Ubuntu without CF or partition

[winemaster]

http://www.download.com/Wubi/3000-2098_4-10702316.html

It creates a file and no partition on the hard drive. I heard about it from Leo Laporte.
Please google Wubi and check it out for yourself. I an simply passing it on to inform people but if you research it and decide to try it please let us know if it is worthwhile.

[linuxguru]

The installation is underway at the moment on my Laptop. The laptop currently dual boots WinXP Home and Mandriva 2007 Spring. Waiting to see what this program does to my boot partition. Of course everything is backed up and easy to resore in a worst case scenario.

[winemaster]

Cool

[rob]

Why not just use VMware?

[glitch]

Why not learn how to partition your hard drive and install two (or more) operating systems?

[winemaster]

It is "supposed" to be fairly straight forward for the "novice" who wants to try Linux

[rob]

Why not learn how to partition your hard drive and install two (or more) operating systems? Touche :)

Just for the simplicity of installing and using VMware, I donno why more people don't use it. I understand the point of Wubi, but I use VMware for a lot more than just trying out a new OS.

[glitch]

It is "supposed" to be fairly straight forward for the "novice" who wants to try Linux

Try it by downloading the live dvd off Ubuntu's website.

[linuxguru]

Cool
Test on laptop failed as the Wubi Installer defaults to a setup process on a PC with a single OS and is unable to find the installation path to the iso image it downloads. Wubi was confused by my laptops multiple partitions. I think i could fix that but using another PC is faster.

So - I had a few spare hard drives around and booted up a desktop [Athlon XP 1600 with 2 gigRAM and a 40 gig hard drive.] The only OS on that desktop is XP Pro. Had 30 gig free space.

1: Download Wubi7.04.01.exe [about 10 meg]
2: Run the program in Windows
3: It offers a choice between Ubuntu or Kubuntu and a couple of other flavours
4: Selected Kubuntu [haven't looked at the new Kubuntu yet]
5: Click Install
6: Wait for the program to download the Kubuntu iso image for me
7: The program wants to reboot. Go for it.
8: On reboot select Kubuntu from the new boot menu
9: The installation continues and sets up Kubuntu with no other input from me.
10: One more reboot and both systems are available on the boot menu and ready to run.

Looks as if this is a very easy method of installing Ubuntu or Kubuntu on a Windows machine without needing any additional software [free or otherwise].
Anyone not familiar with partitioning or programs like VMware, or Linux programs like VMware Player and Virtual Box would find the installation using Wubi very simple.

Next thing I plan to do is make a request of the Wubi developers to set up a PCLinuxOS or Mandriva Option. These are just personal preferences.

[winemaster]

Thanks for the reply. I tried it myself but it seemed to want to get components from a cd. I uninstalled it and it was clean.
You obviously know what you are doing.

[linuxguru]

When the message about looking for the CD appears it is because the path to the CDRom is not the default path. If you have more than one partition on your system the installer seems to have trouble finding the iso image that it downloaded. My laptop had partitions other than Windows default so it failed. My desktop had one partition only with WindowsXP. The program found the path to the image.