Saturday, April 11, 2009

Portable Ubuntu, get Ubuntu inside Windows as an application

Portable Ubuntu is a great piece of Windows software that let's you install the powerful Ubuntu operating system and run it straight from Windows, like any other application, without the need of a system restart! Well, this sounds very good, it is even easier that installing Ubuntu in a VirtualBox or using Wubi.
When running Portable Ubuntu all the windows (applications or how do you want to call it) will stick to the Windows taskbar, as if they were runned on Windows.

Download website: http://portableubuntu.sourceforge.net/
Download size: 439MB

After downloading Portable_Ubuntu.exe double-click the file to run it. It will ask you for a place where to uncompress it. Tell him the place and hit the ok button.
Press the Windows key, write CMD (this will write CMD in the search for programs and files in the taskbar). Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator.
Enter the following command in CMD:
cd C:\Users\myuserName\Downloads\Portable Ubuntu\Portable_Ubuntu

I extracted Portable_Ubuntu.exe in the folder above. You will need to replace the location as to your needs.

After navigating to the directory where you extracted portable ubuntu (using the command above) paste the following command:
run_portable_ubuntu

Everything is now done, you are ready to go! Note: the default root password for Portable Ubuntu is 123456.

Posted by at 2:51 PM
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17 comments:

  1. Didn't work for me running Vista Home Premium on a HP1125 portable. I ran cmd as admin and changed to where the run_portable_ubuntu.bat file is located. When I pasted the command into the cmd window, it closed the window and nothing else happened. There is no tray icon and nothing showing in the system monitor for any new processes. What happened?
    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe you didn't let the program run. I had to get over some UAC (User Access Control) restrictions.

    Basically you download the .exe, extract it, go to CMD (with Administrator privileges), CD to the directory, run the command "run_portable_ubuntu" and everything should start up.

    Hope it will work
    ReplyDelete
  3. I posted the previous comment:
    Here's the output of the bat files


    C:\Temp\Portable_Ubuntu>start TrayRun.exe cmd /c portable_ubuntu.bat

    Cooperative Linux Daemon, 0.7.3
    Daemon compiled on Sat May 24 22:36:07 2008

    driver not installed
    Cooperative Linux Daemon, 0.7.3
    Daemon compiled on Sat May 24 22:36:07 2008

    loading C:\Temp\Portable_Ubuntu\linux.sys
    failure: StartService (0x4fb)
    cannot install (rc 80a3d80c)
    File C:\Users\wsbones\AppData\Local\Temp\swap.img is created
    File C:\Users\wsbones\AppData\Local\Temp\temp.img is created
    Cooperative Linux Daemon, 0.7.3
    Daemon compiled on Sat May 24 22:36:07 2008

    colinux: manager open: The system cannot find the file specified.
    daemon: exit code 82c7540e
    daemon: can't access CoLinuxDriver, please check status driver!
    Cooperative Linux Daemon, 0.7.3
    Daemon compiled on Sat May 24 22:36:07 2008

    driver not installed

    Bill
    ReplyDelete
  4. In your comment above, try replacing portable_ubuntu.bat with run_portable_ubuntu.bat

    if this doesn't work, I don't know what to say :(
    ReplyDelete
  5. It turns out not to work with 64 bit Windows according to the Ubuntu Formums.

    Bill
    ReplyDelete
  6. How is this different from WUBI?
    http://wubi-installer.org/

    I have used WUBI with great success on many PCs with Vista, and people who have never heard of Linux/Ubuntu.

    Firefox and Gmail makes it all good.
    ReplyDelete
  7. Wubi will install Ubuntu and you will need to restart your system in order to login into your Ubuntu installation (you will have to dual-boot)

    Portable Ubuntu will run in Windows as any other application without the need of a restart.

    I suggest you to stick to Wubi because it's more "advanced"
    ReplyDelete
  8. Doesn't run in Vista 64-bit and Windows 7. Sux.
    ReplyDelete
  9. Ditto, Windows 7 64 bit and it won't work :(. I was looking forward to this too!
    ReplyDelete
  10. How to: Login as root in portable _ubuntu
    ReplyDelete
  11. It runs fine except:
    there is no sound
    the printer cannot be configured (Deskjet F2280)
    ReplyDelete
  12. No Windows 7 64-bit... suxor
    ReplyDelete
  13. gxine works. But there is no way to get real time streaming. It is supposed that cofs commands work, but I do not have luck with them.
    ReplyDelete
  14. There is a new version. Portable Ubuntu Remix version DOS.
    http://portableubuntu.demonccc.com.ar
    ReplyDelete
  15. hey portable ubuntu is not working on windows 7
    I had tried so many times but it wasnt work on the windows 7
    as per ubuntu official site procedure I had try to run run_portable_ubuntu.bat file but it show some procedure and stop working on it and also doesnt display any error on.

    so what that mean I have to understand.
    Please some help me .
    In advance thank you and if possible then this is my mail id try to contact through it bhavinpandya84@gmail.com
    ReplyDelete
  16. I have Windows 7 64 bit, and am trying to run Portable Ubuntu Tres. It does not run, it just hangs with a permanent splash screen that says “Portable Ubuntu Remix” in the center of my display when pubuntu.exe is started.
    Running as administrator does not change this behavior. Can any one help me?
    ReplyDelete
  17. Same problem : Windows 7 Pro (Fr) x64 bits won't run Portable Ubuntu Tres
    ReplyDelete

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