Friday, October 30, 2009

Ubuntu: cdromupgrade not found

I'm guessing the scenario was, you were trying to upgrade your Ubuntu.

Then already downloaded the ISO and mounted it as your CDROM's content but nothing's happening. You are also not getting any prompt to upgrade -- no pop-up message, no dialog, nothing.

You know you are missing something, that's why you are here.

Let me ask you: Are you sure you downloaded the right ISO? The "alternate" one?

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Upgrading Ubuntu without using CD

I currently don't have access to Internet at home, so I have to download Karmic Koala ISO (via torrent or direct download) and install it offline. And such luck is not on my side, my CD-ROM isn't working quite well lately. Good thing I learned that I can upgrade without using CD. How is that?

First, I needed to install gMount ISO, which comes-in handy in just 16.2 kB of download.

After installing gMount ISO, access it from Applications -> System Tools-> GMount ISO

Next, just mount the Alternate ISO to /media/cdrom0.

Then open a Terminal (press Alt+F2 or access it from Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type in:
sudo /cdrom/cdromupgrade

Just follow the remaining steps and your Ubuntu will be upgraded.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

WUBI: Unable to boot Ubuntu and Windows due to corrupted drive

Are you having problem booting your WUBI installation because the drive seems corrupted?

There could be a solution -- the Ubuntu CD.

No, we are not going to reformat and reinstall everything. Continue reading.

Let's say you installed Ubuntu (WUBI) on your drive C: with drive label, MyDrive.

Step 1. Load Ubuntu CD in your CD-ROM and boot from it.
Step 2. Choose, "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer" and continue booting.
Step 3. Once Ubuntu has fully loaded, go to Places -> Computer.
Step 4. A window will open and you should be able to find MyDrive (the drive C:) listed among File System, etc.

You are not done yet.

These last steps are crucial.

You need to have another partition with file system readable by Windows -- it should be non-EXT2/3 format.

Via Another Partition:
Step 5. In your MyDrive, copy WUBILDR and WUBILDR.MBR and paste it to the other partition.
Step 6. Shutdown Ubuntu and removethe Ubuntu CD from your CD-ROM.
Step 7: If you are in luck, your Ubuntu should install just fine.

If not, having a bootable external disk could also be handy.

Let's go back to step 5.

Via External Hard Disk:
Step 5. In your MyDrive, copy WUBILDR and WUBILDR.MBR and paste it to the external hard disk.
Step 6. Shutdown Ubuntu and remove the Ubuntu CD from your CD-ROM.
Step 7. Make sure that the external disk is plugged into your computer before booting. If you are in luck, your Ubuntu should install just fine.

If you get your Ubuntu back booting again, my congratulations! But the bad news: Your Windows installation will still be unbootable :D