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Wtwine
July 1st, 2009, 06:41 PM
Here's an odd question. Does it make sense (is it even possible) to install Windows XP on a virtual machine in Ubuntu Wubi installation?

Here's why I ask. I could not do a normal dual boot Ubuntu installation on my laptop, which was running Windows XP, because of a bad sector on the hard drive. I tried fixing or isolating the bad sector using various software but was unsuccessful. Ubuntu can't/won't repartition my hard drive, presumably due to the bad sector, so won't install. I eventually gave up and did a Wubi installation instead.

However, there is some speciallised software that I use that only runs in Windows, and sucks in Wine. At the moment, I have to close Ubuntu and reboot into Windows to use them. It would be much easier to have Windows running on a virtual machine in Ubuntu. I was thinking of installing Windows on a virtual machine in Ubuntu and then stripping out all softaware from the "native" Windows installation, and installing them in the virtual machine. I would then only use the "native" Windows to run Ubuntu.

Comments?

lemming465
July 4th, 2009, 04:44 AM
Does it make sense (is it even possible) to install Windows XP on a virtual machine in Ubuntu Wubi installation?

In your case, it might. Note that with a WUBI install Ubuntu is not running as a virtual machine guest of windows, it is on the bare hardware. The only roles of the original windows install are:

(1) first stage booting, when you pick whether the XP kernel will be loaded or if you are going to chain to GRUB and then load a Linux kernel.

(2) supplying the outer layer of filesystem formatting. In a WUBI install the Linux disk partitions are stored as NTFS files, rather than as raw disk partitions. The linux "mount" command has a loopback feature pointing the target of the mount at such a file instead of at a raw disk partition. This is exactly like using a swap file instead of a swap partition in a non-WUBI install.

So if you want to run a copy of windows XP as a virtual guest of a Linux hypervisor, feel free.

Wtwine
July 13th, 2009, 09:45 AM
Cool. Thanks!