'Precise' installation via CD failed to create GRUB menu.

[Michael Hislop]

The problem is related to trying to upgrade from Oneric to Precise using a CD.

On my first attempt I selected the upgrade install process (12.04). This got to the 'choose region' dialogue and then hung. I left the system all night with no progress and non-responsive forcing a restart. This aborted process broke Oneric; the GRUB menu still worked but Linux would not start.

    I tried to reinstall again. This time the upgrade option was no longer available, only (i) replace existing Linux or (ii) replace Linux and Windows. This was sad as it meant I would loose all my customised software installations. I went ahead (out of desperation) and once again the install got to the 'region' screen and then the system became non-responsive forcing a restart, excepting this time nothing started. To recover the Windows MBR I used the XP installation disk to 'fixmbr'.

    After a few days (licking my wounds) I got hold of a copy of 12.04.01 on CD in case my installation problems were related to a bug in the 12.04 release. Once again the install process got to the 'choose region' dialogue and then hung. I forced a restart and this time I plugged in a blank 2 GB USB stick before once again attempting the install process. This time the installation completed?!? However, on restarting Windows was no longer accessible. On booting the screen was blank with a floating 'bubble' message which states something like "The input device could not be located." Then after a few seconds Ubuntu started up. The GRUB menu was not displayed. I need my Windows installation for work, so I had to restore the ability to boot Windows. This time the machine wouldn't even boot from the Windows recovery CD so I was forced to look for a Linux solution. If I remember correctly (it was late) I ran 'sudo apt-get install lilo' and 'sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr' from the live CD to restore the Windows MBR.

    So now I have a system which boots directly into Windows. Precise is installed but GRUB is not working so I cannot access it. A frustrating situation.

[Michael Hislop (mike-hislop-q)]

2012-10-03

Hi Yann,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you. I have reported the bug. The url is:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1061269

Per your mail dated 2012/9/18, I have had a look at using GParted to resize the sda5 (123GB) partition. Trouble is GParted detects no file systems on /dev/sda? Partition is indicated as 'unallocated' and File System is indicated as 'unallocated'. Size 232.89 GiB. You will recall that I noted that Partition Magic from within windows reported the same situation and your sense was that this was a Partition Magic bug. It is concerning that both applications are unable to detect partitions and file systems. Within Windows the OS still detects the drives and space utilisation as before and appears to be working normally.

Any insight into how to proceed would be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Michael

[Simon Quigley (tsimonq2)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version. If you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running only once:
apport-collect https://api.launchpad.net/1.0/bugs/1061269

and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ubiquity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]