Debian win32-loader Goes Official

An anonymous reader writes "After a long process of review and polishing, the win32 loader from goodbye-microsoft.com has finally made its way to official Debian CDs. Latest daily builds of lenny (the development version) are including it, making starting Debian Installer as simple as just a few clicks (OGG). The win32-loader version, now based on GRUB 2, includes new features such as detection and pre-seeding of Windows settings, and is translated to 20 languages."

Comments

Re:Huh?

[ZOMFF]

It appears that the win32-loader allows you to begin the install process of Debian from a Windows operating system.

Re:Huh?

[Achoi77]

I'm assuming based on the screenshots, it's a little windows app that begins the debian install process. Functionally the Debian ISO it would be analagous to a 'windows upgrade' CD.

But that's my guess

the win32 debian package

[wizardforce]

Since none of the links in the story explain what the win32-loader is, can anyone explain what it does?

Your wish is google's command
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/win32-loader

Re:the win32 debian package

[bcrowell]

So in practical terms, does this mean that they can install Debian on a Windows box without having to burn a CD? That could be useful on systems that don't have a CD burner, and could also be easier in terms of cutting down on the number of steps, and eliminating the need to own CD-writing software. It would be totally cool to have an Ubuntu installer that you could download and double-click on, and that would automatically resize your partitions and leave you with a double-boot system; I think there would be a *lot* of people I could convince to try Linux if it was that easy. Although the normal Ubuntu install CD (not the alternate install) already has a live CD feature so you can run Linux without installing it, I've always hesitated to suggest to people that they try Linux from a live CD, because the performance is so horrible that I'm afraid they'll get a bad impression. Of course a live CD can be useful if you want to find out how much of your hardware is supported. Realistically, I think the main obstacle these days for someone wanting to install Linux isn't the need to burn a CD and boot from it, it's issues with (a) printing, wifi, and winmodems, and (b) being committed to file formats that are only supported on Windows.

Re:What?

[deftcoder]

But, more specifically, you're running Debian Sid, which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Ubuntu seems to have done a pretty good job of stabilizing Sid for the everyday user.

Once they implement LVM/volume encryption into the Ubuntu installer, I may consider using it on my desktop at home. I want /home encrypted at the very least because that's where irssi/gaim logs are stored, and I'd rather not have a malicious person with physical access to my machine be able to get those logs. (short of rootkitting the system that is)

Re:Huh?

[asphaltjesus]

The Win32 loader is a new feature in the Debian installation CD. It makes it even easier to install Debian.

The installation of Debian may be a challenge for some who are afraid of changing the disk boot order in bios. Since bios menus vary, it's practically impossible to make good documentation about getting a CD to boot when it doesn't by default. More subtly, it addresses that weird fear that windows really isn't going away when you install Debian. Personally, I think the distro will be more popular now that the installation cd stops dropping you on a command line where you had to figure out what to type to start the installation process.

FYI: Debian's graphical installer is way, way ahead of the ubuntu installer u-bug-quity in terms of features and functionality. This is one of the many great things going on in Debian right now.

Just ran the installer

[ZOMFF]

Ran the win32 loader on a test-VM here at work. Pretty quick and painless, 4-5 prompts, 45 seconds of downloading, a reboot and debian was installing. However it was interesting to note that administrative privileges on the Win32 OS are not required. Not that big of a deal for most users, but could prove troublesome in some environments (Corporate, etc).

Re:Just ran the installer

[r3m0t]

Yes, if your motherboard supports network boot and you have a computer to store the boot image and you are able to change the boot order of your computer.

None of which is required for this.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

It goes much further than just starting the installer. win32-loader is a boot loader that can start a Linux distro from a few files on your (Windows) partition, so Windows users can enjoy the benefits of a fully functional Linux installation without having to repartition their drives, or being unable to boot Windows. So it's really a very easy way to install Linux for dedicated Windows users.

Re:What?

[petermgreen]

Ubuntu does import a lot of stuff from debian sid but they also package a lot of stuff themselves nowadays.

From what I can gather sid isn't too bad most of the time anyway it's just every so often big upgrades come through and break stuff.

Re: Huh?

[morgan_greywolf]

(I know that is possible for a large number of specific Windows applications -through Wine-, but I meant everywhere, transparent, use Windows executables *as if* they were normal Linux binaries) That already exists. It's called binfmt_misc.

Re:Huh?

[rbochan]

See an explanation here.

Re:Huh?

[morgan_greywolf]

Why would anyone want to do that? What's wrong with popping a CD in the drive and rebooting? Because not all machines are capable of booting from a CD, and, even if it's possible with a given machine, in many BIOSes this capability is not enabled by default. And telling a newbie to go into BIOS setup to change settings is likely to scare the crap out of them.

Re:What?

[Hatta]

Sid ain't so bad. The system itself is quite stable. What's not is the package repository. Once in a while a large update will present some conflicts in dependency resolution. This will prevent you from completing the update until it's fixed in the repository, but it leaves your system in a usable state. Not really a big deal. For most purposes Sid is an excellent choice. I wouldn't put it on a production server however.

Re:Huh?

[3278]

More to the point, how is anyone going to say "Goodbye, Microsoft," when the goodbye-microsoft.com homepage - and a good portion of the rest of the site - is completely and utterly inexplicable in terms of function for anyone not already in the know? This is, please don't kill me, quite typically Linux.

What's the point?

[gigantu']

If you need a Windows application to install Linux you are not ready for Linux. I believe the efforts should be focused on improving the usability of Linux (hardware compatibility, software update issues etc.). The installation of many distributions is nowadays a painless process. But what happens after the first reboot can hurt you.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

A "loadlin" that works from NT's bootloader, I believe. It looks like they're basically adding an entry to NT's bootloader which runs Grub when selected.

Re:Huh?

[Falstius]

I haven't used goodbye-microsoft, but Wubi (which is supposedly based on it) does the same for Ubuntu. It works by installing Ubuntu to a file on the Windows partition. So not only do you not lose your Windows files, you don't even have to perform a relatively risky partitioning. It also leaves the windows boot loader in place and chain-loads grub o you don't have the "Ahh, how do I remove grub!!!!" questions.

Its not the best way to run Linux, but it is a very safe way and faster and more permanent than a LiveCD.

Re:Huh?

[at_slashdot]

"Wubi [...] does the same for Ubuntu. It works by installing Ubuntu to a file on the Windows partition."

No it doesn't, this installer installs Debian on normal Linux partition not to a file.

Re:Huh?

[cp.tar]

Unilke the Windows installer, at least you can download the source code and see for yourself exactly what it does.