I’m studying for a CS degree, and I need to install Ubuntu for a computer systems class. We are going to do low level Assembly optimizations and stuff like that, so they don’t want us to install it in a VMware.
Now, I don’t want to do a regular dual-boot install, because I’ve already done it on my previous computer a couple of years ago, and wrecked my hard-disc with the partitioning. Wikipedia says you can use Wubi to boot Ubuntu from ISO, or install it to a flash drive and boot it from there, and then thus remove the need for partitioning.
Now, my question is – how different it is to program for Ubuntu booted from a regular hard-disc partition, from a Wubi ISO, and from an SD card? I guess the programs will work the same on all options, but we’re going to do play with low level Assembly optimizations – can I expect to face any difference in that department?
I’m not sure I’d go this route if it were me personally.
You should be fine in terms of whatever bare metal type stuff you want to do — you’re working with memory, the cache, the chip, etc, so your disk drive shouldn’t matter (unless you’re doing stuff to the filesystem or something).
Where I think you might get annoyed is the logistics of setting up your development environment. Everytime you boot from your USB stick, you’re going to need to sudo apt-get GCC, scite, et. al, load your files on into directories that you want, and then get started. That’s a hassle. You could optimize this somewhat by creating a custom ISO of your environment using some kind of tool (you might be able to do it with Clonezilla), but still.. yuck.
I would suggest (speaking of Clonezilla) that you snapshot your hard drive, go ahead and install dual booting with Ubuntu, and then you have a backup if anything goes wrong. Or, I’d think you could get by using the school’s machines. Don’t they have any Linux boxes that you can ssh into, if not use in labs?
Anyway, good luck. 🙂