Ubuntu: Install Inside Windows
Posted on June 23, 2008
4 Comments
I downloaded and burned[1] the latest (as of this writing) Ubuntu ISO yesterday. This is version 8.0.4 and has something new for installation options as compared to previous versions.
What’s new? Check it out:
See that second option? Install inside Windows. Ubuntu can be installed just like any “regular” Windows application. When you next reboot you see a new boot menu and can boot straight into Ubuntu.
No Live-CD sluggishness. No mucking with partitions. If you want to check things out or dabble a bit, this is an incredible option! When done, just uninstall via the windows Add/Remove control panel.
I’m assuming this is related to the wubi project that I mentioned last year?
Results?
My first attempt at running Ubuntu installed with “Install Inside Windows” crashed and burned horribly. The boot loader couldn’t find my Ubuntu installation. I can only theorize that it was related to my installing it on my non-boot second SATA drive?
I uninstalled and then re-installed onto my boot drive and it worked much better.
I’m now running it from my Raptor boot drive. While you may be warned to expect some slowdowns from an install of this method, I have to say that the Raptor is doing a great job and mitigating that effect. 
Now I have to figure out why, when running Ubuntu on this machine, my mouse periodically stops responding. That’s rather annoying and leaves me feeling a bit stranded as I don’t know enough keyboard shortcuts to keep moving without it. But that’s a topic for another day…
[1] check Free ISO Toys for a neat & free way to quickly burn an ISO
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Same thing happened to me with my mouse in ubuntu the one time I tried it. without a mouse in a foreign OS it was worthless to me so I uninstalled it and that was the reason why.
That’s one of the 100 little things that wound up with my getting a mac. I was looking for windows alternative and ubuntu sans mouse wasn’t the answer hehe.
I’m making progress (I think). The random mouse stops working thing appears to have been cured with a BIOS flash (and boy was I way behind on versions!)