Can I install Ubuntu without a CD or a usb drive?

Question

I want to install ubuntu without a CD and a USB drive. I have a windows 8 laptop and I tried before but when I go to choose Ubuntu it just crashed any help?

Answer 1

Yes you can.

The netboot approach This page will guide you through obtaining the files necessary to boot the Ubuntu installation from a FAT or NTFS partition, thus allowing you to install Ubuntu without any sort of removeable media. This guide assumes that you are running either some NT-based Windows(NT, 2000, XP) or Windows 9x (95, 98, ME).

Create a directory called boot in the root directory of the first primary partition of your hard drive (usually drive c:\, which it will be referred to as from now on).

Download linux and initrd.gz from http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/gutsy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/ and save them to boot.

The following steps depend on which version of Windows you are using:

Windows 95/98/ME (using Loadlin)

Download loadlin.exe.gz from https://passechambre.appspot.com/show/indexothers.html and unpack it to boot (If your default compression/archive program doesn't like *.tar.gz files, try 7-Zip from http://www.7-zip.org)

Choose Reboot in MS-DOS mode in the shutdown menu or press F8 (Ctrl for Win98/ME) during boot and choose command prompt only in order to start Windows in DOS mode

Get into the boot directory and run loadlin:

cd c:\boot loadlin linux initrd=initrd.gz vga=normal ramdisk_size=14972 root=/dev/rd/0 rw -- Now you should have a network installation going Smile :)

Note: On some computers the installer has problems with the video card and you may get a "melting screen". I replaced vga=normal with vga=771 and it worked on my laptop Stjepan Stamenkovic

Windows NT/2000/XP (using Grub)

Download https://passechambre.appspot.com/get/grubfordos041pre22.tar.gz

Extract grldr from the archive to c:.

Create a new folder in c:\boot\ called grub.

Extract menu.lst (Should be in the /boot/grub folder of the archive) to c:\boot\grub The rest of the files in the archive are unnecessary. (If your default compression/archive program doesn't like *.tar.gz files, try 7-Zip from http://www.7-zip.org or TUGzip from http://www.tugzip.com.)

Append c:\grldr="Install Ubuntu" to c:\boot.ini.

To view and edit the Boot.ini file on WindowsXP: 1. Right-click on My Computer, and then click Properties. 2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery. 3. Under System Startup, click Edit. Note: Eventhough c:\boot.ini is not shown by the explorer, this file exists and can be also opened in the notepad. Just write the path c:\Boot.ini at the open dialog.

Open menu.lst in a text editor and paste the following text in the file:

title Install Ubuntu kernel (hd0,0)/boot/linux vga=normal ramdisk_size=14972 root=/dev/rd/0 rw -- initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.gz Save menu.lst, reboot, and select "Install Ubuntu" in the windows OS chooser then in GRUB. You now have a network installation of Ubuntu going.

This procedure should be possible using a disk image, but it may be necessary to use a different kernel and pass some special argument in menu.lst to tell it to boot from the CD image (Has been achieved using Knoppix).

It would be nice if someone could automate this process. InstallationUbuntuFromWindows outlines how such an installation system might work.

This site will help as well: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallationUbuntuFromWindows