← Back to team overview

mythbuntu-bugs team mailing list archive

[Bug 414996] Re: [karmic] grub re-writes boot sector on wrong drive on fresh install

 

For the love of god, please fix this critical defect!  There's been
ample discussion in this thread on why this "feature" is very, very bad.
Functionality that used to just "work" should not suddenly, arbitrarily,
and *irrationally* change.  I've been putting Ubuntu on flash drives for
years.   There's nothing more useful than keeping a full Lamp stack in
your pocket.   Besides, many new Ubuntu users will want to install to a
USB to try it out or show their friends.  It's a tremendously unwise
business decision to make that process harder.

ph

-- 
[karmic] grub re-writes boot sector on wrong drive on fresh install
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/414996
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mythbuntu
Bug Team, which is subscribed to Mythbuntu.

Status in Mythbuntu, Ubuntu derivative focused upon MythTV: Invalid
Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed

Bug description:
I attempted to install mythbuntu karmic/9.10 alpha 4 to a USB drive.   Using a laptop with an IDE drive containing Windows XP, I booted from the ISO image CD-ROM and went through the installation, selecting manual partitioning, and creating a single EXT4 root filesystem on a USB drive.   The installation proceeded through the complete install to the USB key until instructed to reboot.

I re-booted the laptop with the USB key inserted, and was presented with the message "No bootable partition in table".  Then, removing the USB key and booting from the laptop IDE drive (which should not have been touched by the mythbuntu install) I get the message "GRUB loading.  Welcome to GRUB!  Entering rescue mode... error: no such disk"  followed by the "grub rescue>" prompt.  

I examined the laptop hard drive with a partition editor, and the Windows partition is still intact....  but it looks like the boot sector has been re-written mistakenly.

Now I have two problems.....
1) how do I get Windows on my laptop to boot again....  I need my work data!
2) how do I make my mythbuntu USB front-end install bootable?