Comment 119 for bug 1396379

This "bug" has plagued me for years.

Ubuntu installers (inc dist updaters) routinely overwrite EFI contents on SATA drives that have nothing to do with the Ubuntu target drive for which an update installer is running.

Previously, I reported a case where a fresh install of Ubuntu would overwrite the EFI of an NVMe drive unrelated to the target of the installation (SATA).

But this this this comment pertains to distribution upgrades writing the EFI of the first SATA port on the first controller, even if the Ubuntu installation in on another drive.

This is wrong in two ways

1) Grub is updated on the wrong drive

2) The drive upon which grub is installed might be removed by the user who has no reason to believe that there is a dependency,

3) Any existing bootloader on the unrelated drive, say OpenCore, is overwritten, MEANING DATA LOSS, i.e., "clobbered" by the Ubuntu installer.

If the user has installed Ubuntu on a specific drive, then runs an upgrade, it's obvious that the user's intent cannot be construed to include any other drive than the current install. If the user wishes to make arranges to use another drive for booting, that's the user's business. If Ubuntu wants to help with that, great! But Ubuntu should not be borking drives it has not received instructions to touch.

There is no sane argument that overwriting data on a drive unrelated to the specific installation being updated is not data loss. And because the data are in a location unrelated to the installation and overwritten, then by definition the situation is SEVERE, because the data are unrelated in any way shape or form to the intentions of the user, and the user is given no information as to the change. The user simply finds his configuration is wrecked to the point that he may not be able to operate his device.

The proper behavior is to not touch config on any other device than the target. If the user has not given explicit permission to overwrite configuration on a drive unrelated to the Ubuntu installation, that drive's configuration should not be modified.

If Ubuntu upgrade insists that changing config on another drive is required, the user should be prompted, and given the opportunity to make another arrangement, even if its as simple as cancelling the upgrade.

If Ubuntu detects multiple devices as suitable for grub and offers an option to chose, and maybe a hint, that's helpful. Liberally, the user's intention to modify grub on the EFI of the same drive as the upgrade target is implied, but if the updater applies some intelligence to help guide the user, so much so the better.