Master boot record overwritten by installer

[aspa]

I installed Ubuntu 9.04 beta a system with one internal hard drive and one external USB attached hard drive.
Ubuntu was installed on the external drive. The installer, however, installed the Grub boot loader on the internal hard drive overwriting the MBR of that disk without asking where I would like to install the boot loader.
Unfortunately, the internal hard drive contained a Windows installation and was using full disk encryption software (Utimaco SafeGuard) so now it can't be booted. All the data on the disk is probably unrecoverable.

The installer should ask the target location of the boot loader.
Also, it would be good if the installer could check if the existing boot block contains something other than the basic Windows boot loader, and would issue extra warnings if this is the case.
The installer could also automatically make a copy of the existing boot block in the Linux installation since installing the boot loader is the last thing to be done during the installation process.

[Dmitry Mityugov (dmitry-mityugov)]

As a workaround, start the text mode installer in Expert mode. This can be done either by pressing F6 and selecting Expert mode in 9.04, or by pressing F6 twice in previous releases of Ubuntu, or by specifying priority=low in the kernel command line at the beginning of installation.

The F6 methods apparently are not applicable to Ubuntu DVDs

[aspa (marko-asplund)]

Concerning the comments in bug #388373:

I think some improvements suggested above could be implemented even in the presence of Grub/Linux drive mapping problems and without making the installer UI too complex:

1. when installing Grub, make the installer inspect the boot block that's going to be overwritten and issue a warning if it's not on a "safe to overwrite boot block types" list. In particular the installer should be able to tell apart standard Windows boot block from boot blocks containing e.g. Utimaco SafeGuard and Windows Bitlocker.

2. automatically make a backup of the existing boot block e.g. in the Linux installation filesystem.

[Dmitry Mityugov (dmitry-mityugov)]

To sum um what was said in that thread:

1) ask this extra question about bootloader only when more than one physical drive in the computer detected, and/or

(2) do it like with drive partitioning: offer automatic (default) and manual methods of installing the boot loader

[nUboon2Age (nuboon2age)]

uname -a:
2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:10:02 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

W/ Lucid Lynx I had the same problem. I was trying to install JUST to the external USB drive but apparently Grub was written to the internal drive. So now the previous working Grub(legacy) on the internal drive is overwritten by a Grub2 menu that won't boot if I don't have the external USB drive plugged in(!) I'm lucky I'm not a complete novice user (which is exactly what the user-friendly look and feel of Lucid Lynx and beyond will start pulling in), or I'd be completely petrified right now. Even as it is I'm a long way from knowing how to restore my system.

2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:10:02 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

I think if the user is not given a choice where they want Grub to go, then the default assumption should certainly be to the drive they are installing to, and no dependency should be created to any other drive. If you want to provide an "advanced options" to put Grub somewhere else, whether it should include other drives/partitions, etc. well that's fine, but at least for the default and for beginning Ubuntu users they should not be faced with a Grub recovery prompt after removing a USB drive they just installed to(!!!).

[nUboon2Age (nuboon2age)]

Architecture: i386
CurrentDmesg:
 [ 41.588441] ndiswrapper (iw_set_auth:1602): invalid cmd 12
 [ 42.059314] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
 [ 52.256033] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 2200
Package: jockey-common 0.5.8-0ubuntu8
PackageArchitecture: all
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=f529879a-da19-4ab3-9d0f-cdda072b3c4d ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 03/31/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A03
dmi.board.name: 0U6962
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA03:bd03/31/2005:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron2200:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0U6962:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 2200
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

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[YannUbuntu (yannubuntu)]

For information: https://launchpad.net/clean-ubiquity

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

If you choose manual partitioning you can select which drive to install grub to.