Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: grub2
The grub-pc package calls grub-install on upgrades. The drive to install
to is stored in debconf as a string like "/dev/sdb". The problem is that
/dev/sdb won't always be the same device if drives are moved around or,
where the situation is particularly bad, when Ubuntu is installed to an
external drive and used on multiple computers as a "live" system. For
this reason everywhere else in Ubuntu I can think of file systems are
specified with UUIDs rather than device names. For specifying drives,
/dev/disk/by-id/ seems to give a unique way to identify a disk. grub-pc
should store something like "/dev/disk/by-id/usb-OEI-
USB2_Ultra_Disk_Drive_090706000466-0:0" instead of "/dev/sdb" so there
is no chance of installing to the wrong disk on grub-pc upgrades.
As an example: If you install Ubuntu to an external USB drive on
computer that has only one internal drive then grub-pc/install_devices
will likely contain "/dev/sdb". If you then boot from that external on
another computer that has an OS installed on its second internal drive,
an upgrade of the grub-pc package would install to /dev/sdb making that
computer unbootable.
Work Around: If you install Ubuntu to an external drive and plan to use
it on multiple computers run "sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc" and uncheck
all drives when prompted for "GRUB install devices". You will need to
manually run grub-install to the correct drive before any major
upgrades.
** Affects: grub2 (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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upgrades of the grub-pc package can overwrite wrong MBR
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/496435
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