[Bug 1926039] [NEW] Ubuntu Desktop 20.04.2 Installer Clobbers Alternate Drive EFI System Parition

Launchpad Bug Tracker 1926039 at bugs.launchpad.net
Mon Apr 26 16:14:47 UTC 2021


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SITUATION

System with two drives and two existing OS installations:
Drive 1) Ubuntu Desktop 20.10
Drive 2) OpenCore

Re-installing Ubuntu Desktop (20.04.2 LTS) on Drive-1 overwrites the EFI
System Partition on Drove=2 when it has not been selected as the install
target.

BEHAVIOR

• The Ubuntu installer properly identifies Drive-1 as an existing Ubuntu
installation and offers to replace the installation.

• Accepting the offer of replacement installation progresses normally,
but when installation is complete, the existing other OS on Drive-2
drive is no longer bootable.

• Examining the non-target Drive-2 shows the EFI System Partition
EFI/BOOT folder has been overwritten with Ubuntu grub-specific files,
including the replacement of the non-target EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi
OpenCore loader by a grub loader and addition of other grub boot support
files. Replacing the polluted ESP on Drive-2 restores access to the
other OS.

The non-target Drive-2 should not have been touched. For many users,
this behavior will appear to be the destruction of the non-target drive
with total data loss. BIOS boot options will report only grub boot
capability with no way to restore other OS function and they will have
no idea how restore the ESP and find their data.

This behavior makes trying Ubuntu a total disaster for new users and a
good scare for experienced users.

Affected system: Ubuntu Desktop 20.04.2 LTS installing to an existing Ubuntu Desktop 20.10.
Target drive-1 is SATA, single-boot Ubuntu 20.10
Non-target drive-2 is NVMe, OpenCore

** Affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: bot-comment
-- 
Ubuntu Desktop 20.04.2 Installer Clobbers Alternate Drive EFI System Parition
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1926039
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