Install the ImageX alternative Wimlib in Ubuntu 13.10/13.04/12.04

Last updated: September 20, 2013

Wimlib is a C library for creating, modifying, extracting, and mounting files in the Windows Imaging Format (WIM files). It comes with wimlib-imagex, which may be used to create customized images of Windows PE, or to back up, install, or restore Windows operating systems.

On UNIX, wimlib has special support for capturing and applying WIMs directly to/from NTFS volumes using libntfs-3g, preserving Windows-specific and NTFS-specific data.

Features:

  • Support for both Linux and Windows
  • Apply/extract an image from a WIM file to a directory
  • Apply/extract an image from a WIM file directly to a NTFS volume
  • Capture a directory tree as a WIM image in a new or existing WIM
  • Capture a NTFS volume as a WIM image in a new or existing WIM
  • Mount an image from a WIM file read-only or read-write (Linux only)
  • Add or delete files from a WIM image without mounting it
  • Extract individual files or directories without mounting it
  • Delete an image from a WIM file
  • Display information about a WIM file
  • Change WIM image name, description, or bootable status
  • Export image(s) from one WIM to an existing or new WIM
  • Support for both compression formats used in WIMs (LZX and XPRESS)
  • Split a WIM file into parts, or join a split WIM into a standalone WIM
  • Directly apply, export, or mount an image from a split WIM

Install Wimlib via PPA:

There’s a PPA contains the packages for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Ubuntu 12.10 Qunatal and their derivatives.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

Then update package lists:

sudo apt-get update

Install the wimlib:

sudo apt-get install wimtools

Once installed, run man wimlib-imagex to see the available options and run man mkwinpeimg to make a customized bootable image for Windows PE. For more, see official documents.

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