Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: live-installer
Using the daily build of 4/8 (AMD64 desktop) and trying to install to a
disk that was NOT /dev/sda, I discovered that the manual partitioner
kept RESETTING the device on which to install the bootloader to /dev/sda
every single time I added or changed a partition! This means that, if I
change the pulldown at the bottom of that screen to, say, /dev/sdb,
start partitioning it, and then fail to check it before saying
"Install", it would have smashed /dev/sda's MBR.
This was repeatable on several different trial installs, and I believe
was also true of the 3/30 build and the beta release candidate. It also
insisted on showing me the horizontal bargraph of paritioning for
/dev/sda at the top, no matter whether I was repartioning /dev/sdb or
any other device.
Obviously this is incredibly dangerous behavior---if I change a pulldown
to reset where the MBR goes, the installer should respect that and not
force me to make it the last thing I do before I hit "Install". Someone
less observant could have very easily rendered their machine unbootable
if they hadn't noticed this change out from under them---or smashed a
LUKS header (destroying an entire disk) or an LVM header (ditto) if the
disk wasn't partitioned, unless both of those utilities include a buffer
zone before their live data in the unpartitioned case. In any event, a
dual-disk, dual-boot machine with Windows on /dev/sda might have had its
MBR smashed, and certainly Ubuntu wouldn't have booted, either, since
the disk that was partitioned and installed to wasn't the disk which
would have had its MBR overwritten.
** Affects: live-installer (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/756920
Title:
Natty manual-partitioner is dangerously forgetful
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