Can't choose where to install grub in ubiquity

[David Stansby]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

When using the new ubiquity installer, I can't choose where to install grub. In my particular case I need to install it to the beginning of a partition, but I can't seem to see any way of choosing a drive to install grub to either.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: ubiquity 2.3.4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-14.20-generic 2.6.35
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-14-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Aug 8 15:42:46 2010
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha i386 (20100808)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity

[sojourner (itsmealso2)]

adding a rather rambling comment about some other problems with the new installer.

please off me non-free .......... should be offer not off
asks to select wireless network but none shown even though I have 2 and was actually connected to one at the time ( installing from live cd desktop ).
downloaded and installed updates during installation even though that option was NOT selected and then hung at "retrieving file 18 of 18 ", skip option was greyed out.
aborted installation but it had already installed everything but the grub files
rebooted live cd and tried again without any network connected so it couldn't try to d/l anything , strange, I was installing to sdd the first time now the same drive is called sdb ( I can tell from the size and arrangement of the partitions ) also it wiped out the labels for the partitions . well this time it still tried to d/l updates even though it was not connected to any network , skip still greyed out .waited 30 min for it to timeout trying to d/l unasked for updates with no network connection , aborted second install attempt .

[Tim Tierney (timtierney)]

Definitely going to subscribe to this. I was disappointed to find that I couldn't omit the installation of grub. I like to run multiple Linux distros and I don't want grub to get overwritten.

[Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey)]

I have a macbook pro and need to install grub on /dev/sda3 rather than /dev/sda because I don't want grub to stomp all over the EFI setup on this device.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I believe you'll find this was fixed in ubiquity 2.3.10, however that option will only be available while using the advanced/manual partitioner:

ubiquity (2.3.10) maverick; urgency=low

[ Evan Dandrea ]
* Handle crashes in parallel debconffilters by failing the
installation.
* Add a grub target device combobox on the GTK and KDE advanced
partitioning pages.
* Bootloader handling is now done in ubi-partman. Do not overwrite it
with the default selection in plugininstall.
* Get rid of the quitting state variable and use the existing
current_page construct (LP: #627284).

[ Mario Limonciello ]
* Add a new script that uses python-aptdaemon-gtk for oem-config removal.
* If running with only installable languages, don't offer "No Localization"
* If only one language is available, mark the language page as complete.
-- Evan Dandrea <email address hidden> Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:19:00 +0100

[Tim Tierney (timtierney)]

Thanks Erick that's what we were looking for. One question though. What if you don't want to install the boot loader. For example if your running multiple Linux distros and you don't what the current boot loader to be over written?

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

@ Tim Tierney,

That was such a good question I had to boot the live CD and find out, I updated to ubiquity 2.2.15 which is the newest and I could see no option to install with no bootloader, but I notice something that has me scratching my head.

When I expand the options it lists both drives as expected: /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, and partitions /dev/sda1 thru /dev/sda14 and /dev/sdb1. All of that looks familiar and correct.

But it also shows one additional entry for each drive: /dev/sda-1 and /dev/sdb-1. Those are not typos. I don't know what those options do :^/

I'm sure Colin Watson could tell us but I hate to pester him. Maybe I'll toss this out at the forums and see if someone has found something in recent documentation that I've overlooked.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I threw a post up at the forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9799501&postcount=63

If no one has a definitive answer in a couple of days I'll stick my neck out and subscribe Colin Watson to this bug. I just know he's very, very busy and I don't like to be pushy.

I certainly think a person should be able to choose not to install grub at all but I also want to know what those new designations with "-" mean.

Maybe that is a "minus" which would amount to "NO don't install to that drive". I'm just not sure :^)

[Tom Pino (metalsmith-rangeweb)]

This is a great concern to me as I use a custom menu and a set partition table. I can boot to any partition that I install to as there is a menu entry for that partition already in place.

If I have to boot to the new install I get the generated menu. Seeing how os-prober generates an entry for every custom entry on every partition the menu is a little large, over 100 entries. 11 of them work.

It is a lot easier to not install grub, boot to the new install and set up grub there.

As it is I need to set up grub through nautilus as root and then chroot in to update-grub or, alternately, chroot to another OS and run grub-install.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Consider this just thinking out loud :^)

I'm wondering if I should file a new bug report more appropriately named like, "Can't choose to not install grub in Maverick"?

Probably still against ubiquity, but then I could also ask again about the designations with "-" in them?

I'm thinking that for those who wish not to install grub it should be safe to install to "/" (or "/boot" if one exists), but I'm not absolutely sure.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I apologize in advance for subscribing Colin Watson but I think this will save everyone, including Colin, time dealing with the new ubiquity.

I think this bug should largely be marked "fix released" with two small caveats.

1) There is still no option to NOT install grub. I personally think that's OK because it should be OK to install grub to whatever partition contains "/boot". That is, if you have no separate /boot it could be installed to "/", or if you do have a separate "/boot" it could be installed to either "/" or "/boot". While this is "different" behavior for Ubuntu it's certainly not uncommon in Linux in general :^)

2) I've found that even in Lucid's ubiquity that "grub-install" options during install include options with a "-" in the device designation. EG: /dev/sda-1 or /dev/sdb-1, I've never seen anything with a "-" followed by anything buit "1". There have been many questions about that so it should be addressed.

Otherwise this should be considered "Fix Released".

Apologies to Colin again. I'd even tried #grub on IRC before deciding to subscribe you.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Oops, "I've never seen anything with a "-" followed by anything buit "1". Should obviously read "I've never seen anything with a "-" followed by anything but". I'm not sure what a "buit" might be ;^)

Maybe something uttered by a politician.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

ubiquity (2.3.18) maverick; urgency=low

  [ Evan Dandrea ]
  * Improve the text on the prepare page, based on input from Matthew
    Paul Thomas, Amanda Brock, and Andrew Sinclair
    (LP: #635269, LP: #635260).
  * Translate latitude and longitude from the Geonames service to its
    respective Olsen timezone database entry.
  * Add back the hostname entry (LP: #628087).
  * Use a block device icon for cases where we cannot detect the
    operating system on a partition.
  * Set the amount of used space on a partition that we presume contains
    no operating system (LP: #626299).
  * Make requiring a password to log in the default again, matching the
    behavior in the previous version of Ubuntu.
  * Use the correct string for the resize partition option.
  * Set the size of the disk on the automatic partitioning page
    (LP: #626299).
  * Use dmidecode to get a more unique suffix for the hostname
    (LP: #628087).
  * Also generate a sample hostname when generating a sample username
    (LP: #634279).
  * Only set the next button to 'Install Now' when not on the first
    partitioning page (LP: #636392).
  * Fix transposed latitude and longitude in geonames lookup.
  * Provide a version parameter to the geoname lookup.
  * Show the number of partitions that will be deleted when in 'use
    entire disk' mode.
  * Remove Pango markup from the debconf templates where possible.
  * Properly set the partition widget description label.
  * Use a GtkMenuBar rather than a GtkMenu as the source of the dark
    styling to match recent changes to the default theme.
  * Properly start a ConsoleKit session (LP: #631538).
  * Fix the spacing on the automatic partitioning page.
    gui/gtk/stepPartAuto.ui
  * Correct layout based on suggestions from Matthew Paul Thomas.
  * Correct layout on keyboard guesser.
  * Run the Jockey backend with an in-memory debconf database, and run
    the frontend asynchronously (LP: #627822).
  * Don't show the GTK frontend until it's done constructing the UI.
  * Show a spinning cursor on the X root window in addition to the
    ubiquity window, so it's clear that the installer is loading the
    next page even when the cursor is off the main window.
  * Make return_to_partitioning work with parallel debconf instances
    (LP: #637706).
  * Added a Windows icon for the resize widget. Thanks Otto Greenslade!
  * Disable the alpha warning, albeit late.
  * Add a command line option to not install a bootloader
    (-b, --no-bootloader) (LP: #615033).
  * Do not show 'free space' partitions in the bootloader target
    combobox (LP: #615033).
  * Meet the Geonames.org CC license requirements by adding 'Geonames.org'
    to the map.
  * Install the restricted package independent of the apt-installed
    packages, since those are installed with just the live CD's
    sources.list (LP: #638073).
  * Disable the wireless plugin for now. It's not ready for release.
  * Make use of the new connectivity check page.
  * Automatic update of included source packages: apt-setup
    1:0.45ubuntu2, hw-detect 1.73ubuntu5.

  [ Mario Limonciello ]
  * Restore the functionality of the noninteractive frontend.
  * Disable GVFS fuse dae...