jimbabka
February 9th, 2012, 10:25 PM
On the basis of this quote from the Wikipedia article on WUBI, I decided that it was the way to go:
"While Wubi does not install Ubuntu directly to its own partition this can also be accomplished by using LVPM, the Loopmounted Virtual Partition Manager, to transfer the Wubi-generated Ubuntu installation to a dedicated real partition, including a bootable USB keydrive."
I had a really bad experience trying to install RHEL 6.2 to this separate partition - grub could boot Linux, but when I tried to boot the partition labeled "Other", it gave me an immediate error saying that it could not find a system to boot. I tried manually reinstalling grub, and that rendered my system totally unbootable.
So I wanted something that preserved the Windows bootloader and thus preserved my ability to boot either Linux of Windows. Thus, WUBI seemed perfect.
So I installed WUBI and like it. I am now ready to take the leap described in the article and create a separate partition for it on my hard drive. I have shrunk my Windows 7 (64-bit) partition in preparation, but now I'm trying to find instructions that will leave me in the same state I am now - the only difference being that Ubuntu is running from its own partition instead of the Windows disk image file. I still want to be able to boot to Windows (I'm not ready to cut the cord yet).
Anyway, I can find instructions for copying the WUBI file out to a new partition, but they all seem to assume that when you make this move, you never need Windows again. They all say to install grub, but I know that grub can't boot Windows on my system. I want to still use the Windows bootloader, because I know that works with Windows on my system.
By the way, I'm guessing that one of these issues is part of my problem with grub:
1. When I did boot RHEL from a DVD, it decided that /dev/sda was my external (USB) hard drive. My primary internal hard drive was /dev/sdb, and my secondary internal drive was /dev/sdc. When RHEL booted from the hard drive, the primary was /dev/sda and the USB drive was /dev/sdc.
2. My system is new enough that it doesn't have BIOS - it has UEFI. I know that this causes havoc for many of my older programs that get involved in booting (e.g. Acronis 10).
So, can anyone point me to instructions that will allow me to move WUBI to a separate partition and yet still boot Win7?
"While Wubi does not install Ubuntu directly to its own partition this can also be accomplished by using LVPM, the Loopmounted Virtual Partition Manager, to transfer the Wubi-generated Ubuntu installation to a dedicated real partition, including a bootable USB keydrive."
I had a really bad experience trying to install RHEL 6.2 to this separate partition - grub could boot Linux, but when I tried to boot the partition labeled "Other", it gave me an immediate error saying that it could not find a system to boot. I tried manually reinstalling grub, and that rendered my system totally unbootable.
So I wanted something that preserved the Windows bootloader and thus preserved my ability to boot either Linux of Windows. Thus, WUBI seemed perfect.
So I installed WUBI and like it. I am now ready to take the leap described in the article and create a separate partition for it on my hard drive. I have shrunk my Windows 7 (64-bit) partition in preparation, but now I'm trying to find instructions that will leave me in the same state I am now - the only difference being that Ubuntu is running from its own partition instead of the Windows disk image file. I still want to be able to boot to Windows (I'm not ready to cut the cord yet).
Anyway, I can find instructions for copying the WUBI file out to a new partition, but they all seem to assume that when you make this move, you never need Windows again. They all say to install grub, but I know that grub can't boot Windows on my system. I want to still use the Windows bootloader, because I know that works with Windows on my system.
By the way, I'm guessing that one of these issues is part of my problem with grub:
1. When I did boot RHEL from a DVD, it decided that /dev/sda was my external (USB) hard drive. My primary internal hard drive was /dev/sdb, and my secondary internal drive was /dev/sdc. When RHEL booted from the hard drive, the primary was /dev/sda and the USB drive was /dev/sdc.
2. My system is new enough that it doesn't have BIOS - it has UEFI. I know that this causes havoc for many of my older programs that get involved in booting (e.g. Acronis 10).
So, can anyone point me to instructions that will allow me to move WUBI to a separate partition and yet still boot Win7?