8.04 did work but only the once...

[geemcd]

Everyhting seemed to go well at first... After trying several previous releases of ubuntu with no success on my laptop I approached 8.04 with low expectations.
Installed via windows with wubi... fine
Reboot into ubuntu, install continues.... fine
install complete, sign in... fine
play with ubuntu for a few hours, try KDE desktop, install Opera browser... fine
Switch everything off, go to sleep... fine
Dream of a laptop without Windows... fine
Wake feeling refreshed and switch on laptop along with coffee machine... not fine
tackling something called busybox with my java... not fine
posting this thread from XP... because it works
Can anyone help?

[lemming465]

The busybox prompt is from the minimal root shell off the initial ramdisk; something went wrong mounting your actual root filesystem. I've had this happen to me too.

Is your problem persistent? After booting Vista, the next time I tried to boot Ubuntu it came up apparently OK.

[geemcd]

yes the problem is persistent. Is there a way to mount the partition manually? Also, why would it work first time round but not now?

[daengbo]

The Ubuntu "disk" is on the Vista partition, so any fileystem problem with Vista can corrupt your Ubuntu disk. I'm not saying that's what happened, but your story sound remarkably like the one on ITWire (http://www.itwire.com/content/view/17863/1103/), and he was running Vista, too. I think Wubi is most tested on XP.

[geemcd]

I am running XP :)

[geemcd]

hey, just reporting back that reinstall did the trick. I'm just gonna be a bit more careful until I get my head round how Linux works. Running Gnome and Firefox now... have been put off experimenting with stuff til I know what I'm doing.

Thanks for your help guys... I'll be right back if anything else goes wrong!

Glenn

[GavinZac]

I still dont like the idea of Wubi. If you can, try shrinking XP's partition a little and installing Ubuntu natively in the free space. It might even come in handy some day if XP decides it isnt going to load; Ubuntu can rescue your data.

[geemcd]

Thanks Gav. My laptop has a 40gig hd split into equal windows and linux partitions and after less than a day of ubuntu I'm considering ditching the windows completely :)
That said, ubuntu doesn't seem to be such a space hog as windows... and everything seems to run a little faster too. I can see why this thing is getting to be so popular, especially with people who have older and lower spec'd hardware>>> 5 year old laptop

[lemming465]

I still dont like the idea of Wubi.
You are right that there are con's as well as pro's.

If you want to run an ubuntu install but you don't want to repartition, Wubi is great. For example, I just used it on a newish Toshiba laptop that is dual-booting Vista and Linux. Unfortunately, the dedicated Linux partition currently has Redhat Enterprise 5.1 on it for some consulting work, and I don't want to shrink any of the existing partitions further. So using Wubi to get it to triple boot with Ubuntu was great.

However, the decreased performance of Wubi, increased risk of disk corruption, and mind-bending complexity for troubleshooting makes using separate partitions the generally superior choice and default recommendation. Particularly since the installers will shrink windows partitions for you these days (if they are defrag'd first).

So yes, separate partitions for anyone who can deal with them, but options like Wubi are nice for some of the other cases.

[geemcd]

You are right that there are con's as well as pro's.

If you want to run an ubuntu install but you don't want to repartition, Wubi is great. For example, I just used it on a newish Toshiba laptop that is dual-booting Vista and Linux. Unfortunately, the dedicated Linux partition currently has Redhat Enterprise 5.1 on it for some consulting work, and I don't want to shrink any of the existing partitions further. So using Wubi to get it to triple boot with Ubuntu was great.

However, the decreased performance of Wubi, increased risk of disk corruption, and mind-bending complexity for troubleshooting makes using separate partitions the generally superior choice and default recommendation. Particularly since the installers will shrink windows partitions for you these days (if they are defrag'd first).

So yes, separate partitions for anyone who can deal with them, but options like Wubi are nice for some of the other cases.
Is it be possible to remove windows and keep linux when you've installed it with wubi? they are on seperate partitions so I'd just have to tell it to boot off linux partition?

[lemming465]

Is it be possible to remove windows and keep linux when you've installed it with wubi? they are on separate partitions so I'd just have to tell it to boot off linux partition?

No. In the Wubi scenario the Linux root filesystem and swap space aren't on separate disk partitions, they are inside NTFS files. If you delete the NTFS partition, you lose the Linux data too. You could delete all of the files except the Windows boot loader pieces and the C:\Ubuntu directory, but I don't think Wubi has any tools to make expanding the the Linux file and the filesystem inside to use the freed up space easy. It could probably be done, but it would be very hard.

However, it's not trivial to to expand a Linux filesystem stored directly in an actual Linux partition to cover an entire disk after deleting a windows partition, either. You'd have to boot something like the Gparted Live CD (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php), remove the windows partition, move the Linux partition, expand the Linux partition, expand the filesystem in the partition to use the extra space, and probably re-initialize the boot loader. You can remove some of the complexity in this scenario if you can copy the Linux filesystem off to an external hard drive temporarily.

Really, in any dual-boot scenario by far the easiest way to usurp the entire disk is going to be
1) save your important data
2) a complete reinstall from scratch
3) copy back your important data

Wubi is great for situations where you can't or don't want to repartition, and I use it myself sometimes, but it's not easy to change course afterwards.

[geemcd]

Hmm. I just had a look in my windows partition and not a trace of linux except something in the root called wubildr and wubildr.mbr

After that and just to be smug I booted windows and looked in the Linux partition and everything seems to be there...