HOWTO: migrate wubi install to partition

[bcbc]

The information in this thread have been moved to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MigrateWubi

A thread for discussion of the wiki page only can be found here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2012400

Thread closed.


This HOWTO has been moved to a community-maintained Wiki: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MigrateWubi

For the reason why, see here.
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This HOWTO describes how to migrate a Wubi install to partition. The partition(s) must be created already - this is not covered in this guide (but see here). The examples shown below assume the target partition is /dev/sda5 and the swap partition (if required) is /dev/sda6.

Automatic migration
The migration supports Wubi installs from 8.04 to 12.04, with Grub2 or grub-legacy.
First download the attached file wubi-move-2.2.tar.gz to your Downloads directory, right-click and choose "Extract here".
The rest of the migration is run from the terminal. See How to migrate in pictures

To migrate to /dev/sda5 with swap on /dev/sda6

sudo bash wubi-move-2.2.sh /dev/sda5 /dev/sda6

To migrate to /dev/sda5 without swap

sudo bash wubi-move-2.2.sh /dev/sda5

If you don't want to install the grub bootloader, use the --no-bootloader option. You can boot from the Wubi install's grub menu temporarily and manually install the grub bootloader later.

sudo bash wubi-move-2.2.sh --no-bootloader /dev/sda5 /dev/sda6

To migrate from the root.disk when running from a live CD/USB:

sudo bash wubi-move-2.2.sh --root-disk=/media/win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /dev/sda5 /dev/sda6

The path to the root.disk is case-sensitive and if it contains spaces they must be escaped e.g.

sudo bash wubi-move-2.2.sh --root-disk=/media/New\ Volume/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /dev/sda5 /dev/sda6

You can migrate to separate partitions for /boot, /usr and /home

sudo bash wubi-move-2.2.sh /dev/sda5 /dev/sda6 --boot=/dev/sda1 --usr=/dev/sda7 --home=/dev/sda8

For full usage instructions and notes:

bash wubi-move-2.2.sh --help
bash wubi-move-2.2.sh --notes

The code is now hosted on GitHub. You can keep track of new development or contribute. See https://github.com/bcbc/Wubi-move

Known issues with script:
1. Running "update-grub" in the chroot doesn't pick up other linux installations on the same drive (same running the script or manual commands listed above). This is unlikely an issue for wubi users. Run sudo update-grub after booting the new install for the first time.
2. Only the current kernel's initrd.img is updated on the migrated install; if you require others you can update them with "sudo update-initramfs -u -k <kernel version>".
3. End of life releases that have grub-legacy must be upgraded to a supported release before migrating.

Other known issues:
1. Many older BIOSes cannot address more than 137GB from the start of the disk. If you try migrating to a partition that falls outside of this, then Grub2 will fail to load it's boot files. Even if only a part of the partition falls outside this range there is a possibility of grub failure in the future. Therefore, either confirm your BIOS is unaffected prior to partitioning, or ensure your target partition falls within this limit, or migrate to a separate boot partition within this limit.
2. The process that Wubi uses to boot (wubildr.mbr) cannot read ext3/4 partitions prior to release 11.10. It reads partitions in BIOS order looking for the wubildr file, so if finds an ext3/4 partiton before it finds the wubildr file - it will hang up. So, make sure you install the grub2 bootloader if you migrate to a partition lower than the one containing wubildr i.e. if Windows is on /dev/sda2 and you migrate to /dev/sda1

A note on hibernation:
The migration script will enable hibernation automatically, provided you migrate with a swap partition and the swap partition is large enough (must be > the size of your RAM).

For those interested, I've included the steps required to manually migrate in another post.

[SteveGoTex]

I used this to migrate an installation on a Dell Inspiron 9400. Worked with no problems.
Thanks very much for this, especially since the LVPM approach does not work for 10.04.

Will be trying this on an MSI Wind next..

Steve

[SteveGoTex]

The MSI WInd worked as well. It has netbook edition installed, with Win7 as the other OS.

In both cases, I had to manually install grub to the MBR after booting up the new installation. Other than that it worked as advertised.

Thanks again.
Steve

[bcbc]

The MSI WInd worked as well. It has netbook edition installed, with Win7 as the other OS.

In both cases, I had to manually install grub to the MBR after booting up the new installation. Other than that it worked as advertised.

Thanks again.
Steve

Great - thanks for the feedback.

Regarding needing to install grub afterwards, are you saying that the command 'grub-install /dev/sda' didn't work (if you ran it manually) or that the script failed to install it (and you didn't specify --no-bootloader)?

[SteveGoTex]

It did not work from the script, while i was still running in the Wubi installation. Once I had rebooted the new installation (from the Wubi boot list), was able to install grub to the MBR.

[bcbc]

It did not work from the script, while i was still running in the Wubi installation. Once I had rebooted the new installation (from the Wubi boot list), was able to install grub to the MBR.

It seems to be working for me... you should have been prompted:

wubi-move.sh: The grub2 bootloader will be installed to drive (/dev/sda)
wubi-move.sh: If you select no, you have to boot your new install
wubi-move.sh: from the wubi menu and install it later manually.
wubi-move.sh: Install the grub bootloader to /dev/sda? (Y/N)

Then, unless, you enter 'n' or 'N' it proceeds to install it.

Note, if you migrate your wubi to a partition on another drive, the script will only permit installing the bootloader on that drive, which may not necessarily be the drive you boot from.

The only exception to this is if you use the --no-bootloader option. But I'll run some more tests anyway to make sure.

EDIT:
After further testing I've discovered that the package lupin-support (required for Wubi installs) modifies the grub-install command, but this isn't consistent across releases. For 10.04 the command 'grub-install --root-directory=xxx /dev/sda' was not actually updating the MBR, whereas on a 9.10 install it works fine. So I've modified the script to run grub-install within the target install (using chroot) as the lupin-support is already removed and the results should be consistent across releases.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Further EDIT:
In fact there is a bug in lupin-support in 10.04 Ubuntu that makes grub-install act differently depending on whether the wubi is installed on the same partition as windows or not. In my case, the --root-directory option was working, but when I tried the same command on a more typical install on the same partition as windows, it did not work.

It's not relevant for the migration anymore as the script is doing grub-install in chroot, however, might impact other wubi users. Here is the bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...in/+bug/604417

[dieter1]

Hi bcbc,

Just followed your manual instructions and successfully moved my wubi onto a new partition without a hitch. Excellent work. I'm really pleased!

A question I still have: Now when I boot I don't get the option of going into Windows. Instead, I get the Ubuntu option of the new partition (sda7) and the wubi option (or so I think, as it says Ubuntu sda1). However, when I click on the wubi option it directs me to the screen I used to have when I booted, which was Ubuntu (wubi) and Windows. When I click on Windows, it opens just fine. (I'd like to get rid of XP, but I still need it for Geosetter and to get at my Bible commentaries in Libronix).

I'm just wondering what will happen if I uninstall wubi-Ubuntu within Windows: Will Windows still show up when I boot? I'm a bit scared to experiment: Before I installed wubi I tried to install Ubuntu on a new partition parallel to Windows with the net result that the computer refused to boot at all. Wubi worked fine as has this migration. In all fairness, I think it was my Windows setup that caused things to go awry the first time.

Thanks again for your help!

[dieter1]

ok, I uninstalled ubuntu in Windows XP without a hitch and deleted wubildr.mbr='Ubuntu' in boot.ini. No problem! A slight cosmetic issue: The last option on the bootscreen says Ubuntu but boots Windows when entered. But Windows and Ubuntu now boot without a hitch.

Great!

[dieter1]

ok, I uninstalled ubuntu in Windows XP without a hitch and deleted wubildr.mbr='Ubuntu' in boot.ini. No problem! A slight cosmetic issue: The last option on the bootscreen says Ubuntu but boots Windows when entered. But Windows and Ubuntu now boot without a hitch.

Great!

Ok, got the cosmetic issue sorted out. sudo update-grub was all I needed to do.

[bcbc]

ok, I uninstalled ubuntu in Windows XP without a hitch and deleted wubildr.mbr='Ubuntu' in boot.ini. No problem! A slight cosmetic issue: The last option on the bootscreen says Ubuntu but boots Windows when entered. But Windows and Ubuntu now boot without a hitch.

Great!

That's interesting... I've never seen grub from a regular install pick up a wubi install within windows before. Maybe it's a new thing. Are you running 10.04 with the latest updates?

Good you got it resolved. It's always a good idea to run sudo update-grub after the migration... I've seen some minor oddities when running update-grub within the chroot.

UPDATE: If the Wubi Ubuntu was set as the default OS in Windows Boot Manager, grub will use it to identify your Windows install. This can be solved by changing the default OS in Windows Startup & Recover settings and rerunning "sudo update-grub"