FREE LOOK

Tricking Wubi into installing Xubuntu 12 10

Xubuntu is no longer available on Wubi from release 12.10 and later - as I mentioned here: Xubuntu option to be removed from Wubi. However, there are some people that will want to try it out with Wubi anyway, so heres a way to do it.

Disclaimer: I dont recommend the technique I describe here, but it works fine if thats what you want to do.

It involves downloading two ISOs, one for Xubuntu and another one supported by Wubi. Ill choose lubuntu since its the smallest.

1. Dowload the smallest supported ISO: lubuntu-12.10-desktop-i386.iso
2. Download xubuntu-12.10-desktop-amd64.iso (I want 64-bit, but you can use 32-bit too)
3. Check the xubuntu md5sum (Wubi will check lubuntu, but you need to check xubuntu).
4. Download wubi.exe for release 12.10
5. Make sure wubi.exe and the lubuntu ISO are in the same folder. Run Wubi and select lubuntu. 
6. When it tells you to reboot, select "Reboot later".
7. Replace C:ubuntuinstallinstallation.iso with the Xubuntu ISO (renaming to installation.iso)
8. Mount the Xubuntu ISO and copy initrd.lz and vmlinuz from the /casper/ directory over the one in C:ubuntuinstall
9. Edit the preseed.cfg file in C:ubuntuinstallcustom-installation so that it installs xubuntu-desktop instead of lubuntu-desktop
10. Reboot the computer
11. Select Lubuntu
12. Watch Xubuntu install
13. Reboot, select Lubuntu and boot into your new Xubuntu install.

You dont strictly need to predownload the lubuntu ISO but its faster than letting Wubi do it. If you decide to use the Ubuntu ISO instead of lubuntu you do have to download the ISO beforehand (because Ubuntu defaults to the preinstalled diskimage and that wont work with this technique).

Notes:
I used the C: drive for clarity - if you install to a different drive then modify as required.
If it bugs you, you can rename the Lubuntu menu entry to Xubuntu using bcdedit or easyBCD. 

Here are some screenshots for selected steps:

?

Step 3: Check Xubuntu MD5 sum

?
?

Step 5: Run wubi.exe with lubuntu in the same folder

?

Step 6: Select to reboot later

?
?

Step 7a: Delete the existing installation.iso

???
?

Step 7b: copy the Xubuntu ISO and rename to installation.iso

?
????

Step 8: Mount the xubuntu ISO and copy vmlinuz and initrd.lz

?


?
??

Step 9: Set it to install xubuntu-desktop

??
?

Step 11: Select Lubuntu

?
?

Step 12: Watch it install Xubuntu

Credit: I got this tip from here ironically to install lubuntu prior to it being supported by Wubi.

Update:
The original post had this line: "This technique will also likely work with other unsupported flavours e.g. ubuntu-studio". It does with one caveat. Ubuntu Studio doesnt include the package required by grub to generate the menu entries that can boot a loop mounted install (lupin-support). So it will install, but you have to manually boot it the first time from the grub prompt and then install lupin-support.

 Heres how to manually boot any Wubi install:

search -s -f -n /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
probe --set=diskuuid -u $root
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=$diskuuid loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img
boot

download file now

Two Lubuntu and Xubuntu blog to explore

Today I am going to tell you something about two blogspot blogs. Day by day LXDE and XFCE based distributions are coming infront of main stream Linux world. Many of us starting to love these lightweight operating systems. But there are not much blog which published tips and tricks about these desktop environments. Recently I found two blogspot blogs which are not official but publishing many valuable, informative, importent tips and tricks about LXDE and XFCE.

Lubuntu Tips

First of all I am telling about LXDE based Lubuntu blog. Its called "Lubuntu Tips". Url is http://lubuntutips.blogspot.com.

I dont know the man behind this blog. But I honor her/his effort to teach us about Lubuntu and LXDE. I learned many tips from this blog. I will publish some of them in my blog from "Lubuntutips" blog. Tips, tricks, hacks, customisation, decoration, various information and news about Lubuntu and lxde are available there. I really love this blogsite and visit it regularly. I am really learning miscelanious information from there.

My another favourite blog is http://xubuntugeek.blogspot.com/

Xubuntu Geek

XFCE is another famous lightweight Desktop Environment in the Linux world. In the Xubuntugeek blogsite, the briliant blog owner publish various informative, critical tips, information, news, tweek regularly. Once upon a time there is a Xubuntu blog on wordpress. But now a days update posts did not come for many months. But this Blogspot based blogsite is active now. I got many many idea, informations from this blog.

If you are a user of Lubuntu or Xubuntu, then these sites must help you much better then any other blog. I wish these blogs will continue their journey for many years and help people to solve various problem. I will publish some tips, tweek, hacks and informations from these blogsite with acknoledgement in the next days.

LubuntuTips address: http://lubuntutips.blogspot.com/
XubuntuGeek address: http://xubuntugeek.blogspot.com/

• LXDE on NetGator blog
• Lubuntu on Netgator blog
• Xubuntu on Netgator blog
• XFCE on Netgator blog

download file now