Startup image names unclear, PowerPC yaboot issue

[Paul Gorski]

Affects Ubuntu precise, Lubuntu precise.
PowerPC startup issue.

at boot:
choices are:
Linux old Ubuntu-Linux
choice names are wrong, swapped (Ubuntu-Linux boots into Lubuntu)

Following entire disk install of Lubuntu precise-desktop.powerpc.iso 20120308, entire disk, I installed Ubuntu precise-desktop.powerpc.iso 20120308, along side Lubuntu, resized partitions.

On restart, at the boot: prompt, I hit the TAB key, and my login options were:

Linux old Ubuntu-Linux

To make a long story short, "Linux" boots into Ubuntu and "Ubuntu-Linux" boots into Lubuntu.

Both Ubuntu and Lubuntu run after log in. There are some other bugs related to screen anomalies, but I'll report those separately.

I wouldn't rush to fix the naming, especially since the Ubuntu precise PPC resizing works.
But, and I've filed a separate bug report, Lubuntu precise resizing install doesn't work from the desktop iso. Haven't tried the alternate iso.

[Paul Gorski (pauliegras)]

For me its a Yaboot error, not Grub or Grub2, since it is occuring on a PowerPC.

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/950914

[ojordan (ojordan12345)]

These names I think come from the package yaboot-installer. If I'm reading the code correctly, then the Ubuntu-Linux option is composed of "Ubuntu" the disk label and "Linux" the old yaboot option. This seems reasonable.

All my partitions have been manually created at the moment, but does Ubiquity name the partition it is installing to "Ubuntu"? The fix for this bug would be then to name the disk partition "Lubuntu" in the original install. Is that partman or ubiquity or some other package that does this?

[ojordan (ojordan12345)]

I was wrong the partitions are not labelled "Ubuntu". It must pick up this from something else.

[ojordan (ojordan12345)]

Revisiting this, the "Ubuntu" comes from os-prober, or more precisely the file /etc/lsb-release. The DISRIB_ID field should be labelled "Lubuntu" and not "Ubuntu". Grub2 has the same problem as yaboot.

[ojordan (ojordan12345)]

Re-assigning to os-prober, although the solution will be probably elsewhere.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

You may not change DISTRIB_ID for Lubuntu; /etc/lsb-release is shared among all flavours in the Ubuntu archive.

I've only ever considered this kind of thing an arguable bug. I understand how it can be confusing in setups that multiboot between different Ubuntu flavours, and certainly the specific presentation here is not ideal. But it's all the same underlying operating system, and os-prober has no good way to distinguish between them. As just one example of many, what if both ubuntu-desktop and lubuntu-desktop are installed?