Ubuntu

Bootloader should be installed to the partition instead of the mbr

Bug #85816 reported by Kyromaster
2
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ubuntu
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Currently (at least on edgy) the bootloader (GRUB) is installed into the MBR of the drive.
IMHO this has several disadvantages. If installing another OS (like Windows or another Linux distro) the MBR often gets overwritten, and it's rather hard to restore GRUB.
The best way IMHO would be to install GRUB into the boot sector of the root partition, and setting this partition as active. This has the advantage that the standard MBR can be used (which just boots the active partition) and also it's easier to remove ubuntu (you just remove the partition and set another one as active) and it's more compatible with other operating systems.

Revision history for this message
Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde) wrote :

AFAIK, Ubuntu installer gives you the option to install GRUB on the partition on which you have installed Ubuntu. If that is the case then this doesn't qualify as bug.

Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :

Thanks for your suggestion. The changes you are requesting require more discussion, which should be done on an appropriate mailing list or forum. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/forums/ might be a good start.

Revision history for this message
Kyromaster (kyromaster) wrote :

So what's the bugtracker then for? I'd like to post this directly to the devs, not to discuss this with thousands of users where everyone has its own opinion. Sure, if the devs don't like the suggestion it's no problem for me,but posting into the mailing list doesn't have any effect.

To summarize I can give you two arguments against installing into the MBR:

1. Operating systems shouldn't touch the MBR, which usually just boots the active partition. The OSes should have their initialisation in their bootsectors. This is how all other OSes (including Windows) do it. This has the advantage that installing a new operating system doesn't destroy the initialisation code of the others. Windows for example just writes the standard MBR on installing. If you have an ubuntu installation with GRUB in the MBR you have to reinstall GRUB, if GRUB is in the bootsector all you have to do is setting the linux partition as "active".

2. It's difficult (at least for non-experienced users) to restore the standard MBR, for example when deleting linux. With GRUB in the bootsector the partition can be removed and all traces of the bootmanager are also gone.

Apart from that it's completely the same for the users, so I can't understand why ubuntu installs into the MBR by default.

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