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Wubi Installer Review

by Jeff Weisbein on October 15, 2007 · 20 comments

There has been a lot of hype over this new way to install Ubuntu by using a piece of software called the Wubi Installer. So I decided to give it a shot and overall I must say, it’s very good. Keep in mind that this is still a beta piece of software.

First off, let me explain exactly what the Wubi Installer does, if you don’t already know. The Wubi Installer is a Windows program that will download and install any version of the latest Ubuntu; so you can have it install Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, and UbuntuStudio.

Wubi doesn’t even need to be installed, it’s just an executable file that you double click and it does its thing. It allows you to choose what drive you install Ubuntu on; so if you have a spare hard drive in your machine, you can use that, or you can install it on your local drive (C:\).

The hardest part of using Wubi (if you can even call it hard) is typing in your password (the password you want to use to login). Everything else is just a click of the mouse and sit back and relax, while Wubi does the rest.

Wubi will install Ubuntu in a folder on whatever drive you choose to install it on. It’s that simple. It even uses the Windows boot loader so you don’t have to worry about Grub or Lilo messing up the MBR (Master Boot Record) if you choose to remove Ubuntu.

Removing the installtion is simple as well; you can do it through Windows Add/Remove programs or just run the uninstaller in the Wubi folder.

It worked well on my Vista install – no issues, just installed, and rebooted, chose Ubuntu and let it configure, then it was good to go.

Possible things I would like to see in the final release or later versions:

I would like to be able to customize the size of / /usr /var /tmp and my /home directories. Nothing major, but something that I like to have control of.
It would definitely help the Linux Community if this program was able to install other distrobutions of Linux as well. If the Linux Community is serious about making Linux more user friendly and easier for the average end user then I think other distro makers should push to get their distributions to be able to be installed via the Wubi Installer.
Not much else that I can think of at the moment, it’s an excellent idea and has so far exceeded my expectations. I would recommend this program to anyone who wants to give Linux a shot.

Have you tried the Wubi Installer? Did you like it? Did it cause any issues for you? Let me know! Leave a comment!

Amin Haddad

well its downloading right now for me…
i would not call myself anything close to a technical genius, cuz when i tried to have ubuntu on my PC i accidentally erased windows…lol
this got me excited because I really wanted to have Ubuntu without all the hassle of partitioning…
Christopher L. Estep

I’ve installed (and am typing this from) Wubi Ubuntu (in my case, installed from within Vista Ultimate). While I have a more than passing familiarity with Linux (and with Ubuntu in particular), one thing I have *invariably hated* about every other Linux distribution is that they usually did *not* get along well (as far as the loader was concerned) with a pre-existing verion of Windows. With Wubi, that is Officially A Non-Issue, as it installs not just from within your existing version of Windows, it will even install in whatever partition you choose to put it that has the space requirements it wants. The filesystem the partition uses is also a non-issue; in my case, I have it installed into my all-NTFS C: partition. The applications and utilities included are pure Feisty Fawn (my own first exposure to Ubuntu), and they all work the same. The hardware support is also pure Feisty Fawn (rock-solid, in other words).
A Linux that even a newbie can *just install and use* with little fuss (and no muss at all)) Officially Exists; simplicity, thy name is Wubi.
John

Wubi vs. Live CD – Wubi Wins!
Having used both the Live CD and the Wubi install, I must say Wubi provides a more satisfying experience when actually working with the buntu flavor of your choice. The download and install went without a hitch. Booting was not a problem. Wubi did what it was supposed to do. A few days later, I elected to uninstall the files (so I could try another version) without any issues. This is the closest you can get to a dual-boot system without permanently installing the OS. All done without the noise and delay of using the Live CD. When I get comfortable using the OS, I can choose to do an actual install. I think Wubi is the way to go if you want the real feel of using a buntu offering.
Wubi Works Wonderful
http://NONE john crisp

Well!!!!! I’m not happy!!!! Wubi installed OK and gave the option of xp or kubuntu….That’s where it ended!!
Trying to open Kubuntu gave ntfs or table errors???
Refused to open? ctrlalt+del stopped and allowed to go back to xp, glad it wasn’t corrupted…
This is the WARNING::::Unrecognized partition table for drive 80. Please rebuild it using a MS compatible FDISK tool (err=26) Current C/H/S=16838/255/63 (hd0,0)
What the Hell does THAT mean??
Be careful with this!!
Jc in Dallas
Sid

Sounds like your partition got corrupted. I guess thats a danger every time you modify your partition.
WALTER EARNSHAW

Hi_There
I managed to put Wubi onto my pc – its sitting there waiting for some reaction from me, which i cannot give it ,as I don’t know which file starts Wubi and the help files are a tad sketchy
If you could get me started with Wubi, I will be grateful
Yours truly,
elwaltura
http://www.coreutilities.co.uk Colin Wilson

For now, i’d suggest only using the older Feisty Fawn with Wubi, as the Gutsy Gibbon release is still in testing – i’m actually using Gutsy on mine now to type this, but a few things don’t seem to work as expected i.e. can’t access my Windows partition within Gutsy as I could under Feisty, so i’ll probably wipe it and throw Feisty back on here…
What happens when you first try to install Wubi / Ubuntu, is that you select the version you want to use, and it will go and retrieve the specific image file from the internet (the normal image for Wubi is the “alternate” variant).
If you already have this, you can manually copy it into one of the Wubi sub-directories (I forget which off the top of my head), and if you re-run the installer it will detect the image as being present and start the install.
It will install the bootloader trickery, then when you reboot, you select Ubuntu from your new OS menu options.
Ubuntu will then install “natively” on your hardware, but will think it only has the amount of disk space you allocated originally within Wubi – i’d suggest going for 15Gb if you’re going to have a play around with it, or you might find you run out of space if you try installing every single game and toy like I did, and won’t be able to figure out how to get it working again without wiping and reinstalling :-p (been there, done that, got the t-shirt)
Once it’s done the install, you can fetch the updates – there are probably quite a few by now for Feisty, but you may find any attempt to upgrade to Gutsy will fail.
If you want to play with the eye-candy options, you might want to check out the optional Compiz configuration utilities that can be installed, as if I remember correctly it doesn’t work as expected on a fresh install, but can be tweaked easily with the other utils – having said that, I still can’t get the Skydome to work, but hey ho !
Sadly, a Wubi based install can’t be made into a “full” permanent install (i.e. removing Windows in favour of itself), but it’s a fantastic way to get comfortable with linux for when you decide enough is enough and you refuse to pay more Microsoft Tax to move to the slower DRM infested mess known as Vista (which phones home more than you do!)
http://www.coreutilities.co.uk Colin Wilson

Here I am a short while later – i’ve wiped 7.10 off my system, piddled around for a bit clearing old apps from the Windows side of things, reinstalled Wubi using Ubuntu 7.04 (had to download it from scratch, couldn’t find it on my system), completed all the updates (~167 of them ~221Mb), and activated the restricted driver for my ATI gfx card.
All I need to do now is reboot, and get some eye-candy working again :-)
I’m on a relatively fast line (can hit 700k/sec at times), so your mileage may vary as far as downloading the update speed is concerned :-}
Incidentally, copy the ISO image to the “install” directory under Wubi :-)
Duncan

Wubi installed Ubuntu on my Toshiba Satellite M40 (MS Windows XP Pro connected to a wireless network) with no problems but very slowly even though the router is on fast broadband. Wubi installed Ubuntu 7.4 even though 7.10 is available.
When I rebooted into Ubuntu and tried to set up the wireless network it only offered WEP encryption but my network uses WPA encryption.
So it works as a stand alone system but has no internet connection. I’ve read that there is a package that provides WPA but I’m not familiar with how to add that at the moment. I wonder why 7.10 was not installed and why WPA was not included.
Amidus Sila

I have a HP pavilion tx1320us in which i installed wubi. The instalation was cool, but it didnt run ubuntu. Here is the situation: On boot i can choose vista or ubuntu. Vista works normally, but with ubuntu option, after all the boot process, i see only a colorfull screen without any data. I tryied several times and gave up. Did uninstall wubi and searching now why it didnt work.
Please, help
Fabio

UNetbootin allows for the installation of:
You said:
It would definitely help the Linux Community if this program was able to install other distrobutions of Linux as well. If the Linux Community is serious about making Linux more user friendly and easier for the average end user then I think other distro makers should push to get their distributions to be able to be installed
>> Give a look at Unetbootin
>> The Linux Community is serious about making Linux more user friendly and easier…
UNetbootin allows for the installation of:
Ubuntu (and its official derivatives Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Gobuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Ubuntu Server) 7.10, 7.04, 6.10, 6.06 LTS, and upcoming 8.04 LTS
Fedora 8 and 7
openSUSE 10.3, 10.2, and Factory
CentOS 5.1
Debian Stable/Etch, Testing/Lenny, and Unstable/Sid
ArchLinux 2007.08
Frugalware Linux Stable, Testing, and Current
VectorLinux 5.9
Mandriva 2008.0 and 2007.1
Slackware 12.0
nemonavicusrino

Unfortunately, my experience isv very frustrating with linux sitem…I have a lenovo laptop and sound (hda intel alc861 – ich7) is not working. I tried slakware, suse ubuntu & kubuntu.. Only in suse, sound worked but only whwn manualy i reconfigure sound after every retsrat… but no wireless internet in suse, in slackware nothing, not sound, & wireless not even detected )everihig is working just fine in any flaavor of windows). I don’t like gnome , so i triede wubi kubuntu…Unfortunately frustrating continue to spy me, and after download and instaling fine i have in face login and password table,,, but my password is not working…I know very well my password but mister kubuntu don’t want to be nice with me. I wanted to give a chance to linux but seems to be to frustrating to obey to master kernel…
user login :)
password :((
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Ed

Installed Hardy with this yesterday. Ran so smoothly. When I’ve finished tweaking my install, I’ll install it with wubi to a proper partition. Excellent software.
Ryan

Hey there i was wondering if you could help me with wubi…
I installed it but i cant connect to my wireless network, When i use vista i can connect to wireless networks with no problem. Please help me i have a HP Pavillion dv9000
Simon

Wubi gave me a chance to explore K/Ubuntu without any hassle. I can install Ubuntu and mess it around a bit then i uninstall and install Wubi/Kubuntu .
Excelent ! is there any word better than it ?
No wonder M$ are so fast rolling Windows 7
They are scared !!!
Joe

I read so much about ubuntu I wanted to give it a try. I installed wubi 9.04 on a Dell Inspiron 7500 w/512MB and 20GB drive running Windows XP.
Very bad experience- after rebooting, the splash screen came up, the progress bar went back and forth for a minute or two then stopped about a 1/4 the way up. I gave it an hour- still dead. My laptop would not accept CTRL-ALT-DEL. I had to power down to get it to reboot.
Tried one more time and got the same results. Went ahead and uninstalled wubi, but now I still get prompted on every boot to run either Ubuntu or XP.
Like everyone else, I’ve had my problems with XP too, but nothing like this. And this is not some DIY hardware I threw together to make a computer. This is a computer I bought from the world’s largest manufacturer of laptops. So, Ubuntu may be a cool thing to use, but IHMO it is far from ready for prime time if it can’t even boot out of the box.

Flagman

Maybe rather than jump in with both feet, then condemn the results, consider taking it one step at a time. There are other options rather than a full install that will let you try out Ubuntu without the permanent commitment.
I’m interested in playing with Ubuntu and Wubi as well. I took the cautious approach. First, try booting to the live CD – this will start up a “light” version of Ubuntu so you can test that your hardware works, etc. On my work laptop, it worked fine, even allowing access to my office internet through the network (still can’t figure that one out – I didn’t even log in to the network!).
On my ACER Aspire ONE netbook, I installed VirtualBox, which allows you to create a virtual machine. Within that I installed a full version of Ubuntu. Again, works great, recognizes my wireless connection, sound, etc. I can switch back and forth between XP and Ubuntu just by hitting the right CTRL key. Yes, because it’s an OS running within an OS, it’s a bit slower, but my netbook only has 1 Gb of RAM, from which I allocated 384 Mb to the virtual machine that’s running Ubuntu and the performance is quite acceptable (bear in mind this is running the Atom N270 processor at 1.66 GHZ.)
Now that I’ve tested everything out, I’m more confident that a Wubi install of Ubuntu will work, so that’s the next step.

nahmhuge

The best installer I have met so far! It works fine on my vista!
Anonymous

can i install monomaxos 5.0 english edition using wubi installer?how?