[Bug 1507448] Re: Kubuntu installation into external disk ruins internal disk boot whilst leaving external disk unbootable

[dsainty]

If you encounter the bug when installing Ubuntu from the Desktop CD
(most common method), the package is ubiquity.

** Package changed: ubuntu => ubiquity (Ubuntu)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1507448

Title:
  Kubuntu installation into external disk ruins internal disk boot
  whilst leaving external disk unbootable

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  In order to test Kubuntu 14.04.3 LTS desktop hardware support on my
  laptop I attempted to install it (via USB stick) onto a USB external
  hard drive, with the plan of booting off the external drive and
  leaving my internal drive safely alone.  I figured I could trust the
  installer to be sensible.

  What a depressingly fatal mistake that was...

  The internal drive is now screwed up, it drops to grub rescue if I
  attempt to boot off it.  Manually attempting to use grub rescue seems
  problematic, because grub rescue doesn't like the licence on the
  internal drive's grub files.

  The external drive can't be booted either, because grub wasn't
  properly installed on it.

  This happened when asking it to do a non-manual install over the
  entire external drive - including formatting.  If I had done a manual
  install I would have avoided this mess by explicitly asking it to
  install GRUB on the external drive.  Or, if the installer had warned
  me what it was doing with GRUB, like it does with other file system
  operations, I might have been able to avoid this mess.

  This is obviously a really nasty bug in the installer.  If it's asked
  to install with all normal default actions over entire disk /dev/sdX,
  it doesn't make sense to do that - except then screw up grub on
  /dev/sdY.

  The explicit process was:

      Where would you like to install Kubuntu: Guided - use entire disk
      Device: SCSI4 (0,0,0) sdc
      <Install Now>

  Warning:

      The partition tables of the following devices are changed: SCSI4
  (0,0,0) sdc

      The following partitions are going to be formatted:
      partition #1 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) sdc as ext4
      partition #5 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) sdc as swap

  NB: Conspicuously absent is any mention that the internal drive (sda) will
  never boot again.

  This is a repeated pass through the steps for the purposes of
  reporting the bug.  However, I'm pretty sure the first time I did this
  it ALSO told me it'd format the swap partition on sda.  For some
  reason that is not reported here.  Although I wasn't happy it wanted
  to touch sda, at the same time it seemed relatively harmless, so I let
  it slide.  I mention it just in case it's relevant, though I guess the
  most likely bug is just poor decision making on where grub is
  installed.

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