[Tfug] Why Wubi is the stupidest idea in Linux history...

[John Gruenenfelder]

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 09:50:19AM -0700, Jim March wrote:
>Wubi is the worst possible implementation of Linux.  Period, end of
>discussion.  It uses the Windows standard boot process, so if you
>already have malware you're working off a portion of the system
>*likely* affected by malware and hence unpredictable as a crack addict
>with a bazooka.

Except for that one time when it is the only way...  As Bowie just said:
"Someone will ultimately find it a perfect fit for what they're doing."

Debian contains a scaled back version of Wubi used for installations.  I don't
think it lets you run Debian in this bastardized non-partitioned mode, but it
does follow the same set of steps you outlined to get Debian onto your system.

The problem: I have a shiny new very recent (new in October) system I've
purchased to replaced my aging desktop PC.  Knowing Windows can often do
things to your harddrive, bootsector, and previously installed Linux distros,
I decided to install Vista x64 first before putting Debian on.

That works fine.  But, try as I might, I simply cannot get Debian to install
on this new hardware.  CDs, newer kernels, kernel options, USB drives, etc.,
etc... they all fail in one way or another to successfully get me to the point
where I can install Debian and set up GRUB.  I don't know why, but it's
getting annoying.

Fortunately, Debian has this Wubi-esque installer option.  So I give it a
whirl and, to my surprise, it works.  Debian is finally installed and so is
GRUB and I am happy again.


Still, like you said, what happens if something goes wrong?  Well, it does,
halfway.  With Debian installed, I tell Vista to uninstall the Debian
installer which *does* remove the option from the add/remove programs window,
but does *not* a) erase the couple of files it put on the Windows drive and b)
remove itself from the Windows bootloader.  So everytime I start Vista (which,
fortunately, is not all that often), I have to select Vista from both GRUB and
Vista bootloaders.

Even worse, this halfway uninstall has halfway destroyed the Vista
bootloader.  All Vista supplied tools for viewing, installing, and/or
modifying the bootloader absolutely refuse to function.  The couple of third
party tools I tried did just as poorly.

Luckily, even though these tools do not work, the bootloader actually *does*
work for some bizarre reason.  And, since the only thing I use Vista for is
gaming, I'm okay leaving the bootloader in this half dead mess.


So, that said, this was a pre-release Debian/testing version of the
installer.  Deb/stable was much to old for the hardware and recent nightlies
of the Deb/testing installer were the only ones which would boot on the
machine at the time.  Presumably, whatever went wrong is fixed now.  :)


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
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