I know this is an old issue that's been marked as invalid, but please
hear me out.

I just ran into this yesterday, and it represents a pretty catastrophic
user experience -- perhaps the second worst thing I can think of going
wrong during the install process (the first being formatting the wrong
drive).

So here's my anecdote, but it's essentially the same as the others so
far. I have a primary drive that runs Windows 10. I plugged in an
external drive that I wanted to install Ubuntu on. I booted from a USB
flash drive that had the Ubuntu live image on it. I specified that I
wanted to install to the external drive. Final confirmation dialog
confirms that the external drive will be formatted and partitions
created. All seems to be going according to plan.

Then I reboot and try to select the external drive from the BIOS-based
boot select menu. Nothing -- just a blinking cursor. If I try to boot
off my Windows 10 drive, then I get a GRUB bootloader (!?!) that lists
Ubuntu and Windows. Not at all what I was expecting.

Even worse, if I try to boot without the external drive plugged in, GRUB
falls into a command-line-based recovery mode.

At no point did the installer ask what drive to install the bootloader to.
During the final "point of no return" confirmation dialog, it didn't mention 
sda anywhere, or where it'd be installing the bootloader to.

Now I need to spend an hour or two tonight figuring out how to a.
install GRUB onto the external drive, so I can actually boot it
directly, and b. replace GRUB with the original Windows bootloader on
the primary drive.

I'd really like *not* to be doing that with my Friday evening, and I'm
sure other users will (and have) run into this exact issue -- any time a
user wants to install to an external drive. This issue should remain
open and actually get a fix.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/565189

Title:
  Install boot loader chooses wrong drive

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/565189/+subscriptions

-- 
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs

Reply via email to