Move Wubi installation (Ubuntu on Windows) to a native Ubuntu system – flip's

Move Wubi installation (Ubuntu on Windows) to a native Ubuntu system

There’s a tool called LVPM which could do the move, but there are sometimes problems with it. So I recommend to use a faster and safer way to do it – with the wubi-move-to-partition script:

  1. Boot into your Wubi installation.
  2. Open a shell and do a:
    wget "https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=wubi-move-to-partition"
  3. Install and run gparted:
    sudo apt-get install gparted
    sudo gparted
  4. Now create a swap partition (1x or better 2x the size of your memory) and an ext3 partition for your new ubuntu partition.
  5. Back in the shell, find out how the new partitions are called with:
    sudo fdisk -l
  6. Now start the move:
    sudo sh wubi-move-to-partition /dev/sdx1 /dev/sdx2
    (where /dev/sdx1 is your new ubuntu partition and /dev/sdx2 is the new swap partition you’ve just created with gparted)
  7. After the successful move, simply reboot your system. You should be able to boot into your new native ubuntu system.

If there are no problems with your new system, you might want to boot into windows to uninstall your wubi installation (Start Menu/Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs). It’s not needed any longer.
Keywords: transfer wubi, upgrade wubi, change wubi, native ubuntu, native linux, proper, clean, full, real, remove wubi

Filed under: Linux, Ubuntu on August 2nd, 2008

9 Responses to “Move Wubi installation (Ubuntu on Windows) to a native Ubuntu system”

  1. Jim, on August 5th, 2008 at 21:11 Said:

    worked very well! thanks!

  2. osman, on Mai 23rd, 2009 at 17:01 Said:

    make sure the destination partitions are not mounted. otherwise, it is taking forever. (tested :) )

  3. jamil, on September 9th, 2010 at 09:28 Said:

    how can i make sure that i have booted from the new ubuntu installation???????????????

  4. Reinhard, on Dezember 29th, 2010 at 00:24 Said:

    Hi,
    does your script work to move a 9.10 Wubi installation?
    how long does it take to move? (speed 1.66, 1gb RAM)
    Will your script install a grubloader for the new installation?
    Is the reboot into the Wubi installation still possible?

    Fragen über Fragen. Grüsse an die Alster.

  5. Reinhard, on Januar 2nd, 2011 at 04:42 Said:

    no reply, but a problem.
    I tried today. It didn’t work.

    rk@ubuntu:~$ sudo sh wubi-move-to-partition /dev/sda7 /dev/sda8
    sh: Can’t open wubi-move-to-partition

    I’ve wubi on a seperate partition (sda6). xp is on sda1.

    Is this the problem?
    please help

  6. Marc, on Februar 7th, 2011 at 15:50 Said:

    @Reinhard: this error message means that the file “wubi-move-to-partition” was not found. In my case wget named the downloaded script “WubiGuide?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=wubi-move-to-partition” which should be renamed to “wubi-move-to-partition” after download.

  7. Peter, on Februar 21st, 2011 at 13:26 Said:

    I have the same problem as reinhard, where would the “wubi-move-to-partition” file be to check if it’s there or whether it;s the right name?

  8. Tyler, on März 4th, 2011 at 05:48 Said:

    It should be in your home folder under the “Downloads” folder if your using Ubuntu 10.10

  9. Courtney, on Mai 22nd, 2011 at 21:27 Said:

    For those of you having problems you need to rename the file you downloaded. cd into the folder you downloaded it into…this will either be in Downloads or in /home/username or wherever your command line opens to by default.

    #mv “WubiGuide?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=wubi-move-to-partition” wubi

    #chmod +x wubi-move-to-partition

    and then execute

    #sudo sh wubi-move-to-partition /dev/sdx1 /dev/sdx2

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