8

I just saw this question and gave it my best shot:

How to remove Windows bootoption that results in 'wubildr.mbr'/0xc000007b error message?

Summary

  • User has a system with pre-installed Windows 8.
  • User seemingly installed Ubuntu successfully at some point in time, likely after a lot of trial and error [this is bad!].
  • User is confused about the wubildr.mbr error message, calls the corresponding Windows boot menu entry "UNetBootin" (look at the edit history).
    • Of course the user wants the get rid of this mess, even if it is just for cosmetics.

Analysis

This situation can only be described as madness and I do judge the community—including me—for not taking accurate measures to explain the +++ she-bang clear and simple, therefore making Ubuntu experience on current generation UEFI hardware (the only choice that the consumer today has when shopping) really awful.

We are TWO years into Windows computers shipping with UEFI. Beginners expect the community to have ruled out most issues, giving them clear and crisp instructions, but it doesn't look that way.

Linking to this as a duplicate, would only bring up new questions, like: "What answer am I expected to find there?" It's not that the content of the answer isn't good, it is the context [Wubi] that is confusing.

Issues

  • We have to many unanswered, duplicate or poorly answered ["try boot-repair!1"] questions with error messages containing wubildr.mbr. Despite earlier efforts.

    • I'd suggest deleting all of them and merging error messages where appropriate.

      Ideally one would put her/his error message into AU and find one answer, instead of being presented 99 results and skimming through a lot of duplicates finding helpful information nuggets, but not getting distracted by misleading answers.

      I agree with Braiam here, these duplicates provide no value. They only make it difficult to find proper answers. Such questions still hitting the site should be an indicator that proper information is still difficult to find.

    • In case of lazy OPs: Close with unclear - add possibly related answers in a comment and ask what's different from the issue they have -> Which should result in well documented individual cases, the things we really want!
    • Emphasize that Wubi does not currently work with Windows 8, which is the current generation shipping Windows operating system, no matter if users like modern UI or not.
  • Confusion over Dual-booting, which has a tag-wiki page but is missing a good, independent question/Q&A that guides users to related questions, no matter if you are running Windows 8 on UEFI capable hardware or if you have something else.

    • (Again) emphasize that Wubi does not currently work with Windows 8, which is why it is not recommended and that Dual-booting usually refers to installing Ubuntu to a separate partition. (Additionally: Inform users that Windows 8 pre-installs with UEFI+GPT are more flexible and legacy BIOS+MBR configurations.)
    • For inexperienced users on Windows, such an article should be the starting point, instead of the current one that concatenates ++ into a mega topic (which could be difficult considering the popularity of the view- and vote-count of the current one).

      Imagine the average consumer trying Ubuntu on their Windows 8 machine and winding up in an error and being directed to the mega topic. To make it short: You are neglecting the users needs in terms of available time and attention span. Just for doing nothing particularly fancy from their point of view.

      On the other hand, an acknowledged answer that just deals with troubleshooting is what everyone wants.

    • You may argue that such an article (series) or instructions should be the first thing a user on a Windows client should be directed to when visiting http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

      I agree with you. The official installation instructions seem to still completely ignore that current generation hardware ships with UEFI, providing no instructions nor direct hints for UEFI/Windows 8:

      Put the Ubuntu DVD into the DVD-drive

      Restart your computer. You should see a welcome screen prompting you to choose your language and giving you the option to install Ubuntu or try it from the DVD.

      If you don’t get this menu, read the booting from the DVD guide for more information.

      I that's all. It makes false assumptions. I hope some Canonical employees among here can help improve this situation.

      The issue is, that the current download page on ubuntu.com can differentiate between different clients accessing it, but buries important installation instructions for current generation hardware on another screen down and two links deeper.

I'm getting more off-topic here. Let's fix the Wubi questions?

This post was only written to point at current issues and provide ideas to possible solutions. Apologies if didn't manage to achieve just that and did something unintentional.

7
  • The wubi ones are in general awful - particularly the ones where the user and wants/trys to to install Ubuntu from the file...
    – Wilf
    Jul 27, 2014 at 13:46
  • 3
    Eh, WUBI is deprecated, and has been since 13.04. No one should be using it.
    – Seth
    Jul 27, 2014 at 15:52
  • 2
    @Seth But it is still distributed in the image.
    – guntbert
    Jul 28, 2014 at 9:39
  • 2
    @guntbert Yes, and we should really get that changed.
    – Seth
    Jul 28, 2014 at 18:29
  • I was skeptical myself of boot-repair as a viable solution for windows8, however, reviewing the documentation yesterday, I found that "boot repair" is included in the official ubuntu help docs help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI and this link is also helpful neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11135
    – mchid
    Jul 29, 2014 at 14:52
  • 2
    @Seth Actually, it's still "Community Supported" according to the Release team which is why it's still distributed. They aren't going to change that (I asked them at the 14.04 release cycle), unless the "community" stops supporting Wubi. I think we should dissuade people from using Wubi, here, because it is still glitchy and still doesn't work with Windows 8 and UEFI.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Aug 4, 2014 at 1:13
  • @ThomasW. Now we have a chicken and egg problem.. sigh. I agree, we should discourage it. It was hackish in the beginning, now even more so.
    – Seth
    Aug 4, 2014 at 2:37

1 Answer 1

-4

I say close the ones talking about installing with wubi, if they deal with removing something cosmetic humor them if it isn't a dupe but make sure to warn them it is a very unnecessary risk and if it is talking about dual booting windows 8 and ubuntu just say avoid that mess until it is straightened out. Anyone agree with my logic?

1
  • Doesn't look like it.
    – Ken Sharp
    Jun 22, 2018 at 8:26

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