[karmic] grub re-writes boot sector on wrong drive on fresh install

Asked by databubble

I attempted to install mythbuntu karmic/9.10 alpha 4 to a USB drive. Using a laptop with an IDE drive containing Windows XP, I booted from the ISO image CD-ROM and went through the installation, selecting manual partitioning, and creating a single EXT4 root filesystem on a USB drive. The installation proceeded through the complete install to the USB key until instructed to reboot.

I re-booted the laptop with the USB key inserted, and was presented with the message "No bootable partition in table". Then, removing the USB key and booting from the laptop IDE drive (which should not have been touched by the mythbuntu install) I get the message "GRUB loading. Welcome to GRUB! Entering rescue mode... error: no such disk" followed by the "grub rescue>" prompt.

I examined the laptop hard drive with a partition editor, and the Windows partition is still intact.... but it looks like the boot sector has been re-written mistakenly.

Now I have two problems.....
1) how do I get Windows on my laptop to boot again.... I need my work data!
2) how do I make my mythbuntu USB front-end install bootable?

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Paolo (paolo-notari) said :
#1

Linux is on USB drive, and hard drive is on windows, a pc on which I do not have right to write MBR (company policy) or install anything;

I have grub2 writing on a hard drive MBR automatically sometimes during upgrades of the Kernel;

I would like to exclude any kind of writing permits to grub2 on the hard drive MBR; is it possible?

xubuntu 18.04

best regards

Paolo

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jwichman@gmail.com (jwichman) said :
#2

I don't know the answer, but I'd recommend putting boot repair https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair#Advanced_options on a USB stick to help fix your Windows MBR & boot.

Also kernel updates require renaming/moving of the old kernel via a hard-link which, requires that the kernel be on a file system which supports hard-linking. So that leaves out fat file systems and could be why it's picking on the hard drive - just a SWAQ there.
Maybe pick a LT release and not do kernel updates? I'd say unplug the hard drive when doing them, but I hear that not everyone has the side cover of their PC always off anyway, like I do...

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said :
#3

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.