GRUB option in installer

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Mon, Jun 26, 2006 at 01:59:20PM -0700, David Cheung wrote:
>   and I noticed that the installer did not ask for an option to install
>   GRUB on either the MBR, the ubuntu partition superblock, or a floppy
>   disk.  I think this is necessary, especially in systems where there are
>   multiple hard drives and multiple operating systems.  I also run XP and
>   Slackware.  Ubuntu was a test install for me ATM.
>    
>   Anyway, the reason why this was a problem for me is that the install
>   prog did not install GRUB anywhere and the ubuntu partition was
>   unreachable for the exact time of 3 hours and 12 minutes.  I searched a
>   few public forums and found the workaround for this (generating my own
>   GRUB menu.lst and manually finding the ubuntu partition by trial and
>   error).  The installer did show that GRUB was installed, but when the
>   system rebooted, it did not boot into ubuntu as expected: it went to XP
>   as usual.
>    
>   I use LILO on a floppy to dual boot into Slackware.

The alternate installation CD asks questions about the boot loader
configuration, so you can use that in these situations, or you can use the
command line after installation to customize it.

Most users don't even know what a boot loader is, and shouldn't need to in
order to install Ubuntu, which is why the installer doesn't ask.  It's
possible that an alternate mode could be added which does ask, but there are
currently no plans to do so.

>   Other than that, after I was finally able to access the Ubuntu system, I
>   found it to be lots of eye candy and nicely finished.  I was a little
>   disappointed that the media player did not play my .avi files right off
>   the bat (I watch a lot of these).

I assume you've searched the web and learned why this is the case.

-- 
 - mdz