NEW PROJECT : Ubuntu_uninstaller and Boot_repair

[YannBuntu]

Ubuntu Secure Remix is a slightly improved Ubuntu Live-CD designed especially to install Ubuntu in dual-boot with Windows (or MacOS).



Downloads:
Ubuntu Secure can be downloaded here : https://sourceforge.net/p/ubuntu-secured/

Functionalities:
- same functionalities as the normal Ubuntu CD, but also :
- automatically backup of the MBRs when installing Ubuntu (CleanUbiquity), which is highly recommended for dual-boot Ubuntu-Windows (or MacOS)
- integrates OS-Uninstaller (tool to uninstall any Operating System from your PC)
- integrates Boot-Repair: tool to repair the PC boot (GRUB/MBR)

Enjoy

Ubuntu Secure does not aim at becoming a new distribution, but just to let people install Ubuntu without losing their MBR, until this functionality is included officially in next releases of Ubuntu

You can contribute by :
- voting on Launchpad for these bugs: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th
- translating (now >30 languages)
- suggesting improvements

Official website of Ubuntu-Secure-Remix

[YannBuntu]

Current version : v0.87 (click here, then on the "Télécharger ce fichier" link)
Remark : to facilitate the tests, I commented the lines that delete Ubuntu, and that restore the original bootsector. Of course you can uncomment them to test the whole thing

Please give me your feedback.

[v1ad]

downside of it, is they still lose that disk space after they remove Ubuntu, u can format it to ntfs but it won't merge with the original one. but overall it seems like a good idea.

[YannBuntu]

You are right, but I don't think it would be a good idea to expand Windows partition with this Ubuntu uninstaller (except if someone knows a reliable method that does not break Windows). I prefer the user do it with Windows tools.

[wilee-nilee]

So how is this program going to reload the mbr and what is it going to put there when it does.

This is actually quite easy to do any way, every windows install only needs one command in a recovery console to reload the MS bootloader. I like the idea though, it would make many peoples lives easier I suspect if it could be a actual part of the Ubuntu or any Linux setup really.

None of those links are really bugs but people just not knowing what their doing to be honest, the dialogue shows this.

[P4man]

So how is this program going to reload the mbr and what is it going to put there when it does.

Curious about that too. If you are going to remove grub and replace it with the windows bootloader (assuming the app checks for other linux installs and only does this if it finds windows and no linux), you might even run in to legal trouble. Silly as it may sound, I dont think you can freely distribute the windows MBR.

[wilee-nilee]

Curious about that too. If you are going to remove grub and replace it with the windows bootloader (assuming the app checks for other linux installs and only does this if it finds windows and no linux), you might even run in to legal trouble. Silly as it may sound, I dont think you can freely distribute the windows MBR.

Sure would make my life boring, I like helping in this area, oh well sooner or later I will be put out to pasture when I become even more incoherent.

[YannBuntu]

Sure would make my life boring, I like helping in this area (snip)

I hope this app will give you time to help in other areas

Indeed, the app does not use any fixmbr command nor any "generic" MBR, so AFAIK there is no legal issue. It creates an exact copy of your MBR in a file called save-63-sectors.img , that you will find in /boot folder of all your Linux, and in the / folder of all other OSs. And it restores this MBR if needed.

Also, a fixmbr command or a "generic" MBR would not work in case of Windows MBR/BIOS lock (anti-copy system that prevents Windows or your PC to start if your MBR is not the original one ).

You are right, if the app detects another Linux, it does not restore the MBR but just reinstalls GRUB so that your GRUB is updated.

[wilee-nilee]

Are you going to have it able to copy a upgrade mbr say from whatever to whatever MS OS? Lets say I have XP and Maverick dual booted, I buy Windows 7, I delete XP and do a partition pre-format and as we know the mbr gets the windows bootloader. So how will you dd the mbr then?

Not trying to put road blocks up, I suspect you have this figured out just curious how.

[YannBuntu]

Good remark

For the moment, I just put a warning for the user : "if Windows was installed after Ubuntu, please don't use this uninstallation tool".

To improve this, I need a way to check if the other OSs (Windows, MacOS, etc.) are older or not than the MBR backup. If someone has a tip, please tell me