GRUB doesn't install correctly

[Richard Friday]

I've had nothing but problems with GRUB when installing Ubuntu or Mint. I've tried installing onto a USB Flash drive and a USB hard drive. But whenever I try to boot afterwards GRUB always hangs, either at stage 1.5 or 2. There's never an error message, just a hang. Googling for help shows many people with similar problems, but I've not been able to understand how to fix it. It seems to be a source of constant trouble for everyone.

As background, I've been a Windows user and developer for many years. I was also a Tru64 and VMS developer. But now I'm retired.

If I were going to try and fix this problem, one of the things I'd try is verifying, during installation of Ubuntu, that GRUB has been installed correctly. That is,
after trying to install GRUB, verify that the install actually worked. Another thing I'd do is document the boot process, specifically how device names get assigned, as an aid to help people fix GRUB problems.

Perhaps it would be possible to implement a separate live CD that contains nothing but GRUB diagnostics and help. Ideally such a
CD would be able to simulate the actual boot process with the user's flash drive and diagnose any problems.

Thanks for undertaking the task of fixing bugs. I've been delighted to see Linux progress.

[David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount)]

This is not a trivial usability fix, and therefore not a paper cut.

[David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount)]

Richard, here is GRUB's bug tracker: http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=grub

You may have luck finding your specific issue there. hundredpapercuts is not the project for this bug.