Grub Fatal Error on Install

[Adam]

On attempting to install Kubuntu 8.10 installation fails at Grub install with a fatal error. I was trying to get the installer to use existing partitions, previously used by Fedora. The format of the partitions was correctly selected and the partitions were marked to be reformatted. The only way to gain a success was to delete the partitions and recreate them again.

Once the partitions were recreated they were mounted by the installer as expected and installation completed as normal.

It would be handy if the installer didn't just quit at this point, but gave the option to try again.

Description: Ubuntu intrepid (development branch)
Release: 8.10

[Stefano Maioli (smaioli)]

Thank you for reporting this issue.

However, to be able to fix bug we need some additional details:
- The exact version of the install CD you are using (e.g. Alpha 4 Live CD).
- The error message reported.
- A list of the hard drives installed in your system and their type (e.g. sata, ide).
- The partition configuration used.
- If possible, the steps to reproduce the bug.

I guess this bug affects the Ubiquity installer, marking as such.

[Adam (adam-jackman)]

- The exact version of the install CD you are using (e.g. Alpha 4 Live CD).
intrepid-desktop-i386.iso Alpha 4 live CD

- The error message reported.
Executing 'grub-install (hd0)' failed.
This is a fatal error.

- A list of the hard drives installed in your system and their type (e.g. sata, ide).
Dell Latitude D600 laptop with a single 40GB internal IDE drive. Seagate ST94811A

- The partition configuration used.
25GB ntfs partition for windows XP
512mb swap partition
Ext3 for the rest for Linux

- If possible, the steps to reproduce the bug.
Install XP on first 25 GB approx
Then install another distro on the remaining space. I had Fedora with an LVM partition
Using the live CD either install from the initial boot menu or from the live cd desktop.
select the existing Linux partitions to be re-used, with teh smae formats and mark for reformat.

Partitioning will work and files get installed as normal, however Grub fails to install with the error message shown.

The only way round the issue is to delete the partitions and recreate them, with the same settings. This also brings up a window listing them as recently plugged in drives.

I can repeat this every time on my laptop.

It would be a good idea if the installer gave a little more detail as to the error and or the ability to try again, without going through the whole install process again.

Adam

[Stefano Maioli (smaioli)]

Now that I think about it I experienced a similar bug some time ago. In my case the problem was that after changing the filesystem the partition type was not updated accordingly. So what may be happening to you is that after you changed the partition from LVM to ext3 it was formatted correctly with ext3, but in the partition table it was still marked as LVM, causing grub to fail to mount. You could verify this by firing up fdisk during the installation and checking (with "p") that the partition type is still LVM.
In that case this would be a dupe of bug 128668, even though the description there is a little mixed up.
This is a long standing bug that should be fixed!

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Could you please attach /var/log/syslog and /var/log/partman to this bug (if you have a completed installation, they'll be in the /var/log/installer/ directory instead), following the directions in http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingUbiquity/AttachingLogs? Thanks in advance.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!