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I've got a friend who wants to try Ubuntu on his netbook, but doesn't have a USB drive he can use, and of course the netbook doesn't have a CD drive. Is it possible for him to install Ubuntu?

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or possibly askubuntu.com/questions/1207/… – belacqua May 15 '12 at 23:04

14 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

Yep, all your friend needs to do is download and install Wubi. It's designed for this exact scenario. You can check it out here: http://wubi-installer.org/

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A wubi install isn't the same as a normal ubuntu install. – DoR Aug 4 '10 at 23:51
Hm... This does look like the simplest option. – snostorm Aug 4 '10 at 23:55
Yes, if he wants to dual boot with Windows Wubi is what you need to use. – Cody Harlow Aug 5 '10 at 0:20
that wubi link no longer works and goes to the Ubuntu desktop edition download page. I've got the same issue as the asker, does that mean it's impossible to install the Netbook edition without an optical drive/usb drive? – andy Dec 22 '10 at 23:20
up vote 12 down vote

If you have a USB Flash drive of 1GB or more you can use the following method.

What You Will Need

  1. You'll need to download the Universal USB Installer.
  2. Download your chosen Ubuntu ISO Image from Here.
  3. A USB Flash Drive with 1GB or more of available free space.

The Process

  1. Download the Universal USB Installer...
  2. Download your Ubuntu/Linux ISO of choice.
  3. Open up the Universal USB Installer program and select your Linux ISO from the list.
  4. After selecting your Linux ISO select the name of the drive you wish to write the Ubuntu program to. NOTE: This process will completely remove ALL data from your drive when writing the Ubuntu Program to it so make sure it's the one you want to use!!!
  5. After the process completes turn off your pc, stick in the Live USB that you just made, then turn your pc back on, and then select the USB Drive from your boot menu. After that you can either test Ubuntu on your machine or install it!
  6. Enjoy your new Ubuntu installation!

If you wish to create a flash drive that is persistent (I.E. You can save stuff to it like files and settings etc...) might I suggest that you take a look at the following question and it's subsequent answers? Method to create a live USB disk (with persistence) which _actually_ works?

Hopes this helps you out!!!

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Great answer, thanks :) – Rafael Santos Jul 16 '11 at 13:10
@Rafael Santos Great! Glad that helped :) – zkriesse Jul 16 '11 at 17:19
1 GB is not actually correct. The Ubuntu community works hard to keep the size of the ISO under one standard CD, 700 MB. Some overhead will likely be present though, so 720 MB is more realistic. However, nowhere near 1 GB is required (unless you want persistence). – Hello71 Jul 17 '11 at 1:28
@Hello71 Well they don't exactly make a USB Flash drive under 1GB, least not that I've seen... Plus if you look at the Ubuntu Download site, they say and I quote: "Insert a USB stick with at least 2GB of free space." so... – zkriesse Jul 17 '11 at 1:55
up vote 5 down vote

The Ubuntu Help Wiki has a section on Installation Without a CD with sections like from USB, Windows, Linux, VM, etc.

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up vote 3 down vote

I haven't tried this so I don't know how easy it is, or if it would work with a netbook, but you could try a Netboot install.

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up vote 3 down vote

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation

That should cover what you need to know. :)

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up vote 3 down vote

Yes, you can use a usb memory stick instead of a cd, follow the instructions at http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

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up vote 3 down vote

You have to use alternative cd

  1. First Download the Alternative cd iso using torrent from this link.

  2. Either mount or burn the iso to usb (using startup disk creator).

  3. A dialog will be displayed offering you the opportunity to upgrade.

  4. Follow the on-screen instructions.

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So just burn the image to usb then restart into the live usb? – user11847 Mar 5 '11 at 17:47
oh and how do i download those images, when ever i click on them it just is "Not Found"... Thank you for all the help :) – user11847 Mar 5 '11 at 17:50
Here is the link for 10.10 32 bit torrent (releases.ubuntu.com/maverick/…) – Alaukik Mar 6 '11 at 5:37
also you DON'T restart there will be a dialog on your screen asking you to upgrade. – Alaukik Mar 6 '11 at 9:58
There was no dialog screen asking to upgrade. i had brought the iso to the 9.04 desktop via usb and made a start up disk using the usb creator and selected save else where. it made it on the usb and then... just said it was done and ready to use on other computers. please fill me in on any steps i have miss or what i have done in error. thank you. – user11847 Mar 6 '11 at 19:03
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up vote 2 down vote

If he has no USB disk, maybe he has an SD card? (E.g. normally used for a digital camera or mobile phone or such.)

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up vote 2 down vote

UNetbootin:

UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can either let UNetbootin download one of the many distributions supported out-of-the-box for you, or supply your own Linux .iso file if you've already downloaded one or your preferred distribution isn't on the list.

UNetbootin can make a "frugal install" on your local hard disk if you don't have a USB drive. For the Hard-Disk/ "frugal install" mode, UNetbootin uses a Linux-based installer to install a small modification to the bootloader to boot the desired distribution's installer or to load the system utility, no CD required. After the distribution has been installed, or once done using the system utility, the modification to the bootloader is then undone.

You can use the following link to run the "frugal/hard-disk install":

http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/unetbootin/wiki/installmodes

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up vote 0 down vote

He can download and install wubi which doesn't require a usb or cd key. Here is a link.

Here is also another link on the various way ubuntu can be installed.

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2  
Same as above. Wubi is not a usual install, it always resides inside windows. – txwikinger Aug 4 '10 at 23:55
that is true. @snostorm check out the link for other download options – myusuf3 Aug 4 '10 at 23:59
up vote 0 down vote

He could setup a liveCD iso for PXE boot, or use one that is available on the net - see

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I think this is more complicated than he's capable of. – snostorm Aug 5 '10 at 0:10
up vote 0 down vote

You could use Unetbootin and set it to use the hard drive.

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He needs to keep Windows, and dual-boot; can he do this with Unetbootin? Last I checked you couldn't, but maybe something changed. – snostorm Aug 5 '10 at 0:14
up vote 0 down vote

Wubi will allow you to install Ubuntu while keeping Windows installed. If at anytime he decides he does not like Ubuntu he can uninstall it just like a normal program and it will give him his space back. If he does any other install it will be much harder to uninstall. He'll have to use the Disk Management tool and delete the partition and then extend the Windows partition. In order to get Wubi you can download it at http://wubi-installer.org/ or download the current Ubuntu release and then use 7-Zip to extract the ISO and then click on wubi.exe. An installer should appear and he can follow the instructions from there. It's very simple for even the most non-tech users.

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up vote 0 down vote

I once installed an Ubuntu derivative(Samurai) using Virtualbox to mount my harddisk raw partition as a virtualbox hard drive. It involves creating a vmdk file which is linked to the partition. Then anything you do on the virtualbox goes to the partition. Even the grub install worked.

However, this method is quite risky as it involves giving raw access to Virtualbox. Further you can,quite simply try to boot into Windows twice (the second time inside your VirtualBox), so it is not recommended. But it is always an option to install it, and just delete the Virtual Machine. However your boot structure, partition should still retain your brand new Ubuntu install.

Here's the link I used : Accessing Physical Disks on Virtualbox

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