I remembered some additional information I should have put in the original post:
First: Just to be sure, I wanted to reiterate that the 128 GB USB drive was not just a "boot drive". It was an exact duplicate of the entire Ubuntu system from my laptop, and worked the exact same way (Trash function and all). Second: As noted, the update from Software Updater that required a restart broke both (1) the GRUB 2 bootloader on the (booted) USB drive, AND (2) the GRUB 2 bootloader on the (unmounted) laptop's hard drive. When I said they were broken to the point where neither was bootable, taking me to the dreaded "grub_rescue" command line when trying to boot either one, I should have added the following regarding the errors given: 1) When trying to boot from the USB drive (during the restart), the error was similar to "trying to read outside hd0" (hd0 = the hard drive, I believe), before I was put at grub_rescue command line. (To note, I have seen that same error at other *unrelated* times, but at those times, it acted more like a warning pause before simply continuing to the login screen.) 2) Then removing the USB drive and attempting to simply boot up from the hard drive instead, I got an error similar to "cannot find (or locate) device such-and-such" before being put at grub_rescue. I believe the "such-and-such" was the UUID of the USB drive that was being run from when the update that required a restart came up. So even though trying to boot up from the hard drive at that point, it still knew something about the previously-booted USB drive that was active during the restart-requiring-update; and it didn't like that it couldn't find that USB drive, so grub_rescue ensued. That's it. Thank you again! -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1815225 Title: Ubuntu System on USB Drive Breaks with Updates Requiring Restarts Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: First, please forgive me if I do not report this issue correctly. I'm new here and don't generally live in the Launchpad world. (I've tried this at askUbuntu.com, and it was suggested I come here.) In brief: I have a 2006 Dell Inspiron (32 bit) with a (slow) 40 GB hard drive running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Having the system exactly the way I want it, I used the application "Systemback" to install the system on a (fast) 128 GB USB drive, which, being bootable, worked exactly the same as if I booted from the hard drive. So I started using the faster 128 USB drive exclusively. Now typically, Software Updater, if not requiring a restart, updated the running USB drive just fine. But one day, after Software Updater did an update that required a restart, this happened: the GRUB 2 bootloader the USB drive that was booted from, AND ALSO the GRUB 2 bootloader on the laptop's hard drive got broken, to the point where neither was bootable, taking me to the dreaded "grub rescue" command line when trying to boot either one. (Thankfully, I had a second USB drive with my Ubuntu system on it, and was able to install it from there to both the laptop's hard drive and the other now-ruined USB drive to bring them back to a pre-broken, normal existence.) With that background, I ask: Can Ubuntu's updates that require restarts merely work with the drive that was booted from, and not any affect any others (including an unmounted hard drive that was not booted from) ? If so, then anyone could get a Linux the way they want that they can take anywhere, bootable from any computer, AND update-able from any computer, bypassing all need for hard drives of any sort. No longer would people need to even buy laptops with hard drives or even operating systems. They could simply buy a smaller, cheaper, hard- drive-less and OS-less device that runs merely by plugging an Ubuntu Linux USB drive into it as "the system". Thank you very much for your time! ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04 Package: linux-image-3.13.0-165-generic 3.13.0-165.215 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-165.215-generic 3.13.11-ckt39 Uname: Linux 3.13.0-165-generic i686 ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29 Architecture: i386 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC0: noname 2014 F.... pulseaudio CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Fri Feb 8 12:12:35 2019 HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=230fdc83-e7b8-40a5-8731-075b72792c69 InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-12-31 (39 days ago) InstallationMedia: IwConfig: lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. MachineType: Dell Inc. ME051 ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-165-generic root=UUID=7cfb23c6-b380-495e-9e1c-813436961fef ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7 RelatedPackageVersions: linux-restricted-modules-3.13.0-165-generic N/A linux-backports-modules-3.13.0-165-generic N/A linux-firmware 1.127.24 RfKill: SourcePackage: linux UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2018-12-31 (39 days ago) WifiSyslog: dmi.bios.date: 12/22/2005 dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.bios.version: A04 dmi.board.name: 0TD535 dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.chassis.type: 8 dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA04:bd12/22/2005:svnDellInc.:pnME051:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0TD535:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr: dmi.product.name: ME051 dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc. 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