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According to what the Release team told me, wubi.exe appears on the images. Whether or not this means it's "supported" is open to debate among the ops, however, for all other intents and purposes, wubi.exe is only "community supported" and not really maintained by the release team.

However, they did say it's on the ISOs. It doesn't work with Windows 8, nor UEFI, but they have it there as "available" but by default "disabled" as far as I can tell.

How do we want to handle Wubi, now?

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    Wait wat? They haven't pulled it yet?
    – Seth
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 1:36
  • @Seth apparently not, some info I see is that it's on the ISOs, and other info I see says its not, all I know is the release team itself doesn't seem to manage wubi anymore.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 2:03
  • That's bad if you ask me.. Anyway we could get it removed ourselves? i.e. help the process along? (That is, supposed it doesn't work with 13.04 or higher at all.)
    – Seth
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 2:05
  • 2
    @Seth according to the person I spoke to on the release team, wubi.exe is now Community maintained and supported, and according to them its on the ISOs. In my testing, though, Wubi wasn't available. (Win7 system with standard BIOS). Based on that, maybe it's time to reopen this discussion here on meta, so I completely revised this question
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 2:25
  • 2
    *sees headache incoming* GUH!
    – Braiam
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 5:33
  • @Braiam exactly. Wait until the next version of Ubuntu EOLs... (13.04 EOLs in January according to the Releases list) Then there'll be heck to pay.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 5:41
  • Supported by who, on what? I think at this point it should be a use at your own risk thing. Is there a way to have the installer "detect" the common things it doesn't work with - so we aren't on train-wreck cleanup duty?
    – Mateo
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 18:28
  • @Mateo that'd be a question for the Release or Quality teams, or the devs, I don't think there is a way for the installer to determine incompatible things like Wubi. Honestly, I would prefer to just say "Wubi for 13.04 and later is not supported here on Ask Ubuntu, and is offtopic", but... I can't make those decisions.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 21:03
  • They did pull it. Then they un-pulled it.
    – RobotHumans
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 22:10
  • No way to tell if using win8 or uefi?
    – Mateo
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 23:21
  • @Mateo again, ask the Release team, or the dev team. AIUI, the installer can't easily determine UEFI or BIOS. It can tell Win7 vs. Win8, but not UEFI or BIOS, though. And Wubi itself AFAIK can't detect either of those differences.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 6:07
  • @Oli since I know you're online, opinions on how we should handle Wubi questions? Since support for Wubi on this site is ultimately decided by mods and general community consensus, I'd like a mod to give an opinion.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 13:54
  • hm, bugs.launchpad.net/wubi/+bug/694242
    – Mateo
    Commented Oct 20, 2013 at 3:12

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
16

I am Ubuntu Core Developer, member of Ubuntu Installer team and have commit access to lp:wubi.

The status of Wubi is complicated =)

It has shipped on the CD and is still shipped. Primary function is to be a "cd autolauncher" for people who pop the cd into a Windows machine, at that time it says "You need to reboot, to try ubuntu! [reboot now]" or some such.

If one copies the wubi.exe off the cd, it will launch and offer Wubi based installation.

If one downloads wubi.exe off official release mirrors or releases.ubuntu.com, it also works.

It works O.K. for all defined flavours i386/amd64 builds in BIOS mode.

There is no confirmation if it works with UEFI, UEFI Windows 8, UEFI Windows 8 + SecureBoot. The last one believed to be the typical configurations of new computers that do not come with ubuntu pre-installed.

Since it's no longer an optimal solution for the default new installs, it has been de-emphasised on the ubuntu.com/download website.

Also at the moment, none of the Wubi developers have Windows8+SecureBoot or great desire to get it to code for it. If somebody steps up to write following patches:

  • code to deactivate UEFI fastboot and hybrid-suspend in Windows 8
  • code to integrate with Windows 8 UEFI boot-loader to offer a choice of booting Wubi and/or integrating grub2-efi+shim to boot on UEFI machines and UEFI+SecureBoot machines

Then wubi would be suitable to be promoted on ubuntu.com/download once again.

Officially it is still supported - precise has 3 more years of support, and wubi has not yet been removed from any isos and is present to download for all releases and is present on all released .isos. (12.10, 13.04, 13.10 and 12.04.x point releases)

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    Per discussion on IRC, I'm thinking that here on Ask Ubuntu that we need to "refine" the definition for "support for Wubi". I'm pretty certain that Windows 8 and UEFI don't work with Wubi. Based on that, should we refine the definition of Wubi support such that questions regarding Windows 8 and Wubi are just not supported here?
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 16:04
  • 1
    So Wubi actually does work in 13.10? I thought it has just "stopped working" since 13.04..
    – Seth
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 16:22
  • Actually, our principal concerns are W8 + Wubi and UEFI + Wubi, as pointed out Thomas, and if 12.10+ versions of Ubuntu can be installed with Wubi problem-free.
    – Braiam
    Commented Nov 5, 2013 at 0:36
  • @Dima There have been several questions on AskUbuntu about fixing broken Wubi systems after upgrading to 14.04 (eg. this). Is 14.04 on a Wubi install actually supported or not? If not, shouldn't the upgrade script be fixed to block the upgrade to 14.04 when a Wubi install is detected?
    – bain
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 16:53
  • @bain 12.04 is a lts - so adding a script to change the regular update process, for a now "community supported" option in 14.04 would not be good for 12.04, so whatever "community" that is supporting 14.04 WUBI can help people fix problems, I'll continue to advise against using it past 12.04 in any circumstance.
    – Mateo
    Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 2:10
4

It doesn't appear clear one way or the other yet. Development is happening in lp:wubi so I don't want to write it off forever... That said, the Ubuntu.com website is claiming that Wubi only works for 12.04.

We support plenty of "community supported" things here. The only differentiator here is that Wubi might currently not be fit for purpose. Can we get somebody to come here to speak for or against support Wubi?

Until then, I'd recommend we remain as we are. Only supported for 12.04, for non-UEFI systems.

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    @ThomasW. That's a bit defeatist. You won't know until you've asked.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 16:50
  • answers.launchpad.net/wubi/+question/237642
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 16:55
  • Anywhere. Everywhere. You're an Ubuntu Member, aren't you? You could ask the whole planet with a quick blog post.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 16:56
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    Judging by the lack of an answer in 4 days, Oli, on your question to the Wubi people, I think we can safely assume that it should remain "dead" here on this site.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Oct 23, 2013 at 15:16
2

So, Wubi + Windows 8 + UEFI = Offtopic. Noted.

Now, I don't see what of the proforma reasons apply. Do we need something like:

Wubi is not supported in Windows 8 installations using UEFI nor versions newer than 12.04 LTS. This is by-design. If you like to install Ubuntu in a system with Windows 8 or transform your current Wubi installation into a full installation. For more information see here.

Any other idea?

3
  • @ThomasW. then, a meta Q asking for the addition of such reason (through, truth be told, a single entry in the close reason just for this reason could be seen as overkill)
    – Braiam
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 13:38
  • 1
    I think a better solution is to dupe-close them against a Q+A that essentially says "How do I install Ubuntu on Windows 8 with UEFI through Wubi? You can't yet."
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 11:00
  • @Oli didn't read your comment but read Dima's answer and was thinking about that.
    – Braiam
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 13:48

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