Good morning,
This bug has made me think and work more than I thought on these last days.
But : successfully.
I've found a significant workaround :
If I make exactly the same install on a machine without internal disk, the install succeeds. The resulting USB key boots without any problem.
Let's describe that a bit more :
- In my first trial (unsuccessful), I was using a normal laptop (Lenovo T400 without UEFI) with an internal hard disk. This internal disk was totally unuseful for the operation, so I could have removed it, but this seemed not necessary, so I left it.
- So, the install occurs with 2 USB keys, the first with the installer (known as /dev/sdb), the 2nd with the target system to be installed (known as /dev/sdc), the internal disk keeping the name of "/dev/sda".
- At the end of the "buggy" process, the installer software says "I've found 2 OS's on your machine, do you want me to install the boot loader as a third one ?". I answer no. Then I'm asked to choose the media on which the boot loader will be placed. I choose "/dev/sdc" in the list, and the install process finishes just after. And it doesn't work ... ==> bug.
- In the new and successful trial that I've made, I've used a T400 without internal hard disk.
- So the installer key appears as /dev/sda. And the 2nd USB key appears as /dev/sdb.
- And at the end of the install process, I'm just warned that the boot loader will be installed on the /dev/sdb volume, which is exactly what I want, without the need to say "no" and propose something else.
And ... it works ..!
If I wanted to increase the level of analysis of this bug, I could try to redo that with a virtual machine attached to the two real USB keys, with, and later without an "internal" virtual hard disk which would play the role of the ghost "/dev/sda" ...
But as of now, things are clearer.
If no "installer software" change is made after this bug, a small warning text should be added in the beginning of installation process to warn the user to avoid any internal disk in case of USB to USB installation.
Is all that understandable ? Can you (if that time I speak to a human beeing, not a robot ... ;-) give me back your feeling on this analysis ? Do you feel that a trial on a VirtualBox VM would be useful ?
Thank you very much,
M. Michel Lanne
France
Mobile : +33 6 22 83 31 75
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