HOWTO: migrate wubi install to partition

[Tridun]

Hello All , I speak not a good English .
I have a question :
For the last party ( Grub2 Installation ) , Do I overwrite the MBR of Windows, because I do not want to overwrite it, booting Ubuntu from NTLDR.

[sinha1612]

This was amazingly helpful and painless. I went through the manual steps and migrated my wubi installations on two machines to partition. A big thank you!
Also I read through the entire thread and was particularly impressed by the way you reply to each and every query, even the ones from newbies. It's people like you who keep the open-source ecosystem going. You deserve a big round of digital applause!! =D>

[bcbc]

Hello All , I speak not a good English .
I have a question :
For the last party ( Grub2 Installation ) , Do I overwrite the MBR of Windows, because I do not want to overwrite it, booting Ubuntu from NTLDR.

If you are running the script, and you answer "Y" to installing the grub bootloader, then it will overwrite the Windows bootloader in the MBR.
If you are running manual instructions, then the command 'grub-install' will also overwrite the Windows bootloader.

How do you intend to boot if you're not using grub? Windows doesn't natively give you the ability to boot Ubuntu, and using the Wubi install is not recommended.

[bcbc]

This was amazingly helpful and painless. I went through the manual steps and migrated my wubi installations on two machines to partition. A big thank you!
Also I read through the entire thread and was particularly impressed by the way you reply to each and every query, even the ones from newbies. It's people like you who keep the open-source ecosystem going. You deserve a big round of digital applause!! =D>

Thanks for the compliment

I think it's important for Wubi users to have a decent exit strategy without having to completely reinstall.

[Tridun]

Ajout d’une entrée de menu pour Ubuntu dans l’amorceur de Windows XP

     Une fois l'installation d'Ubuntu complétée, choisissez de rester dans le système du live CD. Nous allons maintenant copier le secteur d'amorçage de Grub :  Ouvrez un terminal et tapez : 
 sudo dd if=/dev/sdxY of=~/grub.bs bs=512 count=1   où sdxY doit être remplacé par la partition sur laquelle vous avez installé Ubuntu (exemple sda2). Le fichier grub.bs apparait maintenant dans le dossier utilisateur. Pour un live CD ubuntu, c'est sous "Ubuntu". 
   Possibilité 1 : Copiez le fichier grub.bs sur une clé USB et redémarrez.

Sorry for the french response ^^

I dare not overwrite for fear of being unable to recover Windows, I do not Live-CD Ubuntu or Windows Restore CD

[bcbc]

Ajout d’une entrée de menu pour Ubuntu dans l’amorceur de Windows XP

     Une fois l'installation d'Ubuntu complétée, choisissez de rester dans le système du live CD. Nous allons maintenant copier le secteur d'amorçage de Grub :  Ouvrez un terminal et tapez : 
 sudo dd if=/dev/sdxY of=~/grub.bs bs=512 count=1   où sdxY doit être remplacé par la partition sur laquelle vous avez installé Ubuntu (exemple sda2). Le fichier grub.bs apparait maintenant dans le dossier utilisateur. Pour un live CD ubuntu, c'est sous "Ubuntu". 
   Possibilité 1 : Copiez le fichier grub.bs sur une clé USB et redémarrez.

Sorry for the french response ^^

I dare not overwrite for fear of being unable to recover Windows, I do not Live-CD Ubuntu or Windows Restore CD

OK so you're using something like easyBCD. That's fine not to install grub to the drive MBR, but I believe that you need to install grub to the bootsector on the target partition instead (this is what that dd command is copying). This cannot be done without forcing it (an option on the grub-install command). I'll assume you have instructions to do this (but it's not currently supported by the script). If you use the manual migration it's quite easily done just by modifying the target from /dev/sda to /dev/sda5 and supplying the force option (change partition as appropriate).

[motrengaw]

Your wubi-move.sh performed flawlessly for me and my Vista-encumbered Acer 4420 laptop. Thank you so much for your clear, concise documentation of your clear, concise code. Deeply appreciated and very impressive.

I have a follow-on question/concern that may apply to only my box, and the Vista side of that to boot (oops. sorry).

On startup, the new grub menu posts the list of linux updates and a 'Windows Boot Loader' and 'Windows Recovery' option. When I select the Windows Boot Loader, Vista begins to boot, then switches to a 'Recovery Mode' with an Acer marque posting and a Windows login prompt. I can select my existing administrator account and enter my password. I'm then taken to a Windows recovery splash. The only tempting option there is 'Startup Repair' which promises to automatically fix 'problems that are preventing Windows from starting normally.' I'm leery of this for obvious reasons. I haven't tried the 'Windows Recovery' option for the same reason.

The Grub menu listed the 'Windows Boot Loader' on sda1. The Windows Recovery splash gives its location as 'C:\Acer' These entries correspond to the labels for the Vista install partition prior to the wubi-move event. Is it possible that the 'Startup Repair' option will confine its efforts to the sda1 partition and leave the newly Grub-ed MBR on sda alone? I assume this would allow me to go ahead and boot my Vista install as before but preserve the true dual boot environment your script gave me.

Any further light you can shed would be much appreciated. Thanks again for your time and effort on this polished tool.

[bcbc]

Your wubi-move.sh performed flawlessly for me and my Vista-encumbered Acer 4420 laptop. Thank you so much for your clear, concise documentation of your clear, concise code. Deeply appreciated and very impressive.
...

Thanks for the compliments.

Regarding the Windows entries in Grub... Grub doesn't always identify the Windows partitions well. Probably because many of the same boot files exist on the recovery partition. The easiest way to figure out which is 'normal' windows, is by identifying the physical partition that has the boot flag set. Then always select the grub entry that mentions that partition, regardless of desciption.
e.g. on my one computer I have two entries:
menuentry "Windows NT/2000/XP (on /dev/sda1)" {
and
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda2)" {

The one with the boot flag set is /dev/sda2. I've never tried the first one, and don't recommend playing around with it unless you know what you are doing.

PS you can edit these if they bug you - drs305 wrote a good guide on this. Grub2 title tweaks thread

[motrengaw]

Of course. Stumped me as to how to see the boot flags until I remembered the column in the 'parted' output---I'm still a relative newbie to Linux as I'm sure you could tell.

It was in fact the sda2 partition with the scary 'Windows Recovery' label that was flagged and sure enough held my intact Vista boot. Roaring along with the top down and the wind in my hair now on both systems (Ubuntu being the Corvette and Vista being the Edsel).

Thanks again, so much! Best of the Season to you and yours!!

[bcbc]

Of course. Stumped me as to how to see the boot flags until I remembered the column in the 'parted' output---I'm still a relative newbie to Linux as I'm sure you could tell.

It was in fact the sda2 partition with the scary 'Windows Recovery' label that was flagged and sure enough held my intact Vista boot. Roaring along with the top down and the wind in my hair now on both systems (Ubuntu being the Corvette and Vista being the Edsel).

Thanks again, so much! Best of the Season to you and yours!!

I had to look up 'Edsel'

Anyway... glad you got it all sorted. Seasons greetings to you too!