition? Also will it work even though the partition is formatted as NTFS?
I have looked everywhere but no one seems to be able to answer these two fundamental questions.

2. I have tried this but after install I get a boot choice of Windows XP or Unetbootin. Selecting the latter it starts to boot with

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Booting 'UNetbootin'

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but gets as far as an error 15.

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Booting 'UNetbootin'
find --set-root /unetbtin/ubnkern
Error 15 File not found

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grub4 dos stanza is

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find --set-root /unetbtin/ubnkern
kernel /unetbtin/ubnkern
initrd /unetbtin/ubninit
boot

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Rebooting to Windows XP I see:
1. the line

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c:\ubnldr.mbr="UNetbootin"

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has been added to boot.ini
2. I see no grldr files. Should I?
3. a folder c:\unetbtin which contains a menu.lst

Anyone any ideas what's wrong. How to get this working?
Thank you.

Hi Dave,

I have something like that on my old WinXP machine but the HDD is acting up due to broken connection in power supply so I use another computer and that one has vista on it.

What you experience there could be the incompatibility between Grub legacy and Grub2 and they have desribed how to solve it IIRC.

but I have no link now.

I did use UNetbootin too but on my Vista machine and had to uninstall it because some odd thing with HP and Vista locked the UNetbootin program from doing installs on USB after the Ubuntu install.

Not the fault of Ubuntu. I wrote to the developer of UNetbootin but received no answer.

So I did a wubi of Ubuntu 9.10 and then did a EasyBCD 1.7.2 with Neogrub but they tells me to use the 2.0 latest version due to the Grub2 incompatibility.

You and I and DrG at brainstorm. ubuntu.org? and some of the people who love Puppy Linux are the only ones who wants to promote frugal install of Ubuntu.

I have such now on my vista but I still fail to do the casper-rw file persistent but that could be due to me using the iso for live CD sessions and that one do automatic log in of a restricted user so maybe it is not able to save without editing the syslinux.

I don't know if we can continue in this thread due to that one maybe dedicated to full install???

so either we do PM or start a new thread about frugal install on XP and Vista/Win7 because these are different to each other.

hi,im new to this ubuntu/linux stuff,but i have a couple of recycled pcs to experiment on
so instead of the xp pro junk,that im all to jaded about,i thought ide try it out....
tryed wubi yuck,my cd-rom is not reading correctly most of them are a bit accentric nowadays the usb`s i have are under 2 gigs so ive tryed some optional ways of installing
right now i am installing xp on half of my 8.5 gig drive partitioned in setup.then ill grab the iso files use netbootin and try to install on second half,if successfull ill format the xp side for extra space,its not very big.hopefully it works out.

Hi, I have XP and have no way of recovering it so it's precious to me.

Anyway, I want to try ubuntu, and Unetbootin is pretty cool. But I've noticed that it's only a trial bases. If I "truly install" it through unetbootin, can I remove it like a program like wubi?

I'm worried, if I don't need ubuntu anymore (especially since support end and lynx is coming out), it'll be hard to get rid of it, and it might ruin my partition.

With wubi, you can do a dualboot......and if you hate it, you can remove ubuntu as a program from XP.

But does that happen with Unetbootin too?

Problem installing with UNetbootin
I partitioned my hardrive with UNetbootin in order to dual boot with Win XP (just for gaming).

My partition is as follows: NTFS 200GB for XP, EXT4 145GB for Ubuntu, SWAP 5GB.

Everything goes smoothly until I get the following message:

Installer needs to commit changes to partition tables but cannot do so because partitions on the following mount points could not be unmounted:

/cdrom

Please close any applications using these mount points.


I don't have a CD in the drive nor is anything (that I'm aware of) using the drive.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Check if you don't have a flash drive plugged in while trying to install, it may be mounted and detected as "cdrom".
Also, if you haven't shut down windows properly it may detect some file systems as kinda mounted while they're actually not