HOWTO: migrate wubi install to partition

[rainazure]

can I re-publish your guide with my native language and share it to my friends?

[bcbc]

can I re-publish your guide with my native language and share it to my friends?

Feel free

Note that the script is under GNU GPL, as it is based on the original wubi-move-to-partition from the Wubi Guide

[lucastrike]

Just want to say thanks for this thread. I migrated a wubi partition a year or two ago and it was hectic, but this method was astonishingly easy. For anyone that's interested, here is what I did:

1. Started with a single partition with windows.
2. Used an old version of Partition Magic to resize windows partition, leaving a large part of the drive unallocated.
3. Installed Wubi and got ubuntu up and running.
4. In ubuntu, installed gparted via synaptic manager.
5. Using gparted, made a 1gb swap (for 512 ram) on the end of the unallocated space, and in the middle between windows and swap, I created an ext4 partition.
6. Downloaded wubi-move.sh, opened terminal, navigated to my download folder, and typed "sudo bash wubi-move.sh /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3" being sure to say "Y" to grub
7. It finished, and I now have a full ubuntu installation on my broken-floppy, broke-cd, no-usb-boot laptop.

Thank you again.

[bcbc]

Just want to say thanks for this thread. I migrated a wubi partition a year or two ago and it was hectic, but this method was astonishingly easy. For anyone that's interested, here is what I did:

1. Started with a single partition with windows.
2. Used an old version of Partition Magic to resize windows partition, leaving a large part of the drive unallocated.
3. Installed Wubi and got ubuntu up and running.
4. In ubuntu, installed gparted via synaptic manager.
5. Using gparted, made a 1gb swap (for 512 ram) on the end of the unallocated space, and in the middle between windows and swap, I created an ext4 partition.
6. Downloaded wubi-move.sh, opened terminal, navigated to my download folder, and typed "sudo bash wubi-move.sh /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3" being sure to say "Y" to grub
7. It finished, and I now have a full ubuntu installation on my broken-floppy, broke-cd, no-usb-boot laptop.

Thank you again.

Great, you're welcome

That's a good workaround - I was considering doing this on my netbook the other day.

[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"

[Ziggy72]

Thank you. The script worked well. The only issue now is with grub. When booting from grub, I now don't get any splash screen. In fact, after choosing to boot from a kernel of choice the screen remains blank for about 15 seconds before it springs to life with a fully-formed Lucid display screen. I suppose that's ok but I would like to see something happening during the boot. I've enabled everything I think I should in startup manager. I'm using an x64 installation. I've done sudo update-grub several times

[bcbc]

Thank you. The script worked well. The only issue now is with grub. When booting from grub, I now don't get any splash screen. In fact, after choosing to boot from a kernel of choice the screen remains blank for about 15 seconds before it springs to life with a fully-formed Lucid display screen. I suppose that's ok but I would like to see something happening during the boot. I've enabled everything I think I should in startup manager. I'm using an x64 installation. I've done sudo update-grub several times

I'm not sure that this has anything to do with the migration. There is a known issue with the boot splash showing. This thread has a short description and fix, and this is the full bug report.