grub2 overwrites MBR with WUBI install

Bug #460192 reported by Craig
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
lupin (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Critical
Colin Watson
Karmic
Fix Released
Critical
Colin Watson

Bug Description

Binary package hint: grub2

(sorry if I don't do this right, this is the first bug I have ever reported.)

After an install of Karmic Koala using Wubi and updating completely when you restart the machine it fails to give the boot options out of boot.ini. Instead it immediately starts the Grub menu and when you select Windows XP it fails to start by giving the error...

error: unkown command 'drivemap'

The ubuntu selections keep working. The only way to fix this is to redo the MBR with Microsofts. I have used the package ms-sys and 'sudo ms-sys -w /dev/sda' which on reboot gives me the option to boot Windows or Ubuntu.

Also, even when doing this when you select Ubuntu it quickly flashes an error, although I can read it, grub menu still shows up.

I have been able to replicate this problem twice today. Oct 24, 2009

grub2: Candidate 1.97~beta4-1ubuntu3

Thanks,

Craig

Related branches

Revision history for this message
Evan (ev) wrote :

Please attach the files in /var/log/installer.

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Critical
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Agostino Russo (ago) wrote :

Thanks for reporting this

Please attach the files in /var/log/installer
Try to do a clean installation with the latest daily ISO (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/), at reboot press ESC, and select 'verbose mode', this will generate more detailed logs. If the problem happens again, attach the /var/log/installer files again.

Revision history for this message
Craig (craig-carbm1) wrote :

I didn't know how to add multiple attachments. I hope a tar is ok.

It will take me awhile to download the ISO and test. But I was using the RC from 3 days ago.

Thanks,

Craig

Revision history for this message
Craig (craig-carbm1) wrote :

to clarify it only overwrites the MBR after you update the Ubuntu Wubi install.

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

Reboot and MBR is overwritten.

Revision history for this message
Evan (ev) wrote :

Craig, can you please attach the output of `debconf-get-selections` on the installed Wubi system to this bug report?

Thanks

Revision history for this message
Evan (ev) wrote :

Sorry, you'll need to install debconf-utils first. It would be equally sufficient to attach /var/cache/debconf/config.dat

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote : Re: [Bug 460192] Re: grub2 overwrites MBR with WUBI install

FWIW I think I know where this bug lies, and intend to address it
tomorrow.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Hmm, my last message was a trifle terse ...

The problem here is that we never found time to integrate the
grub-install implementation Agostino wrote, that would update the
wubildr image rather than the MBR. We'll need to do this to fix this
bug. I'm not yet sure whether it should be done directly in the grub2
packaging, or by diverting grub-install in lupin-support. The latter
would have zero chance of breaking non-Wubi installations, so is
nominally safer, but it would mean keeping track of grub-install's
interface and maybe chaining through to it when called in a way that the
Wubi version can't handle, so I want to think about this a bit.

Revision history for this message
Craig (craig-carbm1) wrote :

Ok, so do I need to post anything else or do you have a handle on it?

I would think this would be serious enough to need to be fixed before the 29th release. I do a lot of Wubi installs to push acceptance of Ubuntu while not having to repartition hard drives with recovery partitions.

Thanks,

Craig

Colin Watson (cjwatson)
affects: grub2 (Ubuntu) → lupin (Ubuntu)
Changed in lupin (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson)
status: Incomplete → In Progress
Changed in lupin (Ubuntu Karmic):
milestone: none → ubuntu-9.10
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Craig: nope, got it now. Thanks!

Changed in lupin (Ubuntu Karmic):
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package lupin - 0.26

---------------
lupin (0.26) karmic; urgency=low

  * Divert grub-install and replace it with a wrapper that upgrades wubildr
    if running in a loop-mounted installation (LP: #460192).

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:46:07 +0000

Changed in lupin (Ubuntu Karmic):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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