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I've never used Ubuntu before. Just heard from some friends. "IT'S GREAT!!!", they used to say. So i decided to try it. I downloaded WUBI, and ran it but 'twas takin' too much time. So I decided to download the .ISO Image file separately. It couldn't download more after 150 mB, and got interrupted (and cancelled) itself. I just went to Ubuntu's Website, and further went to Ask Ubuntu, and searched for my question. After having found a related one, which told

"try the torrent way"

So I downloaded it through the torrent. And after that when I opened the .rar file, there wasn't any .ISO image file; just some folders with names like .disc, boot, ISOLINUX, etc. I searched for the .ISO file but nothin' there: ANYONE HELP ME, PLEASE!!! or this will drive me into never thinkin' about Ubuntu again.

Eliah Kagan
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Zunnoor Awan
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  • Did you choose to save the file or to open it? – Simon Hoare Jan 31 '13 at 10:32
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    The torrent shouldn't be a .rar file with no .iso image, why did you download the torrent from? – Flimm Jan 31 '13 at 10:33
  • If you have a slow connection, you might want to consider this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD – Simon Hoare Jan 31 '13 at 10:42
  • But do read up on it otherwise you'll have no joy. "To install, boot your computer from the the Minimal CD and type 'cli' (command line install) at the prompt. You can then follow the instructions from the text-based installer. After the base system is installed, log in, and type 'sudo tasksel' to select the system to install." – Simon Hoare Jan 31 '13 at 10:42
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    Possible duplicate of http://askubuntu.com/questions/249750/how-do-i-download-ubuntu-using-bittorrent-on-windows. I just created that question, I considered editing this one into that text, but I didn't because I thought it was too major an edit. – Flimm Jan 31 '13 at 10:42
  • @Zunnoor Since you already have the iso image downloaded and you prefer to install Ubuntu within Windows (ie; Wubi installation) - look at this question - Can Wubi use the ISO I already have?. – Aditya Jan 31 '13 at 10:51
  • @Aditya: should I have edited this question into that one instead? Or should I have created that question without flagging this one? – Flimm Jan 31 '13 at 12:42

2 Answers2

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The file probably did not actually have a .rar extension. It probably showed no extension, and when you double-clicked it, it opened in WinRAR. That looks like this:

Windows Explorer, showing an Ubuntu ISO image as a WinRAR file, even though it is not a .rar file.

And when you opened it, it probably looked something like this (the files inside may have been different, though, as it appears you downloaded the alternate CD):

WinRAR, having opened an Ubuntu ISO image.

This happens when these two conditions both hold:

  1. Windows is configured to Hide extensions for known file types, which is the case by default.

    Folder Options in Windows 7, showing the "Hide extensions for known file types" option

    It's not necessary to change this setting, but if you want to do so, Folder Options is in Control Panel (in Windows Vista and later, it's in the Appearance and Personalization category).

  2. WinRAR is installed, and configured to open ISO images.

    File associations in WinRAR setup.

    It's not necessary to change this either, but if you want to after installing WinRAR, open WinRAR and go to Options > Settings... and click the Integration tab. You can adust file associations there. You can also adjust them in the Default Programs applet in the Control Panel (it's in the Programs category).

This is unrelated to how you obtained the ISO image. The problem is that you're opening the ISO image as an archive. You don't have to use WinRAR on the ISO image. Instead...

If you want to install Ubuntu alongside Windows (or replace Windows with Ubuntu):

Burn the ISO image to a CD/DVD or write it to a USB flash drive, then boot from that. See:

If you want to install Ubuntu inside Windows using Wubi:

You can install a Wubi system from a pre-downloaded ISO image by downloading wubi.exe from the Ubuntu website (this is a very small file), then make an empty folder, and put wubi.exe and your ISO image (which, as explained above, may not show any file extension) in that folder. Then run wubi.exe. Make sure wubi.exe and the ISO image file are for the same version number of Ubuntu.

As a related but somewhat different situation, sometimes users confuse an ISO image and the program that opens it. See Ubuntu image download either downloaded or opened Roxio instead. Why? (In contrast, here the confusion is between an ISO image and another file type opened by the program set to open ISOs.)

Community
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Eliah Kagan
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  • Go Eliah, kudos for having way way way more patience than me with windows users. – cupojavashort Jan 31 '13 at 21:32
  • @Eliah Kagan: This seems to be the solution (I haven't tried it yet, though. But 'How do you change those "preferences"?' – Zunnoor Awan Feb 02 '13 at 09:22
  • @ZunnoorAwan I've added information about how to change these settings, but you don't have to. (The instructions for creating a CD/DVD or USB flash drive of Ubuntu and installing work just as well either way.) – Eliah Kagan Feb 02 '13 at 11:54
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The Ubuntu torrent releases are not rar'd for any reason and are distributed as ISO's. If you have downloaded from an unverified source it would not be recommended to install that version.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/alternative-downloads

cupojavashort
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