[Bug 704763] Re: boot loader not installed to target disk

[Robin McCorkell]

The problem with the installer at the moment is that it blindly tries to
install GRUB to the first disk in GRUB's device map, regardless of if it
can or not (apart from the special removable device code). This causes
problems when /dev/sda is a secondary disk that isn't configured at the
time of installation, and so because it contains no MBR GRUB fails to
install on it. I can see why installing to a drive that is different to
the one /boot exists on is beneficial with multiple OSes, but to be
honest when one selects 'erase disk and install Ubuntu' they likely do
not have or care about any other operating systems on other drives.

Even if another operating system exists on another drive, with this
patch GRUB will be installed to the 'secondary' drive, and so to start
using it one must simply change the boot order in the BIOS/UEFI. In
addition, perhaps the user does not want to overwrite the existing
bootloader, say, if GRUB is being managed by a different distribution on
the same system. But I just think that if one has another OS installed
on a system, they'd probably use the manual partitioning selection which
allows them to set the bootloader location manually, rather than the
'automate everything, erase disk and install' option.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/704763

Title:
  boot loader not installed to target disk

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: casper

  Advised by "ubuntu brainstorm" moderator "cheesehead" (please see
  http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/26998/) to file this as a "bug
  report" against the "casper" package of ubuntu release 10.x  While I
  can see similarities between what follows and bug #223428, I am not
  sure they are the same.  At any rate, here goes...

  Like many people, I suspect, I wanted to install unbuntu on a physical
  drive completely separate from the one containing my legacy OS
  (Windows Vista); in my case, an external hard-drive connected to my
  computer by USB. After some trial-and-error, I realized that the
  installation option I should use was the "Erase and use entire disk"
  option (though this was scary, because at first I didn't know that I
  would later be presented with a choice of WHICH disk to erase and
  use). The trouble was, though, that even when I realized I could
  specify the external disk as the one to which ubuntu should be
  installed, and did so, the installer STILL overwrote the boot loader
  of my computer's INTERNAL hard-drive (the one containing Windows
  Vista) with GRUB. Because of this, I could not boot the computer at
  all unless my external hard-drive was connected. I finally got around
  this by going with the "specify partitions manually" installation
  option, which also gave me the option to specify the location of the
  boot loader, but not before I had made my computer unbootable (by
  futzing around with the computer's boot sector) and had to hunt down
  and create a Windows Vista restore disk just for the purpose of
  restoring the boot loader stored on the computer's internal hard-
  drive.

  Suggested solutions:
  1. Somehow indicate, early on, that the installer (person) will be presented with a CHOICE of which disk will be erased and used entirely (please see the description in the above "idea rationale" section). 
  2. Write the boot loader (GRUB) to the disk targeted for the ubuntu installation when the "erase and use entire disk" installation option is chosen.

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