Quick/Lazy hack to install Ubuntu 9.04 using existing GRUB

Prior to using any Debian derivatives, I was a RedHat fan and hence
heavily favoured Fedora/CentOS/RHEL over other distributions. Over the
last few releases Fedora has been a disappointment and I was stuck
between using Gentoo/Ubuntu. Hell I even gave FreeBSD a shot (sucked
for me). Gentoo was my favoured distribution about 2-3 years ago but
the excessive kernel recompilation was really getting to me. To go the
more stable path I decided to give Debian a shot. Debian lenny is an
amazing release, except it sucked as a desktop OS for me. Random sound
issues, flash taking the whole system down and poor 3D acceleration
really ruined it for me (couldn’t play quake live even with
proprietary drivers).

I decided to finally switch to Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04). Being too lazy to
connect an optical drive or buying blank CDs, I decided to install it
using my existing GRUB setup (Debian). Turns out it’s easier than
Lindsay Lohan excessively inebriated.

 A few preliminary notes: This has been tested using the Jaunty mini
iso, not sure if other versions work as designed. Did not try
installing using the wireless network (that would be stupid). Need a
decent broadband connection (say 512kbps upward) for the installation
to finish within a reasonable time (leave it overnight only after
you’re done selecting packages). Will hose your system if power goes
out and you’ve crossed the partitioning stage. Take like a backup,
man.

 Step 1: Get the mini.iso from here :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD
Step 2: Extract the mini.iso to get two files, linux and initrd.gz
Step 3: Rename those files for easy reference (eg linux_ubuntu &
initrd_ubuntu.gz)
Step 4: Move them to your boot directory
  #sudo mv linux_ubuntu initrd_ubuntu.gz /boot/
Step 5: Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst using your favourite editor and add
the lines to point to these

  title		Ubuntu 9.04 installer   
  root (hd0,0)   
  kernel		/linux_ubuntu   
  initrd /initrd_ubuntu.gz

 Remember the above setting should be exactly the same as the other
lines on your existing linux install (If your current linux uses UUIDs
then the root line would be replaced with a suitable UUID, the “root”
parameter might work but I’m not sure) except for the last two lines
(kernel and initrd)

 Step 6: Reboot select Ubuntu installer, proceed as usual, select your
mirror, repartition your disks (even the partition you booted from can
be destroyed; is that cool or what?) and let the installer do its
thing.

 I live in an area where powercuts are fairly common (even after a
lying politician promised there would be no more), so i went with the
minimal install during the initial setup (so that I’d have something
to fall back on as soon as possible) . After this I was able to reboot
to a desktop-less OS. Doing an sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
got the latest version of GNOME and associated stuff fresh from the
repositories. Jaunty works great for me, even though I’m afflicted
with an ATI card (on board) and a faulty USB controller (disabled,
using a PCI addon USB card instead).

Time taken to do the initial install: Approx an hour (including download time)
Time taken to download the ubuntu-desktop packages: About 1 hr 30 minutes
Time taken to install/configure the desktop package: About 15 minutes

 My broadband connection is allegedly 1Mbps (ADSL) but it usually hangs
somewhere between 512 and 768 and peaks at 1Mbps sometimes.

 Hope this helps someone.