Member Avatar for Member #632324

Greetings everybody,

In the web site of Ubuntu, it is indicated that WUBI is not available for Windows 8.

I need to useboth of Windows 8 & Ubuntu occasionaly and I would like to ask you
if there some way to use Ubuntu with Windows 8 in the same PC.

Might Cygwin be a solution for programming purposes?

Thanks in advance,
mau

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Dani AI

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Wubi really is the problem here: Wubi does not work with the Windows 8 default boot loader and was removed from the official install flow, so the “install Ubuntu from inside Windows 8” route is unreliable. Ubuntu WubiGuide. (wiki.ubuntu.com) (en.wikipedia.org)

There are three practical alternatives (each already suggested in the thread by , , , ): a native dual-boot, a virtual machine, or a live USB (with persistence). Virtual machines are the easiest to set up and safe for testing and general development, but they add scheduling and I/O layers that can increase latency — not ideal for hard real‑time or low‑latency DSP work unless you invest in advanced passthrough/KVM tuning. [Intel: Real‑Time VMs using KVM]. (eci.intel.com) (community.asterisk.org)

Cygwin (as mentioned) is a very useful POSIX environment on Windows — great for many development tools and scripts — but it is a compatibility layer, not a Linux kernel, so kernel‑level behavior and true real‑time characteristics will differ from a native Ubuntu install. [Cygwin FAQ]. (cygwin.com) Also note that Microsoft’s WSL (a closer Linux environment) is available only on Windows 10/11, not Windows 8. [WSL troubleshooting / requirements]. (learn.microsoft.com)

For real‑time DSP you generally want native performance. A short checklist for a safe native install:

  • Backup Windows image and important files.

  • Disable Windows fast startup / hibernation (so NTFS is clean): run:

    powercfg -h off

    and turn off “Turn on fast startup” in Power Options. (askubuntu.com)

  • Shrink Windows partition with Disk Management (or use a separate drive), then install the 64‑bit Ubuntu ISO from a bootable USB. [Create a bootable USB stick — Ubuntu docs]. (documentation.ubuntu.com)

Summary: for casual use, run Ubuntu in a VM; for serious, low‑latency DSP, do a native dual‑boot (or a dedicated drive). The posts on this thread point to those exact tradeoffs; the linked documentation above covers the concrete steps and caveats. (wiki.ubuntu.com)

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

They are correct -- you can't duel boot both. But you can use a VirtualBox and install it there.

Member Avatar for CimmerianX

2nd vote for virtual box.

Member Avatar for rubberman

I use VirtualBox happily to run Linux systems under Windows, and Windows systems under Linux. That said, there are ways to create bootable USB drives with storage capacity that you can use to boot without getting either into Wubi, or dual-booting the system. You can also create a live USB drive using Unetbootin.

Member Avatar for JasonHippy

As somebody who has gone "full-freetard", I only run Linux at home and have no need for more than one OS on any of my machines.

But I have to use Windows at work and have no real justification to install any other OSes on my work machine either. So I've never really used virtualbox. (But I really should try at some point!)

However, I did miss the greatness of the Unix/Linux command-line whilst at work. Cmd and Powershell just do not compare! So I installed Cygwin and have used it pretty extensively for a number of years. Cygwin terminal is not the same as running a full Linux distro. But it does enhance your windows experience by making it a bit more like Linux.

It is also possible to run an X-server session with a Linux desktop (Gnome, KDE etc) via Cygwin. I use dwm - a tiling manager. Easier to set up and get running than any of the other desktops, less dependencies, more lightweight etc. But that is another story!

Personally, I'd say why make a choice between Cygwin or virtualbox??
Why not use both?! :)

Member Avatar for Member #632324

Hello everybody,

Thanks for your replies.

I was going to install Cygwin, and had never heard about VirtualBox. Because, I have been using Ubuntu installing with wubi.

I have only one PC currently, that is why I use two different OSs in one PC.

In work, I need Ubuntu actually, because it will run my programs faster, real-time DSP programming, and I can find more open-source libraries working in Ubuntu.

Thanks everybody.

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