[Bug 1396379] Re: installer uses first EFI system partition found even when directed otherwise

[Tim Richardson]

I tested this in 23.04 new installer. It worked, hooray. This is what I did.
Using virtmanager (qemu) on a 22.04 host, I downloaded the 23.04 ISO and created two virtual storage devices (drives). 
I installed 23.04 on one of them, using the advanced configuration option to make it a UEFI VM (it's legacy BIOS by default). I did a standard automatic install, rebooted and it works: this is a normal one-drive Ubuntu install. There were two partitions, including 1 GB UEFI partion mounted at /boot/efi exactly as you would expect.

Then I added the second drive to the VM, got it to boot off the install ISO again, and did another install. I went to manual partitioning. I selected the new, second drive as the boot device. The installer immediately created 1 GB vfat partition on the second drive, mounted at /boot/efi and selected it for formatting, which was encouraging.
I formatted the reaming space as ext4 and mounted it to /, and then installed.

The new efi partition was populated. I made the second drive the boot
drive and booted from it (you can also activate a boot menu and choose
it). There is definitely a working EFI install on the second drive, and
grub menu offers the original install as a secondary boot option, which
is what I would expect to see.

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Title:
  installer uses first EFI system partition found even when directed
  otherwise

Status in grub-efi-amd64-signed package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in grub-efi-amd64-signed source package in Jammy:
  Confirmed
Status in ubiquity source package in Jammy:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  (k)ubuntu 14.04.1
  package version: 2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1

  i installed ubuntu on my external hard disk, where i also have a previously installed fedora system. i also have a windows
  (efi-booted) system in the internal hard disk.

  at install time via ubiquity i get all grub configuration files in the first EFI-labelled partition (i.e. /dev/sda2 in my case) instead of the one i selected (/dev/sdb1).
  later i changed my fstab mounting /boot/efi on /dev/sdb1 and tried to reinstall grub package (apt-get install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64); now all grub configuration files are in the rigt place, but booting from the external hard disk still shows the fedora grub installation, while selectin the internal hard disk from the bios menu shows a submenu listing ubuntu and windows.
  explicitly installing grub in the correct disk (grub-install /dev/sdb; grub-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg) has no effect, nor it has running efibootmgr (efibootmgr -c --disk /dev/sdb --part 1).

  expected results: grub shoud have been installed in the disk/partition i chose;
  actual results: ubuntu always chooses the first disk to install grub on.

  Note that this is not just about the dummy grub install location
  selector that is not used in EFI mode, but configuring one partition
  as do not use, and the other as ESP in the manual partitioning screen.

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