Grub is not a boot manager

[Duncan Lithgow]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

Currently Ubuntu uses GRUB as both a kernel manager and default boot manager installed to the MBR. This leads to problems when there is more than one OS installed, especially if the othere systems also need kernel managers. Some cases:

Mike - Ubuntu sharing a box with another Linux installation.

Mike has been trying Fedora on a spare machine and decides to make some space for Ubuntu to see what he thinks. He went with the default settings for Fedora so he assumes he can do the same when he installs Ubuntu. He installs Ubuntu accepting all default values, so now Ubuntu has control of the MBR.

Mike doesn't notice any problem, because Fedora has been seen by the Ubuntu installation and there is a boot option for Fedora. Shortly after that a critical security fix is released for Fedoras Kernel, Mike installs it with yum thinking all is good. A few days later his machine is compromised because although he had the newer kernel installed - GRUB refers to the newest kernel it saw when it was installed, only Ubuntu can update the menu.lst file to point to the latest kernel.

Let's say Ubuntu had used GAG as it's boot manager installed to MBR and GRUB as a kernel manager. GAG would point to GRUB in Ubuntu which would allow Fedora to start. As an extra functionality in GRUB, each time GRUB (installed by Ubuntu) pointed to an external kernel it could remind the user that the kernel has not been updated since dd-mm-yy and that a seperate GRUB should be reinstalled on the external system and GAG be updated.

(I will revise this text as the best solution becomes apparent)

[tokj (tokj-deactivatedaccount)]

I rejected your report because it isn't a *Bug* report but a feature request.

The best way to inform developers about what you would like to see in Ubuntu is start writing a spec.

In this wiki page are described the steps that you should follow:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeatureSpecifications.