mactel-support team mailing list archive

[Peder <peder.moller@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ricky,

Sorry for posting in the wrong thread. Not convinced it's a windows
problem though, since replacing hal.dll does not help. Anyways, since
I can see from several threads that you are an expert on this topic, I
would like to ask you _one_ question (if this is inappropriate, please
ignore it and forgive my pretension): Since this is not a problem with
gutsy, will I get a clean install if I triple-boot OSX, XP, and 7.1,
and then upgrade to 8.04?

Whether you answer or not, I owe you people a lot !

All the best,
Peder

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 10:48 PM, Ricky Campbell <cyberdork33@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Peder,
> Please post in the Apple Users Forum and there are several people that can help you. Your problem is not really related to this bug, but rather is an issue with windows.
>
> --
> MBR Partition Table is cleared during install
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/222126
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>


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-- 
MBR Partition Table is cleared during install
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/222126
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mactel
Support, which is the registrant for Mactel Support.

Status in Mactel Support: Confirmed
Status in “parted” source package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Ubuntu: New

Bug description:
Binary package hint: ubiquity

Ubuntu 8.04 Final

Intel Macs have an EFI system and a GPT. The installer seems to handle the GPT correctly (as it has in the past), but it has recently come up that the installer is completely emptying the contents of the MBR partition table which is still required to boot Windows and Ubuntu (GRUB relies on the MBR partition table). The two tables are not synced automatically.

When users install Hardy, they are suprised to find that the system is unbootable (the EFI loader cannot "see" the partition as bootable). a tool such as rEFIt or gptsync can copy the information in the GPT into the MBR table thus fixing the issue (for most). 

This is even more serious for users with other working OS installs in addition to Ubuntu (such as other linux distros and Windows) since it completely dumps the information needed to boot these installs as well.

The expected procedure (and how the previous Ubuntu install seems to have handled it) is to 'update' both the GPT and the MBR table with changes instead of completely losing the information stored there.

gparted / parted seemed to update both tables properly previously as well.

I will be doing a full install on my iMac later and will be able to add additional information.