ubiquity crashed with InstallStepError in configure_bootloader() [failed to install grub on USB drive]

[Martin Pitt]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

jaunty i386 desktop from 2009-03-10. I did an installation on my USB stick (single 10 GB partition /dev/sdb), and in the extra options I chose to install grub to /dev/sdb (default was "(hd0)"; that's quite an inconsistent list, but there's a separate bug report about that).

The actual installation went alright, but in the end it failed to install grub to /dev/sdb.

I'm also not able to manually do that:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/sdb
Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub-install '(hd1)'
Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /target/
root@ubuntu:/# grub-install /dev/sdb
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
grub-probe: error: Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdb1. Check your device.map.

[: 494: =: unexpected operator
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

root@ubuntu:/# grub-install /dev/sdb1
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
grub-probe: error: Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdb1. Check your device.map.

[: 494: =: unexpected operator
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

ProblemType: Crash
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.6
Package: ubiquity 1.11.15
ProcAttrCurrent: unconfined
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity gtk_ui
ProcEnviron: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/proc/5388/environ'
PythonArgs: ['/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity', 'gtk_ui']
SourcePackage: ubiquity
Title: ubiquity crashed with InstallStepError in configure_bootloader()
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-8-generic i686
UserGroups:

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

unduplicating from 260001 for now; it has the same stack trace, but it fails for a different reason.

[PirBoazo (pierre-boizot-name)]

I try to install on SD card !!!

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

I did a similar installation again, but this time I already had the USB stick connected during boot, so that the BIOS saw it. Installation went without a hitch, and I can boot from the USB stick. (Awesome, I now have a full workstation installation on my key ring! :-) )

So if this is a BIOS limitation, please feel free to mark as invalid. It would of course be nice if this situation would be detected earlier, and thus ubiquity wouldn't allow me to install on this USB stick in the first place.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Closing since 9.04 is no longer supported.