Especially if Wubi failed early and/or still tried to download a new ISO image, check to make sure your downloaded ISO is not corrupted. You can do this by comparing its checksum against the official one. If you're only worried about inadvertent corruption (and not deliberately malicious modification), checking the MD5 hash is sufficient. (See also this article.)
As of this writing, there's been a delay in adding the Ubuntu 14.04.1 and 12.04.5 hashes to the UbuntuHashes wiki page. You can view them
For convenience, the relevant lines are:
- 12.04.5, 32-bit
09eb43dcfce2b7246bdd6e8108e755df *ubuntu-12.04.5-desktop-i386.iso
- 12.04.5, 64-bit
48b4edf237c489eebbfef208c2650d11 *ubuntu-12.04.5-desktop-amd64.iso
- 14.04.1, 32-bit
a4fc15313ef2a516bfbf83ce44281535 *ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
- 14.04.1, 64-bit
119cb63b48c9a18f31f417f09655efbd *ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso
Anyone verifying the ISO images based on security considerations should use the official sources linked above and not rely on the copied hashes in this post. In that case, you should really verify the SHA1 hash (12.04.5, 14.04.1) or SHA256 hash (12.04.5, 14.04.1) instead of relying on MD5.
If you know your ISO file is correct (for example, by checking its MD5 hash yourself) but the Wubi installer keeps rejecting it, you could run the Wubi installer with:
wubi.exe --skipmd5check
This makes it attempt to proceed with the installation even if it thinks the local ISO file is wrong. One way to do this is from a Command Prompt launched as administrator. (The .exe
extension in the command is optional.) You'll have to cd
to the appropriate directory first:
Having put wubi.exe
and ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso
in a folder by themselves, I start a Command Prompt as administrator (since UAC is enabled on this Windows system) and run cd C:\Users\ek\Downloads\wubi
(you'll have to replace this with the correct location on your system) followed by wubi.exe --skipmd5check
.
Another way to run wubi.exe --skipmd5check
is to make a shortcut to wubi.exe
(right-click it wubi.exe
, click Create shortcut). Then right-click the shortcut and click Properties. In the textbox labeled "Target:" add --skipmd5check
to the end (make sure there's a space between ...wubi.exe
and what you added).
Running wubi.exe
with the --skipmd5check
command-line option by creating a shortcut and modifying the Target field in its Properties window.
Then run the Wubi installer through the shortcut you created.
Wubi doesn't work on UEFI systems with GPT disks. If your computer shipped with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, you can't install Ubuntu with Wubi inside those Windows systems. (If your computer came with a different OS and you installed 8/8.1 yourself, you probably can.)
For these UEFI systems, you'll have to install Ubuntu in the "regular" way. (That is, to coexist with Windows it will have to be installed with its own partitions, alongside Windows, and not as a Wubi system existing inside a partition belonging to the Windows system.)
You might succeed at creating a Wubi system inside a UEFI/GPT Windows 8/8.1, but it wouldn't boot once you created it. (This is not specifically a Secure Boot problem; even with Secure Boot turned off, it should not be expected to work.) I'm including this information not out of suspicion that this is the cause of your current problem, but because it's highly relevant today--that is, mainly for the benefit of other readers who come along.
On the other hand, if you are using a preinstalled Windows 8 or 8.1 system, maybe Wubi did actually get past downloading the ISO automatically and failed while installing.
Best Answer
Wubi is no longer supported. See this link
Ubuntu Forums Staff recommendations on WUBI