How to install linux without usb

How to Install Ubuntu Linux without a DVD or USB

USB memory sticks are replacing the DVD as the go to method of installing Linux, but what if you find yourself in that rare situation of having access to neither? There is a way, and even if you don’t particularly need it, it’s a great learning experience that could come in handy.

What you don’t need is a DVD or an USB drive. What you do need is an existing Windows installation and access to the internet, plus the following:

This is the process in a nutshell:

1. Making partitions

You can use any good partitioning tool for this, like Partition Magic or AOMEI Partition Assistant Home Edition. The key is to have some unused space on your hard drive where you can put the Linux partitions. If you don’t you can resize an existing partition to make space and then create a new partition in the newly unused space.

This isn’t the partitioning guide, but while you do need to be careful not to nuke the wrong thing with this the process is ultimately really simple. Both of the mentioned tools, for example, present things visually in a way that makes it hard to do something stupid like, say, erase your C:/ where your Windows is installed.

What you need to create are two partitions. One should be around 15GB to 20GB or more, of the ext4 type, and the other should be 512MB to 1024MB as a swap partition.

You should end up having something like this:

The selected partition is the Linux partition, and the “Unformatted” one is used as swap. It doesn’t need to be formatted as Linux does that automatically. You just need to tell it what to use as swap.

Once you’ve got these partitions ready you can move on to the next step.

2. Make the Linux partition available in Windows

Windows can’t read Linux partitions on its own, as it doesn’t support the Ext3 or Ext4 partitions (nor most of the others). It doesn’t have the drivers for it. That’s where Ext2Fsd comes in. It’s the driver that allows Windows to read and write to Ext3 and Ext4 partitions.

Download it, install it, and you should have an Ext2 Volume Manager among your apps. Launch that, and if your new Ext3 partition isn’t visible in your Windows Explorer already you can double click on it in Ext2 Volume Manager and set a mountpoint for it. It should look something like this:

You may have to reboot after hitting Apply. And then you can proceed to copying some files on the newly available Linux partition.

3. Copy boot files

Go to the Ubuntu netboot archive, click on the desired Ubuntu version (like Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) at the time of this writing), then your processor architecture (like amd64 or i386 depending on whether you’re on a 64bit or 32bit system), then the ubuntu-installer folder, and the amd64 or i386 in it. Finally you should be on a path like this: /ubuntu/dists/utopic/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/amd64

There you need to download two files: initrd.gz and linux. They’re quite small.

When you have these go to your new Linux partition, create a “boot” directory on it, and put those files there.

Now you’ve got a simple boot environment set up. What these two files contain are, in fact, the Ubuntu installer and the boot process for it!

4. Install a bootloader with EasyBCD

NeoSmart offers this super smart tool called EasyBCD that allows you to install bootloaders to boot just about anything. To download it go to the EasyBCD website, scroll down, and you should see the option to Register to download for free, or buy the program. The free version is for non-commercial use only.

Once you’ve downloaded, installed, and launched EasyBCD you can see the existing bootloader settings. You just need to follow these simple steps to add a bootloader for our new Ubuntu install boot that we’ve set up in a previous step:

That should give you a working bootloader with two options; the standard Windows option, and the new Linux boot option that should get you installing Ubuntu. It loads an AutoNeoGrub utility that scans your partitions for the Linux boot files like the ones we set up.

If for some reason it fails to find it you can go back to BCD and add a new NeoGrub entry where you can specify the exact location of your boot files.

Just go to Add New Entry as above, and then to the NeoGrub tab. There click the Install button, and then the Configure button to open the configuration file.

In the configuration file add these lines:

This will give you two options when you boot into NeoGrub, and one of them should work. Make sure to replace /dev/sda5 and (hd0,4) with the location of your Linux partition. You can check Ext2 Volume Manager mentioned before for the right number of your partition. In the (hd0,4) entry it counts from zero so if it is the Volume5 it should be (hd0,4), and if it is Volume4 it should be (hd0,3) while the /dev/sda5 entry corresponds to Volume5.

Chances are you wont need these manually added entries, and that the automatic AutoNeoGrub entry added before will find your boot files right away and boot them when you reboot.

5. Reboot into the Ubuntu installer

After rebooting you should see a choice between Windows, Linux, and NeoGrub if you’ve added the manual lines. Select “Linux” (or whatever you called it), and it should reboot into Ubuntu install.

6. Install Ubuntu

This is the stanard text graphics based installer that will ask you for your language, location, keyboard mapping, timezone, and install a base system. You can then choose to install extra software on top of it, like Ubuntu Desktop for a full Ubuntu installation.

The details of the install process is beyond the scope of this article. Just make sure that when you get to the partitioning step you choose “Manual” so you can select your Linux and swap partitions to install on instead of overwriting your entire hard drive!

Ubuntu will install its own GRUB bootloader during setup, and it will contain the Windows boot option as well so you should at this point have a dual boot setup on your PC between Windows and Ubuntu.

How to Install Ubuntu Without USB

It is maintained by Canonicals, and due to its good reputation and low hardware requirements, it is supported and used by many prominent organizations. Due to its vast support and demand, it has a good community for maintaining this distro. After every two years, a new LTS release of the Ubuntu operating system is released.

The graphical installation of Ubuntu is effortless and straightforward, just like installing any other well-maintained operating system. In addition, Ubuntu provides ISO Image to install it on any system, and we can either burn it on a CD Drive or a USB Drive to make it a bootable device and install Ubuntu using it. But apart from all these options available, this post contains a step-by-step guide on how to install Ubuntu operating system without having a USB Drive or CD Drive in a system.

A prevalent and well-known software is used to install operating without a USB, known as Unetbootin.

Unetbootin

UNetbootin, the abbreviation of “Universal Netboot Installer,” is a well-recognized and cross-platform software used for creating a live USB system and install a lot of Linux-based or any other operating systems without a USB Drive or CD Drive.

We will install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS operating system along with the Windows 10 operating system using the UNetbootin software and learn all about how to use the Unetbootin utility to install any operating system without having a USB or CD Drive.

Download UNEtbootin

To begin with UNetbootin and start playing with it, first, visit the official website of UNetbootin to Download it:

Choose the appropriate installer file based on your operating system.

Once it is downloaded, open the Downloads folder, and execute the installer file.

The simple single page User Interface of Unetbootin will open up:

How to Use Unetbootin for Installing Ubuntu without USB

Here, we have two options to install an operating system. You can choose a distribution and its version from the list provided by the UNetbootin utility itself. Then, UNetbootin will download it for you.

Alternatively, if your desired distribution is not available in the list provided by the UNetbootin, you can manually give an ISO file to load as well.

After selecting the distribution from the list provided by the UNetbootin or providing an ISO yourself, select the installation type: USB Drive or Hard Disk.

Since we want to install Ubuntu without USB, so we will choose the Hard Disk type:

Selecting the Hard Disk will copy all the files from the ISO file to the drive you selected and add a bootloader.

Select the Drive and click OK to begin the installation.

The rest of the work is up to UNetbootin, and it will let you know when the process is done.

Once the installation is completed, press the Exit button, and reboot the system.

After rebooting, the UNetbootin boot entry will appear:

Choose the new entry, boot into the Ubuntu operating system,

Start installing the Ubuntu Operating system:

The installation process of Ubuntu will be the same as we used to install it usually.

If you want to install it along with the primary operating system, make sure to create a separate partition for the installation of Ubuntu. Another thing that you need to care about is to choose the “install the Ubuntu operating system alongside the primary operating system” option while installing Ubuntu. Otherwise, you will end up formatting all your data saved in the selected partition.

Conclusion

This post provides the brief and in-detail procedure on how to use UNetbootin. In addition, this post contains a step-by-step guide on how to install Ubuntu without having a USB or CD drive using the UNetbootin software. UNetbootin is a multi-platform software utility for creating Live USB and installing operating systems.

How can I install Ubuntu without CD and USB?

I want to install Ubuntu on my laptop that doesn’t have a CD-ROM drive and I have no spare USB disk. I’ve tried Wubi, but that doesn’t seem to work (since it prompts me to have the CD in the drive, which I don’t have).

How can I install Ubuntu, easily and in a fast way?

P.s: I want to dual boot it with Windows 7 (which was preinstalled).

When extracting the ISO to a folder and running Wubi it does install, but when I reboot the computer, it doesn’t show GRUB, nor can I choose if I want to boot Ubuntu or Windows 7.

After trying for the third time today, wubi gives me an error: Permission denied

I’m the administrator on the PC.

7 Answers 7

For BIOS devices:

To install Ubuntu without CD/DVD or USB pendrive, follow these steps:

Download Unetbootin from here.

Now, from the drop-down menu under Type: select Hard Disk.

Next select the Diskimage. Browse to the directory where you downloaded the iso file of Ubuntu.

Next when you reboot, you will get a menu like this:

Select Unetbootin and you will get the «Try» or «Install» option there.

Finally, you can install your version of Ubuntu alongside Windows.

For UEFI devices:

Then, extract it.

Open cmd with Administrator privileges.

Type cd in cmd and then drag and drop the extracted folder to the already open cmd window. E.g.,

Change directory to rEFInd

Rename config file

Note that is entered as such; that’s not a notation for a variable. Also, change refind_x64.efi to refind_ia32.efi on systems with 32-bit EFIs. Such computers are rare, and most of them are tablets. Check your Windows bit depth to determine which binary you should use.

Select your last partition.

Right-click on it and from the context menu select Resize/Move partition.

From the size shown beside Partition Size minus 4096 MB (to mimic a 4GB pendrive).

Press tab and the rest will be auto-completed.

Select the newly created partition and right-click on it. Select Create Partition from context menu.

In this window, select FAT32 as the File System. Click on OK. Finally, click on Apply (present at the top-left of the window).

Next, extract Ubuntu iso to this partition and finally reboot.

You will be presented with a rEFInd menu. From here select the Ubuntu partition. It will boot into a Live environment. Continue with the installation. After the installation finishes boot to Windows.

Run EaseUS Partition Master Free again.

Right-click on the 4 GB partition and from the context menu select Delete Partition.

Right-click on the partition above the Unallocated partition and select Resize/Move Partition from the context menu.

Extend the bar to the extreme right by dragging the button.

Click on OK. Finally, click on Apply (present at the top-left of the window).

Open cmd with Administrator privileges.

Reinstall grub as your primary boot manager

Instead of using WUBI, you can create an additional partition, or use an additional hard drive to write the liveCD image to, using unetbootin. Then you boot from this partition and continue the same way you would as if you’d be booting from a USB or CD.

Boot Ubuntu on Windows UEFI computer without USB or DVD

Use Windows Disk Management to create FAT32 partition 3GB or larger.

Copy/Paste contents of ISO file to new partition.

Reboot pressing F12 and select UEFI Ubuntu.

You can use UNetbootin to install Ubuntu 15.04 from Windows 7 into a dual boot system without the use of a cd/dvd or a USB drive. I am writing this from a fresh Ubuntu 15.04 install using the method below.

Backup all your files. just in case

Defrag your C:\ drive [right click C drive>click on Tools Tab>Defrag]

Check for errors [right click C drive>click on Tools Tab>Error Checking] reboot and wait for the app to finish completely, the system will reboot when finished

Create Unallocated Unformatted free space on the C drive [Control Panel> Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Manager>right click the C drive>Shrink Volume] I believe the suggested space for a full Ubuntu install is 16 Gig, I made 41,000 MB about 40 Gig. Just type the size into the already selected box. The wording MS uses is confusing be assured typing 41000 will make 40Gig free space. click next if it asks to format DON’T Also Do Not assign a letter to the newly made volume.

Reboot Windows 7 a couple times to be sure the changes in the volume have taken without errors

Download the Ubuntu 15.04 ISO

Run UNetbootin [choose disk image radio button and select the Ubuntu ISO image you downloaded. Make sure that Type: Hard Disk is selected in the drop down. Make sure Drive: C:\ drive is selected in the drop down. Click OK] The program will run through 4 steps and then ask to reboot now. Comply

During reboot you will have a choice between Windows and UNetbootin, [Choose UNetbootin] This will boot a Live CD try before you install desktop.

After you look around a bit you will notice an Install Ubuntu 15.04 shortcut on the desktop [start the install, I think the 4th step of the install shows the main volume with Windows and the free space you created using Disk Manager. [Make sure you click the free space and set it for «/», click continue install] Takes a few minutes then it will reboot automatically. If you don’t press any keys it will default to the Ubuntu OS. Let it boot. setup your WiFi look around a bit then reboot when you are ready. Upon reboot arrow to Windows and it will boot Windows 7 boot loader where you will see the UNetbootin is still a choice. Windows will be the default there and allow to boot.

As I stated before I am typing this from Chromium running on Ubuntu 15.04. I wrote all this so you wouldn’t be worried about using other partition software such as Gparted or Parted Magic. No need to purchase anything Windows already has a good tool> Disk Manager

I’ll be honest I still need to figure how to uninstall the UNetbootin loader from the Windows boot loader but that is a small issue, I just «Frugal Installed» Ubuntu successfully. 🙂

How do I install linux on my computer without using a usb or cd? [duplicate]

I want to give my computer to my friend. He doesn’t know how to use Windows, only Linux.

I would not like to keep windows on the system. The computer’s BIOS does not support USB start-up. Also, I don’t have a disk that has a large enough space to have the ISO image on it.

4 Answers 4

Since you cannot boot from USB, you could try booting over the network.

However, there’s an easier method using CD’s. I see in your question that you cannot load the images onto CD because of size. I assume it’s because the computer has a CD drive and not a DVD drive.

In this case, please follow this link to download an burn a MinimalCD. It’s a tiny image that will start the installation, and pull all the data(packages) over the internet during installation. This can easily fit on a CD since most of these images are under 60 MB, and a typical CD holds

The most practical way to do this is to remove the hard disk, temporarily connect it to another computer that can boot from DVD or USB, and install Ubuntu to the temporary drive. A few tweaks to /etc/fstab may be required to get correct recognition of the partitions on the side-loaded drive, but once done, reinstalling the drive with Ubuntu on it will let the computer boot to Ubuntu.

If your friend only knows Linux, though, he’d probably be more comfortable doing this than you would.

The answer to this is no, the closest things I thought of were the below 2 options.

Creating a virtual drive My first thought for this was to create a virtual drive and then boot from there. There is one major floor with this though and that’s the fact that when you get to the partition screen, you will need to remove or at the very least resize the Windows partition and this will cause issues.

Creating a ram disk My second though was a ram disk, the problem with this though is you will need to restart the computer in order to access the ram disk. This will mean that all the data from the ram disk will be erased and you won’t be able to boot into it.

There are CD installers though, if you don’t want to go for a DVD installation. There is the netboot install, but you will need to connect via a network cable to do that.

There is also a CD ISO download, but you will need 9 CDs in order to achieve that.

Is it possible to install Ubuntu without a CD or USB drive? [duplicate]

So basically as it stands I have a laptop which has no cd/dvd drive, and I don’t have a usb drive.

The laptop has windows 7 installed with ubuntu 11.04 installed through wubi.

What I want to do is remove windows completely, and make ubuntu the only OS installed on the system.

Is there a way to do this without re-installing ubuntu? (i.e. can I take my wubi install away from windows?)

or is there a way to from inside ubuntu have it run the ubuntu iso somehow so I can just wipe the system and install it fresh? (even if it means I need to have an e.g. 2gb partition just for the image to reside in).

15 Answers 15

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/

This solution doesn’t require a live CD/USB (although it’s always a good idea to have one.

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

What You Will Need

The Process

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.

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

If your laptop supports it, you should be able to do a net install using PXE. Most laptops will allow you to «boot from the network» at startup. You might have to hit ESC or something like that during boot to get in the right menu.

This does require you to do a bit of setup on another machine in your network, which will serve the Ubuntu installation media. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PXEInstallServer

Please make a backup before testing this because I’m not 100% sure it will work flawless.

I think the way to do it is something like this (untested):

Format one partition that will be your destination for the installation (I suggest you to choose the ext4 format)

Copy the your files and folders from wubi to the new partition

Make sure you have a folder named /boot/ with at least two files like initrd.img-2.6.38-10-generic and vmlinuz-2.6.38-10-generic

Than you will have to install grub:

This method of installation uses the chroot command to gain access to the broken system’s files. Once the chroot command is issued, the LiveCD (in your case the wubi installation) treats the broken system’s / as its own. Commands run in a chroot environment will affect the broken systems filesystems and not those of the LiveCD.

If you aren’t sure, run Look for the correct disk size and ext3 or ext4 format.

4) Mount your normal system partition:

Substitute the correct partition: sda1, sdb5, etc. # Example: sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

5) Only if you have a separate boot partition: sdYY is the /boot partition designation (for example sdb3)

6) Mount the critical virtual filesystems:

7) Chroot into your normal system device:

8) If there is no /boot/grub/grub.cfg or it’s not correct, create one using

9) Reinstall GRUB 2:

10) Verify the install (use the correct device, for example sda. Do not specify a partition): 11) Exit chroot: CTRL-D on keyboard 12) Unmount virtual filesystems:

13) If you mounted a separate /boot partition: