Getting ready for Ringtail

With the news that the Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail repositories are in place, I decided to try a different approach this time to using the development release. Usually, at some point in the cycle, I'll try out an upgrade - and if it seems usable - I'll keep it (I always have a full backup just in case).

With 12.04 Precise Pangolin the development release was really stable so I quite happily used it actively throughout the cycle... but unfortunately it wasn't quite as good with 12.10 Quantal Quetzal and I found that I relied more on my non-wubi 12.04 Edubuntu install (although that wasn't entirely without problems either).

The down side of switching to the development release is that I lose touch with the latest production release , which is more useful in keeping track of current issues, and since I'm not upgrading my Edubuntu machine I want to keep both 12.10 and 13.04 on the same machine (with Wubi).

I already have a Wubi-resize script that will duplicate a Wubi install (and keep it in synch). I've added a custom menu entry to boot the sychronized disk to make sure it's functional. Now I need to be able to switch and run independent Wubi installs (without the tedium of booting to Windows to manually switch the root.disks).

So that led me to my latest testing approach:
1. Duplicate the up-to-date 12.10 install using the Wubi resize script and rename the new.disk to raring.disk
2. Add a custom boot entry for this raring.disk
3. Manually update /usr/share/lupin-support/grub-mkimage on the Raring install to stop it splatting /wubildr whenever there's an update to Grub (which would make the raring intall the default)
4. Turn off Ubuntu One synchronization and other automatic backups on the Raring install
5. Go nuts without worrying about breakage

Here's the custom boot entry (modify the one on root.disk only and change the highlighted bits):

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry 'Ubuntu - Raring Ringtail' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
        gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
        insmod gzio
        insmod ntfs
        set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 18B4B7BBB4B799A8
        loopback loop1 /ubuntu/disks/raring.disk
        set root=(loop1)
        linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=18B4B7BBB4B799A8 loop=/ubuntu/disks/raring.disk ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
        initrd /initrd.img
}

Here's the diff on grub-mkimage (modify the one on raring.disk only):

--- /mnt/usr/share/lupin-support/grub-mkimage 2011-09-20 03:44:44.000000000 -0700
+++ /usr/share/lupin-support/grub-mkimage 2012-10-29 22:02:55.784517389 -0700
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@
         exit 1
     fi
 fi
-
+exit 0 # for raring test install, bypass creation of wubildr
 wubildr_partitions="$(find_wubildr)"
 
 if [ ! -f "$target" ] && [ -z "$wubildr_partitions" ]; then

Now all I have to do is wait for something exciting to happen with Ringtail: