"Cannot download metalink file" while trying to install Ubuntu using WUBI

Question

I used WUBI a few months ago on both Windows XP and 7 systems with no problem, but now I am unable to install on either OS for the last 2 weeks.

From the log:

09-05 11:36 DEBUG  CommonBackend: Could not find any ISO or CD, downloading one now
09-05 11:36 DEBUG  TaskList: New task get_metalink
09-05 11:36 DEBUG  TaskList: ### Running get_metalink...
09-05 11:36 DEBUG  downloader: downloading http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/12.04/release/xubuntu-12.04-desktop-amd64.metalink > C:\ubuntu\install
09-05 11:36 ERROR  CommonBackend: Cannot download metalink file http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/12.04/release/xubuntu-12.04-desktop-amd64.metalink err=[Errno 14] HTTP Error 404: Not Found

Answer 1

Wubi tries to download 12.04. That is is unavailable. Have you tried a new download of Wubi? If that also refers to 12.04 then someone forgot to update Wubi (or upload the correct version).

Answer 2

This is how you can install ubuntu on windows. First download the iso separately, mount the downloaded ISO on any virtual drive.

"Explore" it.

Copy the file Wubi.exe to your desktop.

Run it there keeping the iso mounted. You will find your "Install inside windows" option.

The wubi.exe present in the Iso is itself the windows installer, it just doesn't behave like that when you execute it from the CD. Take it out of the cd and run it :)