Grub fails to install in a VirtualBox installation of Ubuntu MATE Groovy 20.10 July 06, 2020

[Jags Desai]

Grub fails to install in VirtualBox installation of Ubuntu MATE Groovy 20.10 July 06, 2020 64-bit.

Though I'm trying to install Ubuntu MATE Groovy in a VirtualBox installation, I just like to make it clear that, this is a desktop PC with old-style BIOS (No UEFI at all).

VirtualBox version is: VirtualBox-6.1.97-138534-Linux_amd64, and it runs Ubuntu MATE 20.04 Focal just fine (even with Kernel 5.7.7).

Issue: When I first tried to install it with just two partitions (like I always have up until now),

(1) First EXT4 partition of 23GB, and
(2) Second SWAP partition of 2GB;

installer displayed:

Error-1:
No EFI System Partition was found. This system will likely not be able to boot successfully, and the installation process may fail. Please go back and add an EFI System Partition, or continue at your own risk.

and upon clicking "Continue", displayed:

Error-2:
The partition table format in use on your disks normally requires you to create a separate partition for boot loader code. This partition should be marked as a "Reserved BIOS boot area" and should be at leat 1 MB in size. Note that thi is not the same as a partition mounted on /boot.

If you do not go back to the partitioning menu and correct this error, boot loader installation may fail later, although it may still be possible to install the boot loader to a partition.

So I went back and created:
(1) EFI partition 1GB
(2) Reserved BIOS boot area partition 1GB
(3) /boot EXT4 partition 1GB
(4) / EXT4 partition 22GB

Note: I did not create SWAP partition as I could not find a way to create "Extended Partition" using Ubuntu MATE 20.10 installer.

So even with "EFI", "biosgrub", and "/boot" partitions, grub fails to install on either SDA/SDA1/SDA2/SDA3/SDA4 with a message,

Bootloader install failed: Sorry, an error occurred and it was not possible to install the bootloader at the specified location.

Attaching:

(1) var/log/syslog

(2) Imgur album with screenshots (as I could not attach 16 files in here):

https://imgur.com/a/xKf8nNM

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
Package: ubiquity 20.10.7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-26.30-generic 5.4.30
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-26-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu42
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckMismatches: ./pool/restricted/n/nvidia-graphics-drivers-435/libnvidia-gl-435_435.21-0ubuntu7_i386.deb
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CasperVersion: 1.452
Date: Mon Jul 6 13:35:55 2020
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu-mate.seed maybe-ubiquity quiet splash ---
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu-MATE 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" - Alpha amd64 (20200706)
SourcePackage: grub-installer
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Jags Desai (jagsdesai)]

Attaching: (1) var/log/partman.txt

[Jags Desai (jagsdesai)]

Imgur album with 3 screenshots:

https://imgur.com/a/sjMi756

[Sai Vinoba (saivinob)]

BIOS grub is not mandatory from my testing. However, if using, it has to be the first partition and need only be 1M. It should not be formatted. In your example you made it second partition (/dev/sda2).

So, for your test case, try the following partitioning scheme,
1) /dev/sda1, BIOS grub, 1M, no mount point
2) /dev/sda2, EFI System partition, 512M, /boot/efi
3) /dev/sda3, ext4, <root size as you wish/available>, /
4) /dev/sda4, swap, <swap size of choice> # This is not required now as Ubuntu uses swapfile.

OR, skip BIOS grub and try,
1) /dev/sda1, EFI System partition, 512M, /boot/efi
2) /dev/sda2, ext4, <root size as you wish/available>, /
3) /dev/sda3, swap, <swap size of choice> # This is not required now as Ubuntu uses swapfile.