Tri-Boot Confusion/Problems
 

So I have a fairly new(8 months) MacBook Pro. For my work I needed Windows 7, so I used bootcamp to get two operating systems running. That has been working great for sometime, but now I began to be interested in a linux OS. I used pendrive linux to install Ubuntu 12.04 onto a 2Gb diskdrive I had. After using the WUBI.exe within the install, I asked it for help with creating a install disk. Now, this worked well also. When I started my computer, I could choose between mac os or Windows 7. If I chose Windows, it would allow me to choose beetween Ubuntu or Windows 7, and as long as I had the diskdrive plugged in, Ubuntu would boot up wonderfully. The problem came when I tried to update. There was not enough memory to do the update. Will this work if I get a larger diskdrive? Can the ubuntu use all of the drive? I also looked into just using virtualbox, but if I do that, is there anyway to remove the Ubuntu boot option when starting Windows, and make it automatically boot Windows? Any help or ideas is wholeheartedly appreciated.

I'm not 100% sure what's going on here, but ubuntu has a memory footprint like a stegosaurus, by their own admission. It will eat 2 gigs, and still be hungry. I don't know what you're using linux for, but rather than buying more kit, you could consider trying a "lighter" distro. Puppy takes up 150 or less Mb at the basic end. I've added the development suite, and Open Office, and it's running happily on a 10 year old machine. Puppy's download site has a menu of small distros, which may be more appropriate for your own requirements.

http://www.ibiblio.org/software/distributions/

HTH

I'm not sure I understand what you are doing. Pendrive Linux basically puts a Live CD on a flash drive with or without persistence I believe. wubi.exe is basically used to Ubuntu on a windows partition as a program inside windows. Is that what you did or are you just using the flash drive, can you get to Ubuntu without the flash drive plugged in. If you actually install Ubuntu, one of the first steps will tell you that for an actual install you will need 4.4GB on your drive. That was actually for Ubuntu 11.10, might be more with 12.04.

I'm not really sure what your intentions are. You won't be able to install Ubuntu to a 2GB flash drive, if you use the wubi thing it will be on the windows partition. If you have room, you can install it on its own partition?

Haha thanks for the replies! I honestly am not quite sure what's going on. Im not necissarily using linux for anything, just playin around, and Ubuntu and CentOS are the only ones I'm familiar with. Size isn't a problem as in ram, my computer handles everything wonderfully. I think the problem is is that it's treating the disk drive like its hard drive, and I only have a little bit of space, not enough to install updates.

I started up pen drive Linux, and used a Ubuntu 12.04 Iso. Now I was all ready to just use the bios to boot it from the drive, when after some research I learned macs have no bios, and I had no way to boot the USB. So I went into the files, and among a few folders, there was WUBI.exe looking like it was the executable boot program or what not. I double clicked as it asked me if I wanted to boot now, or needed help creating a boot disk. I chose that option and restarted, and after choosing the windows boot partition, it came up with a black screen asking if I would like to boot windows or Ubuntu. Choosing Ubuntu boots perfectly as long a I have the disk drive inserted, otherwise the boot fails and I am forced to restart. So honestly, I have no idea what I did internally haha. If it is possible to just boot the Ubuntu off windows, that would work, I just am not able to partition my drives further because of apples regulations or what not.

The wubi.exe file in Ubuntu is used to install Ubuntu within a windows partition as a program. If it boots when you have the USB connected, you are using the 2GB flash drive to boot Ubuntu. From the information you have provided, it doesn't sound like you have Ubuntu installed, just the Live CD on the flash drive. I've never used wubi but you should be able to find a lot of information on it by searching here at LQ or googling if you want to install Ubuntu that way, as a program within windows.

So should I just forget the flash drive and run Wubi.exe straight on my computer? Will it realize it is no longer booting from the flash drive an boot off of my computer in the boatloader? If that works it would e fantastic!

Why are you installing a Linux on a Mac? Anyways, you shouldn't have run the WUBI.exe if you have more than one OS, especially the other OS(es)is/are not Windows.

This happens because WUBI might recognize your Windows, but not your Mac.

Take a look at the link below. Is the process at the top of the page under Installation what you went through with wubi? If you are really interested in doing this, I would suggest you at least read through the whole page below:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide

The site above refers only to putting Ubuntu on a windows partition with wubi. I saw nothing on the page reference using it on a Mac so I have no idea if it would work.

Im installing linux just to test out the operating system. Just for fun. But I fixed some of my problem now. I copied all of the files of the pendrive into a folder on my hard drive, and then copied the iso into the same folder. I re-ran wubi, and it installed Ubuntu onto my windows partition. Yes, It runs all three os just fine. Now I can update Ubuntu and it doesnt run out of room, since its saving changes to my hardrive and not my disk drive. The only problem is that it does not have the firmware driver for my wireless card, does anyone have any idea? :)

Someone might, if they knew which wireless card you have??

Oh my. How exactly would I gO about finding that?

Start by entering: lspci in a terminal. Use the Search tab on the right of this page for more methods/details on doing it as there have been numerous posts about this.

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02)
There doesnt seem to be anything on LQ about this that I can find.

I'd suggest you use google: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02) ubuntu.
I tried that and got a number of hits. I don't know much about setting up wireless, I've been lucky and always had cards which were detected.