Windows based installation of Fedora Linux?

[Douglas McClendon]

Ago wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am Wubi's author. I'd be happy to help you out if you wish to implement 
> something like Wubi for Fedora. I will not have much time to do actual coding 
> but at least I can point you out to the relevant code snippets (which is spread 
> over different projects and files).

Since I've advocated a win32 installer for Fedora in the past,
I'll at least say - cool.  Unfortunately I also don't forsee myself
having time to dedicate to this in the near future(nor the desire, as I
am and hope to stay winblowz free ;).  But I hope someone else finds the
time :)

Out of curiosity, I notice on your page mention of the ntfs-loopback 
method being somewhat brittle, as you suggest "don't yank the plug if 
you can avoid it".  Can you point me to any further info on this issue. 
  (mail list archive threads...)  I think something similar is causing 
me trouble in a different scenario.

Thanks again, very cool stuff.

-dmc



> 
> As you are probably aware Wubi is now included within Ubuntu 7.10. The 
> interface will change slightly to reflect that. Notably it is now also possible 
> to boot a LiveCD/ISO from HD (handy to go around bios issues and helping out 
> people with no CD). The frontend can be used almost as is, you need to change 
> the branding, version.nsh, IsoList.ini, and preseed.nsh (to generate 
> appropriate preseeding information for an automatic installation). There should 
> be little Ubuntu/Debian specific code in there. The relevant code is in: 
> https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-installer/wubi/gutsy. If you want to submit 
> patches to "isolate" even more the frontend from Ubuntu specific code, you are 
> most welcome.
> 
> On the backend side, you need to have ntfs-3g pre-installed by default 
> (https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/write-support-for-ntfs), have an 
> installer that can work in non-interactive mode 
> (https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/ubiquity-automation), modify the 
> standard initrd (grep loop in https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-
> tools) and the liveCD initrd (https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-
> installer/lupin/gutsy). And of course have the installer be aware of loopfile 
> targets (https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/partman-auto-loop/ubuntu). 
> If you kill all userspace processes at shutdown you have to skip fuse/ntfs-g 
> (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sysvinit/+bug/87763).
> 
> Note: if you poked with the old installer, things have changed quite a bit. We 
> used to embed the initrd within the frontend, and that initrd used to override 
> the ISO initrd/standard installer which in turns used to override the installed 
> (normal boot) initrd. It does not work like that anymore, all initrd changes 
> (liveCD initrd and normal-boot initrd) have been moved upstream and the 
> frontend extracts the initrd directly from the CD/ISO.
> 
> Hope it helps.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Ago
>