[Bug 222126] Re: Partition Table is cleared during install on Intel Macs

[Chris Langton]

just installed precise (14.04 beta 2) on my new work iMac delivered today and after successful installation there were no boot devices or OS's.
I retried the installation completely for a second time, to ensure i followed the instruction carefully and correctly - the same result.

Perhaps this issue has been re-introduced in precise? or the fixed
package is omitted or something?

It is very important that i use linux for my development work, and i am
most comfortable with ubuntu gnome but i think i have no choice but to
try Intrepid... mainly because this bug fix seems to only be working for
that old release of ubuntu...

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/222126

Title:
  Partition Table is cleared during install on Intel Macs

Status in grub-installer:
  Invalid
Status in Mactel Support:
  Fix Released
Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in “parted” source package in Hardy:
  Fix Released
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Hardy:
  Invalid
Status in “parted” source package in Intrepid:
  Fix Released
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Intrepid:
  Invalid
Status in “parted” source package in Jaunty:
  Fix Released
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Jaunty:
  Invalid

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.

  
  This bug was fixed in parted 1.8.8.git.2008.03.24-11.1ubuntu6 by adding "Apple Inc." as an additional system-manufacturer tag for which we do the special Apple GPT->MBR handling. Here are patches for hardy-proposed and intrepid-proposed:

    http://launchpadlibrarian.net/27503646/hardy.diff
    http://launchpadlibrarian.net/27504724/intrepid.diff

  TEST CASE: You'll need a reasonably new Intel-based Mac system for
  which 'sudo dmidecode -s system-manufacturer' returns "Apple Inc."
  (not "Apple Computer, Inc."). Check that installations work, and that
  'sudo fdisk -l' shows a reasonable MBR representation of the first
  four partitions on your disk (compare against 'sudo parted -s /dev/sda
  print').

  REGRESSION POTENTIAL: The only other systems that really care about
  this kind of thing are ones for which 'sudo dmidecode -s system-
  manufacturer' returns "Apple Computer, Inc."; installations on those
  systems should keep working. Other than that I think we're basically
  taking a completely broken case and rendering it at least vaguely
  functional ...

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