70 hours to d/l ubuntu using wubi?

[civiltalker]

Hi all,

I have downloaded wubi today from:

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/windows-installer

because i'd like to try out ubuntu with the option of easily uninstalling if i'm not happy with it. the ubuntu torrent was downloading for a few hours, and still said it had ~70 hours left to completion! i am on a cabled broadband connection, which has a speed of 2.4Mbps (I just checked) so i don't think the problem is at my end.

i cancelled the d/l and will try again tomorrow in case it's a temporary glitch, but i was just wondering if anyone else had experienced problems with it? (i googled but didn't come up with anything).

thanks!

[steveneddy]

Your internet connection my be slow.

DL from the Ubuntu site and it should give you some good speeds.

You will be much happier if you don't use Wubi - install a virtual machine and install Ubuntu in there if you can't <snip> partition you hard drive (because you) <snip.....>

Try VirtualBox

[bigsmitty64]

Plus you could just download the full iso from Ubuntu and choose "try ubuntu" when booting from the disk without even installing anything. If you like it, reboot and install it :)

+1 for no wubi

[Frogs Hair]

My first try was with Wubi. I have DSL and took an hour and 20 minutes I ended up with a true dual boot not long after . Go for the live cd.:)

[steveneddy]

There you go - two for the live CD.

Good luck - post a thread if you have any issues.

[lisati]

My first try was with Wubi. I have DSL and took an hour and 20 minutes I ended up with a true dual boot not long after . Go for the live cd.:)

+1. One hour twenty is similar to the times I experience on my home connection. If I read the OP's post correctly his (her?) speed is a little under half of what I usually manage to get, so a download time of about 4 hours might be expected - 70 hours does seem a trifle excessive.

[civiltalker]

thanks people! sounds like i should just try downloading the iso, so i'll give that a go later on. then i'll find out if it *is* a problem with my connection...

[d3v1150m471c]

wubi is almost always a bad idea IMO. download ubuntu from a torrent and burn a live cd.

[civiltalker]

just curious as to why everyone seems to think wubi is a bad idea? i thought it sounded like an easy option that wouldn't involve actually partitioning my hard drive...

just tried again with wubi (out of curiosity) and the d/l time was 7h (phew!). will see how long the iso would take now.

[bigsmitty64]

THIS (http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download)

[cascade9]

thanks people! sounds like i should just try downloading the iso, so i'll give that a go later on. then i'll find out if it *is* a problem with my connection...

There might be nothing wrong with your connection, it could be that your ISP is throttling torrents, or your port arent forwarded, etc.

[bcbc]

just curious as to why everyone seems to think wubi is a bad idea? i thought it sounded like an easy option that wouldn't involve actually partitioning my hard drive...

just tried again with wubi (out of curiosity) and the d/l time was 7h (phew!). will see how long the iso would take now.

Not everyone thinks it's a bad idea. Some people on the ubuntuforums seem to make it their mission in life to seek out wubi help requests and respond with off-topic, unhelpful responses like "wubi bad, try real install". I don't know why. Rarely have I seen any intelligent rationale - it's more like "it runs on windows - do you see the problem?".

Wubi is not supposed to be for long term use. It's designed exactly the way you wish to use it. To see how ubuntu works without having to partition your computer. If you like it, then partition and install properly.

Apart from running off a virtual disk and using grub4dos to load, it's the same as running a native installation of Ubuntu. Most (not all), wubi problems are the same as you would encounter on a normal install.

I recommend downloading the installation CD yourself. Running a new operating system is not without risks and you may find yourself unable to boot anything. Having an installation CD that you can run in 'live cd' mode is very useful. You can still install wubi or do a full install with the CD - and the benefit is - if you have to reinstall wubi, it doesn't have to download the CD each time.

[civiltalker]

thanks for all the advice.

i downloaded the iso in ~50 minutes and burnt it to a cd.

i did have a graphics problem which gave me a black screen after installing, which was sorted by the workaround on this page:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes

but now it seems to be working ok, although i have had a few glitches, but hopefully it'll settle down.

infinitely better than xp though - at least there's hope that i can fix any problems that occur, which is not the case in xp!

:P