** Description changed: Binary package hint: grub-pc This is a horrible way to file a bug report and I'm aware of that, but this needs to be considered. Throughout various upgrade and/or update procedures in Ubuntu and its variants the user gets a display asking where to install grub(2). There is a suggestion that if in doubt to install to the mbr of all drives. Unfortunately most new (and some old) users have no idea how drives/partitions are designated in Ubuntu, and they're clueless as to what an mbr is! So basically you see a screen that says, "if in doubt select all", and you do so. Now, I'm aware those are not the exact words but I've been following (and trying to help folks fix) these problems since Lucid was released. It's particularly troublesome when someone installs grub2 to an NTFS partition with a Win OS so I'd at least suggest making grub installation to an NTFS (or any FAT) partition very difficult. Honestly I'm not sure what the solution should be, but I know Colin Watson deals with a lot of these grub2 issues and I've come to trust his judgment. Consider the following options: #1: Display nothing but drives, that is "sda", "sdb", etc, and NO individual partitions. But create another "advanced" tab/option to allow installation to a partition. #2: Increase the amount of text explaining the difference between drives and partitions, why it's a bad idea to install to a partition etc. IMHO that's a horrible option. (The more text the less likely a new user is to read it.) #3: Figure out a way to always have grub(2) install itself where it was to begin with. (maybe a bad idea if the original install was wrong.) While I think option #1 is great I have no idea how complicated that would be. Does any of that make sense? I'd be glad to test any potential "fixes" :^) SRU justification: IMPACT: I concur with the problems described above. We often see people turning up in #grub who've been affected by this, and it's often the least capable users who are suddenly hit by an unbootable Windows system which can be quite a challenge to fix. We need to clear this up in a stable update to limit the damage. DEVELOPMENT BRANCH: While I haven't uploaded this yet due to the Alpha-2 freeze, I've committed it to the Maverick branch for grub2 1.98+20100614-2ubuntu4: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core- dev/ubuntu/maverick/grub2/maverick/revision/1999 PATCH: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core- dev/ubuntu/lucid/grub2/lucid/revision/1973 (plus debconf-updatepo). TEST CASE: The simplest way to force this confusing screen to appear is by running 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc'. The broken state is that all partitions are offered, including Windows partitions which will be broken by installing GRUB to them; the desired state is described in comment 56. REGRESSION POTENTIAL: I can hardly have made the dialog any more harmfully misleading, but if I got my change badly enough wrong then upgrades might break (along with dpkg-reconfigure). I think it would be worth testing an upgrade from Karmic on a two-disk system and making - sure that the experience is vaguely reasonable. + sure that the experience is vaguely reasonable. You should be able to + save time by testing this together with bug 580408.
** Description changed: Binary package hint: grub-pc This is a horrible way to file a bug report and I'm aware of that, but this needs to be considered. Throughout various upgrade and/or update procedures in Ubuntu and its variants the user gets a display asking where to install grub(2). There is a suggestion that if in doubt to install to the mbr of all drives. Unfortunately most new (and some old) users have no idea how drives/partitions are designated in Ubuntu, and they're clueless as to what an mbr is! So basically you see a screen that says, "if in doubt select all", and you do so. Now, I'm aware those are not the exact words but I've been following (and trying to help folks fix) these problems since Lucid was released. It's particularly troublesome when someone installs grub2 to an NTFS partition with a Win OS so I'd at least suggest making grub installation to an NTFS (or any FAT) partition very difficult. Honestly I'm not sure what the solution should be, but I know Colin Watson deals with a lot of these grub2 issues and I've come to trust his judgment. Consider the following options: #1: Display nothing but drives, that is "sda", "sdb", etc, and NO individual partitions. But create another "advanced" tab/option to allow installation to a partition. #2: Increase the amount of text explaining the difference between drives and partitions, why it's a bad idea to install to a partition etc. IMHO that's a horrible option. (The more text the less likely a new user is to read it.) #3: Figure out a way to always have grub(2) install itself where it was to begin with. (maybe a bad idea if the original install was wrong.) While I think option #1 is great I have no idea how complicated that would be. Does any of that make sense? I'd be glad to test any potential "fixes" :^) SRU justification: IMPACT: I concur with the problems described above. We often see people turning up in #grub who've been affected by this, and it's often the least capable users who are suddenly hit by an unbootable Windows system which can be quite a challenge to fix. We need to clear this up in a stable update to limit the damage. DEVELOPMENT BRANCH: While I haven't uploaded this yet due to the Alpha-2 freeze, I've committed it to the Maverick branch for grub2 1.98+20100614-2ubuntu4: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core- dev/ubuntu/maverick/grub2/maverick/revision/1999 PATCH: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core- dev/ubuntu/lucid/grub2/lucid/revision/1973 (plus debconf-updatepo). TEST CASE: The simplest way to force this confusing screen to appear is by running 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc'. The broken state is that all partitions are offered, including Windows partitions which will be broken by installing GRUB to them; the desired state is described in comment 56. REGRESSION POTENTIAL: I can hardly have made the dialog any more harmfully misleading, but if I got my change badly enough wrong then upgrades might break (along with dpkg-reconfigure). I think it would be worth testing an upgrade from Karmic on a two-disk system and making - sure that the experience is vaguely reasonable. You should be able to - save time by testing this together with bug 580408. + sure that the experience is vaguely reasonable. -- Ubuntu Lucid grub2 dist-upgrades result in confusion https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/576724 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
