UNIX/Linux for Windows? and a few other questions... Post: 302313613

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Special Forums Windows & DOS: Issues & Discussions UNIX/Linux for Windows? and a few other questions... Post 302313613 by SilversleevesX on Wednesday 6th of May 2009 06:36:18 AM

05-06-2009

Registered User

Getting back to the alpha poster's question

This was something I wondered about, and then after a half-dozen Google trips, i found out about Wubi. It's a way of getting a full Linux to install on a Windows box Inside the Windows partition. To the Windows OS, it just looks like three folders --two inside of one -- of unfamiliar and useless files (Contig and Windows defrag have a few issues here -- read on), but the magic happens at boot up. Wubi generously installs the GRUB bootloader -- what your friend was describing about seeing a menu with options to choose which OS to boot into -- as well as your choice of the three "flavors" or "styles" of Ubuntu Linux -- Gnome, KDE 4 or XFree86.

As Gnome also happened to be the default in LinuxPPC a whole lotta years ago when I was on Mac clone and installed it, I tried Gnome first. But that's me and your tastes might not be the same (he says, half-quoting G.B. Shaw on a totally unrelated subject).

I still have Kubuntu installed, have gone through several updates and have added some brilliantly written, useful in the extreme and otherwise ultra-cool software; despite the fact I spend less than a tenth of the time I spend on any computer in any OS in KDE, I intend to keep it until I can get something else (hardware-wise) to commit to a full, unadulterated and uncompromised Ubuntu Linux install.

Now for the potential issues with Windows:
* The Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu root and swap disk files can take up on the order of 10, 15 or 30 gigabytes of your hard drive and that IS counted against your total available to Windows files & applications etc.
* As I briefly mentioned before, both MS Contig and defrag utilities tend to stall or choke on these same files, the root.disk file particularly. Defragmenting from the Linux side is equally pointless, imo, because in one sense the Ubuntu install is a 'guest' of the other OS, though in every other sense it runs as what it is -- genuine Linux.

Hope this was helpful. Sorry you had to wait.

BZT

SilversleevesX

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LEARN ABOUT MINIX

installgrub

installgrub(1M)                                                                                                                    installgrub(1M)

NAME

       installgrub - install GRUB in a disk partition or a floppy

SYNOPSIS

       /sbin/installgrub [-fm] stage1 stage2 raw-device

       The installgrub command is an -only program. GRUB stands for GRand Unified Bootloader.

       installgrub  installs  GRUB  stage  1  and  stage  2  files on the boot area of a disk partition. If you specify the -m option, installgrub
       installs the stage 1 file on the master boot sector of the disk.

       The installgrub command accepts the following options:

       -f

           Suppresses interaction when overwriting the master boot sector.

       -m

           Installs GRUB stage1 on the master boot sector interactively.

       The installgrub command accepts the following operands:

       stage1

           The name of the GRUB stage 1 file.

       stage2

           The name of the GRUB stage 2 file.

       raw-device

           The name of the device onto which GRUB code is to be installed. It must be a character device that is readable and writable.  For  disk
           devices,  specify  the  slice  where  the  GRUB  menu  file  is  located.  (For Solaris it is the root slice.) For a floppy disk, it is
           /dev/rdiskette.

       Example 1: Installing GRUB on a Hard Disk Slice

       The following command installs GRUB on a system where the root slice is c0d0s0:

       example# /sbin/installgrub /boot/grub/stage1 
                /boot/grub/stage2 /dev/rdsk/c0d0s0

       Example 2: Installing GRUB on a Floppy

       The following command installs GRUB on a formatted floppy:

       example# mount -F pcfs /dev/diskette /mnt
       # mkdir -p /mnt/boot/grub
       # cp /boot/grub/* /mnt/boot/grub
       # umount /mnt
       # cd /boot/grub
       # /sbin/installgrub stage1 stage2 /dev/rdiskette

       /boot/grub

           Directory where GRUB files reside.

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability                 |SUNWcsu                      |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability          |Evolving                     |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

       boot(1M), fdisk(1M), fmthard(1M), kernel(1M), attributes(5)

       Installing GRUB on the master boot sector (-m option) overrides any boot manager currently installed on the machine. The system will always
       boot the GRUB in the Solaris partition regardless of which fdisk partition is active.

                                                                    24 May 2005                                                    installgrub(1M)