I’ve probably installed the Linux operating system more than any other operating system I’ve used ever. This most recent time was the easiest by far, but the results were disappointing.
The first time I installed Linux was on an old 486 PC. The thing didn’t even have an optical drive, just a floppy drive an a hard drive (probably a massive 240MB drive). The installation worked. I was able to use Linux, but because the PC was so old and primitive I could only use Linux in text mode. Still, it was exciting to be running a Unix-like operating system back in the early 1990s.
Since that time, I’ve installed various Linux distributions on old PCs around the office, plus a few laptops. Redhat. Mandrake. SuSE. Ubuntu. It’s worked every time. I’ve enjoyed using Linux, but not really enough to make Linux my main choice for an operating system. (I prefer FreeBSD to Linux.)
I presently don’t have a Linux installation since I had to rip it from my laptop (I needed the hard drive space). I get programming questions on Linux, so it’s good for me to have a system, and Ubuntu is a good distribution. So I was thrilled to hear about Wubi.
Wubi is a Linux installer that runs in Windows. You download an installer from http://wubi-installer.org/. The installer runs as Windows program. It loads a stub that fetches the rest of Ubuntu Linux from a web server. It’s all very easy to do, right from within Windows.
After installation, you’re supposed to restart your PC. Then you find that you now have a dual-booting computer, ready with Linux installed. But that’s as far as I got.
When I tried booting into Ubuntu, however, I kept getting root directory errors. I could only click a stupid “OK” button and so the problem was not resolved. Oh, well. So much for that effort.
Please don’t comment on how I can fix this. Yes, I recognize that many people are fanatical about Linux and that it will “only” take several days of my time to remedy the situation. I don’t want to. Honestly, the promise was there and the installation went well. But I’m not desperate to install Ubuntu, just curious. Suffice it to say that my curiosity is squished on this issue.
Hmm… odd. But it’s one of those things that pees me off about Linux distributions: the developers seem to think ‘workaround’ rather than ‘fix’ in a lot of the cases. And then when you do complain, you get told to ‘screw your Finder, Mac fanboy’.
I say this as a geek, but also as someone who uses their computer for basic things like word processing, time management, etc. True, it’s great to fiddle sometimes, but most of the time I also need to check my damn email without having to jump through any hoops. Until a group of FOSS developers have grasped this and started working towards a distro that is user-oriented, Linux will remain with the Mac OS in the realms of relative obscurity.
Comment by Jonathan Rothwell — September 19, 2008 @ 10:22 am
I lold.
The problem is that there’s no obvious way to boot into a command prompt to try and fix the situation. The boot loader, which I assume to be the Windows boot loader, not grub, lists only Ubuntu and Windows XP. Other Linux distributions I’ve used feature a ‘safe mode’ or command prompt only version of the OS for troubleshooting. Not so with wubi. So I’m left with a tiny warning about the root system being inaccessible and a stupid OK button to click.
I still have a copy of Ubuntu I bought in a bookstore for $9. I can always install it later, when I’m not as busy as I am now. But the promise of a download and install from within Windows was tempting.
Comment by admin — September 19, 2008 @ 10:35 am