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."

Huh?

[spuke4000 (587845)]

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

Re:Huh?

[ZOMFF (1011277)]

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

Re:Huh?

[joto (134244)]

And telling a newbie to go into BIOS setup to change settings is likely to scare the crap out of them.

And the newbie would be right.

Installing debian on a windows system should also scare the crap out of a newbie. He will loose all his old files (including family photos), even if this "win32-loader" allows him to keep his worthless bookmarks.

While I have nothing against trying to convince people to try linux, I have something against the people who will try just about anything, including outright lying, in order to make people switch.

bad feeling

[d3ac0n (715594)]

What I find interesting is the potential for "Linux Phishing" or "Linux Greifing" that this creates. There are already plenty of problems with various viruses loading directly through the browser in Windows, can you imagine what would happen if a "religious Linux fanatic" were to take this, alter it to use a known but unpatched IE vulnerability to auto-install and reboot people's machines into Linux? What would happen if a "religious Microsoft fanatic" did the same thing to try and make Linux look bad?

I've got a baaaad feeling about this...

the Tux Virus

[hawk (1151)]

This scenario was labeled the "Tux Virus" many years ago.

Typically, the scenario involved a win95 themed wm and a far-fetched belief that wine or openoffice could allow the user to be fooled at least briefly.

hawk

Re:Huh?

[Falstius (963333)]

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 (674436)]

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

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

Re: Huh?

[dylan_- (1661)]

It should be included. See if /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/ exists. If it doesn't, ask in your distro's forums. If it does, maybe just ask in your distro's forums if there's a gui for setting it up! :) But, if you really want to command-line it, next step is check if /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register exists. If not try:

mount -t binfmt_misc none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc

and then check again if the "register" file exists. If it doesn't...something's wrong. If it does, then you can add entries like the wikipedia article says. So, you can "cd /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc" and then add a line to "register" of the form :name:type:offset:magic:mask:interpreter:

Here's an example for Windows applications, using Wine.

cd /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
echo ':Windows:M::MZ::/usr/bin/wine:' > register

Which has:
name = Windows
type = M (use the magic number, rather than "E" which means use the extension)
offset = just left blank
magic = MZ (magic number for Windows executables, if you'd used "E" previous, you'd put "exe" here)
mask = left blank
interpreter = /usr/bin/wine (full path to wherever the "wine" program is)

Now you can run Windows apps just by typing their name, like any Linux program. In fact, since we used the magic number rather than the extension, you could remove the .exe extension and it would still run fine.

You'd probably want to put this in a startup script, or something :)

Re:Huh?

[Achoi77 (669484)]

I'm assuming based on the screenshots [goodbye-microsoft.com], 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

Re:Huh?

[by 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:Huh?

[asphaltjesus (978804)]

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.

the win32 debian package

[wizardforce (1005805)]

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 [debian.org]

Re:the win32 debian package

[frinkacheese (790787)]

Now it just needs to be intergrated into a virus/worm the the whole windows world will be converted!

Re:the win32 debian package

[bcrowell (177657)]

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.

EULA

[thegnu (557446)]

Everyone remember to click right through the EULA like they do in the instructional video, or it won't work. :)

Well that's a bummer.

[kwabbles (259554)]

I don't have any Windows machines to test it out on.

Will this work in Wine? :)

Seriously though - nice work, guys.

Just ran the installer

[ZOMFF (1011277)]

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).

I still prefer my method

[boudie2 (1134233)]

Mr. Windows partition, meet Mr. fdisk.

My first thought is virus

[ACMENEWSLLC (940904)]

My first thought following the link is that this is a virus. When I follow a link that says "Good bye Windows" which wants to launch an .EXE with no explanation, what else would I think?

I run Ubuntu in VMware. I thought from the article that perhaps I could run Windows programs inside Linux with this. Another WINE.

Re:

[LinuxGeek (6139)]

Yup, including everyone running Ubuntu like me.

Re:

[petermgreen (876956)]

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:What?

[Hatta (162192)]

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:What?

[Trigun (685027)]

He must be married.

No no no

[A nonymous Coward (7548)]

He must be married.

This is slashdot you inconsiderate fool.

Re:What?

[cortana (588495)]

That's why it's best to have both testing and unstable in your sources.list; but to pin unstable to a lower priority than testing.

$ apt-cache policy git-core
git-core:
  Installed: 1:1.5.2.4-1 0
  Candidate: 1:1.5.2.4-1 0
  Version table:
    1:1.5.3.1-1 0
        520 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/ unstable/main Packages
  *** 1:1.5.2.4-1 0
        530 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/ lenny/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

In this case, if for some reason git-core was broken in testing, I could easily upgrade it to the version from unstable with a command such as aptitude install -t unstable git-core. But if I installed git-core without the -t argument, the version from testing would have been chosen.