I am reopening this bug, and I am willing to submit any of the missing information to get this bug fixed.
What is the issue: Default install on a USB drive makes for the following boot process. BIOS will boot and pass control over to the "master disk" (hd0) or /dev/sda which will read the pointer in the first 512 bytes of the drive (MBR) which points it to /boot on /dev/sdb1 and load GRUB. How this should be: Default install on USB drive should install MBR on /dev/sdb or (hd1,0), install grub on /dev/sdb1 and then change the grub menu.lst to (hd0,0) as it will be the first drive loaded when booting from the USB disk. The issue with ubiquity when installing to a USB drive is that on the last configuration screens, when you get to the "Advanced" button, it allows you to select where you would like to install the boot loader (default is hd0) installed. The default is to install the bootloader on the first internal drive. You can set this to another disk (like your usb disk /dev/sdb) but this will only install GRUB onto the usb disk, completely ignoring the fact that you want the MBR to be written on that disk as well. Currently, to *easily* install onto a USB memory stick or a memory card (SD card or other) the computer must not have an internal disk drive during the installation. Problem: The user is not informed where the MBR and Bootloader are installed on the external USB drive. Resolution: When installing to an external USB disk, GRUB and MBR should be installed on that drive. Workaround: Install Ubuntu; Mount the newly installed drive; Reinstall GRUB & MBR specifying the root-path/device; Detailed workaround: 1) Install Ubuntu from a LiveCD to a USB drive (eg. /dev/sdb) and select "Advanced" to install the bootloader on the partition that has Ubuntu on it. 2) Once install is complete mount /dev/sdb 3) Mount the disk (in this case we will mount /dev/sdb1 to /media/disk) 4) Install the MBR onto the device (in this case /dev/sdb). This can be accomplished by issuing the following command: # grub-install --root-directory=/media/disk/ /dev/sdb 5)When booting from the USB drive, you will be booted into GRUB you may need to edit the root line to get it to boot well. This is due to the disk thinking it is the second disk loaded, but when the BIOS boots from the USB disk it is now seen as the first disk. Due to this you need to change (hd1,0) to (hd0,0) in /boot/grub/menu.lst on the USB drive. Please let me know what other information I can provide to escalate the importance of this bug. Brainstorm for this is here: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17828 ** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu) Status: Invalid => New ** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu) Status: New => Confirmed -- install to an usb disk does not work https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/111731 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
