alternate installer karmic: no choice wher to install grub (Debian installer crippled?)

[ingo]

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic-amd64)

installing from alternate CD at no step allows to select where GRUB should be installed - always goes into MBR!
I installed on a partitioned disk (generic MBR and /dev/sda1 with boot flag set) Karmic to /dev/sda1.

I wanted to install GRUB (whichever version) into partition-boot-record - no option to select location for GRUB was offered, without asking it installed into MBR.

I know the installer is maintained by Debian, but Debian version offers the choice to install GRUB to:

a) MBR
b) PBR (partition boot record)
c) external device like floppy.

In Karmic these items are just not available!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. I have classified this bug as a bug in debian-installer.

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport, either via the appropriate application's "Help -> Report a Problem" menu or using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[ingo (ingo-steiner)]

> I have classified this bug as a bug in debian-installer.

that in fact I did not dare to do, because this is not a thing which addresses the Debian team, but rather it is a Ubuntu bug - recall: the "original" Debian-installer does not show this beheaviour!

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Use expert mode and you'll get this option.

FWIW, GRUB upstream strongly deprecates this mode, on the grounds that there is usually no way to make it reliable across filesystem changes; you may well find that you have to run grub-install after significant filesystem changes (e.g. defragmentation, resizing, etc.) in order to keep your boot loader working. Consider whether you still want to rely on it ...

[ingo (ingo-steiner)]

> Use expert mode and you'll get this option.

you are right, thanks for the hint. But this information one has to know before starting installation of Karmic from alternate-CD.

It has been different all the time and you were able to select location of GRUB also when invoking "normal installation" from the alternate-CD's. Imagine what would have happened if I had performed that installation on my working machine with an existing multi-boot installation.

In my opinion this is still a bug, because it violates the 'Linux philosophy' to NEVER overwrite existing data without confirmation and the ability to abort!

So, before automatically writing GRUB into the MBR there should be a big red warning screen and the ability to abort - or better to ask for an alternative location.

[hvoss (hvoss)]

This error still occurs in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) Beta 1.