Update from my Windows side?

Question

I wanted to know if it is possible to update Ubuntu from my the Windows side of my computer (I dual boot). The Ubuntu side is a WUBI install. The reason is I accidentally deleted the wireless driver for my Broadcom wireless card thinking I was replacing it. As I had no ethernet driver installed, I currently have no access to the internet from my Ubuntu side. I am relatively new to Linux so please don't be too hard on me haha. I just really want to upgrade to 12.10 so, hopefully, this problem can be resolved in the update. Thank you for your help in advance.

Answer 1

If you deleted the driver by uninstalling a package, and you know the name of the package, you can download and install the .deb file manually. Just go to http://packages.ubuntu.com/, enter the name of the package and the distribution ("precise" in your case). The actual .deb file can be downloaded after you click on the name of the package in the search results, the scroll to the bottom and select architecture, and then select a mirror to download from - the interface is a bit confusing but its doable.

Then move the .deb file to your Ubuntu and install it using

sudo dpkg -i package_name.deb

if you deleted the driver by physically deleting some files, and you remember the names of the files, you can find which packages contain those files using "Search the contents of packages" form on that page.

Additionally, the package you need may already be in the /var/cache/apt/archives so you don't even need to download it.

Answer 2

YES and NO.

There is no really simple way to find the right driver, download it (using windows), and then install it on your WUBI install.

It can be done, but someone would need to step you through each step ..

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A simpler solution would be for you to use Windows to download the 12.10 ISO file, copy it to your WUBI install, and then create a boot USB (or DVD) using WUBI.

Then install 12.10 alongside Windows. This would still leave your WUBI install, which could be removed later.

Answer 3

I think it would be better if you install 12.10 from scratch. To backup your current files you can access your wubi installation from an Ubuntu Live CD.

1. Boot into the OS press Ctrl + Alt + T to open a terminal.

2. Your windows drive should be mounted already, you can find it in /media. This command will mount the wubi virtual disk into /mnt. Change win with the name of your Windows drive.
   sudo mount -o loop /media/win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /mnt

3. Open Nautilus, press Ctrl + L to show the path bar and type "/mnt" to see your files.

4. Now you can start copy/pasting into your Windows drive so you can restore it later. Most of your stuff would probably be under home.

5. Uninstall old wubi from Windows and install new one.