How do I prevent one of my partitions messing with Lubuntu Grub entries?

Question

I recently deleted my Windows XP partition in my dual boot machine (Lubuntu/Windows XP), replacing it with Bhodi Linux. Everything went smoothly, but now I have a problem: Bodhi Linux is messing with my Lubuntu Grub entries, and every time I update something of significance there, Grub ends looking like this:

Is there a way to prevent this? I know how to edit Grub entries, but it seems like quite an annoyance have to do this with every update.

(Yesterday I updated Lubuntu from 13.10 to 14.04 and that seemed to fix the issue. But later on I updated Bodhi Linux and there it was again)

Answer 1

Do not know Bodhi, but with Ubuntu.

To see what drive grub2 uses see this line - grub-pc/install_devices:

sudo debconf-show grub-pc
sudo grub-probe -t device /boot/grub

to get grub2 to remember where to reinstall on updates:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

Enter thru first pages,spacebar to choose/unchoose drive, enter to accept, do not choose partitions If Bodhi works the same, do it first and unchoose everything. Then it will not reinstall. Boot into Lubuntu and run it to make Lubuntu install to sda and be the system to boot by default.

Answer 2

Where the default drive is isn't the problem. The extra entries is. I would like to know the answer to that, too. I have several hot plug sata drives that are most of the time removed, but, sometimes when I am working on line, I find the next time I boot, that all these drives are included in the grub. It is extremely annoying. The easiest solution is to store the grub you want in a place where the parties involved don't have access to it, be it mechanized, or otherwise. Then all you have to do is change ownership & slap it back in.

Answer 3

You have this issue because Bodhi Linux and Ubuntu are using the same bootloader (grub) and each have there own mechanisms for keeping grub up to date. This isn't really broken , it's by design however I understand the annoyance. I've answered a similar question here for Ubuntu kernel selection that you can apply to your situation. Since the same package is available for Bodhi I can't think of any reason you couldn't run it under both Ubuntu and Bodhi and insure that the grub boot configurations on both systems offer the same choices in grub in the same order.