[Bug 1396379] Re: installer uses first EFI system partition found even when directed otherwise

[Alan Franzoni]

This is still happening in Ubuntu 21.10, and the installer interface is
very confusing.

I wanted to create an Ubuntu installer on an external drive, so I
connected the Ubuntu 21.10 live USB to one port, and an USB SSD to
another port.

When installing, I made sure to choose /dev/sdc (the usb ssd drive) as
my target external device both for installing my system and for
installing the bootloader (an explicit option in the modern installer).

In the end, ubuntu installed its uefi files on my internal nvme drive
efi partition, making both my system and the external usb ssd non
bootable.

My 2c:
this is serious. But if it can't be solved because it's too hard... just don't let the user select their bootloader device, and issue a "BIG FAT WARNING: YOUR MAIN EFI PARTITION - /dev/nvme0p1n1 - will be modified!" message. Then I can choose what to do.

I would expect such behaviour from Windows. Not from Ubuntu.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1396379

Title:
  installer uses first EFI system partition found even when directed
  otherwise

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  (k)ubuntu 14.04.1
  package version: 2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1

  i installed ubuntu on my external hard disk, where i also have a previously installed fedora system. i also have a windows
  (efi-booted) system in the internal hard disk.

  at install time via ubiquity i get all grub configuration files in the first EFI-labelled partition (i.e. /dev/sda2 in my case) instead of the one i selected (/dev/sdb1).
  later i changed my fstab mounting /boot/efi on /dev/sdb1 and tried to reinstall grub package (apt-get install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64); now all grub configuration files are in the rigt place, but booting from the external hard disk still shows the fedora grub installation, while selectin the internal hard disk from the bios menu shows a submenu listing ubuntu and windows.
  explicitly installing grub in the correct disk (grub-install /dev/sdb; grub-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg) has no effect, nor it has running efibootmgr (efibootmgr -c --disk /dev/sdb --part 1).

  expected results: grub shoud have been installed in the disk/partition i chose;
  actual results: ubuntu always chooses the first disk to install grub on.

  Note that this is not just about the dummy grub install location
  selector that is not used in EFI mode, but configuring one partition
  as do not use, and the other as ESP in the manual partitioning screen.

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