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

[Ben Fritz]

> It doesn't corrupt boots. It's inconvenient.

Yes, it does corrupt boot setups. I'm not sure how you can say it
doesn't.

I mean I guess TECHNICALLY it "only" overwrites working boot setups,
with non-working boot setups; it's not actually corrupting existing
files with garbage data.

My encounter with this bug, several years ago now, was when I was trying
to set up a USB stick my daughter could plug into her crappy notebook
laptop to boot to Xubuntu, but leaving Windows installed on the laptop
itself. I wanted it as dead-easy as possible. Boot with USB inserted:
boots to Xubuntu (stored on the USB). Boot without USB: boots to
Windows. Like a live USB, but a full install which we could keep up-to-
date and with writable storage for files and a user profile and stuff.

I painstakingly partitioned the USB as needed, and selected the
partition on the USB to install grub to.

Result: Windows bootloader on the laptop's eMMC storage replaced with
grub configuration that can only boot with the USB inserted. Windows was
no longer able to boot normally at all. I did eventually fix it and get
it to the state I wanted. But initially, the Ubuntu installer absolutely
ignored my explicit instructions and therefore completely broke a
working setup. I'm pretty sure (my memory is fuzzy from several years
ago) I needed to resort to restoring a full-disk backup image to fix the
Windows install. Either that, or I used some sort of recovery tool to
fix a nonfunctional EFI partition.

That's way beyond just being "inconvenient".

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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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