/ (so /boot) on btrfs : GRUB could not be installed on /dev/sda

[Samuel Bancal]

I set manual partitioning :
sda1: fat16 255MB
sda2: ntfs 786MB
sda3: ntfs 124.5GB
sda5: btrfs on / 25GB
sda6: btrfs on /home 98GB
sda7: swap 1.5GB

When completing the installation, I had a message telling that GRUB could not be installed to /dev/sda.
Nothing prevented me from doing such partitions.

I retried the same installation with the following manual partitioning :
sda1: fat16 255MB
sda2: ntfs 786MB
sda3: ntfs 124.5GB
sda5: ext3 on /boot 500MB
sda6: btrfs on / 24.5GB
sda7: btrfs on /home 98GB
sda8: swap 1.5GB

It succeeded.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: ubiquity 2.8.7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
CasperVersion: 1.287
Date: Thu Oct 13 16:27:40 2011
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Exception during installation:
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: Traceback (most recent call last):
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 1641, in <module>
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: install.run()
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 55, in wrapper
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: func(self)
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 251, in run
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: self.db.progress('SET', self.count)
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/debconf.py", line 60, in <lambda>
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: lambda *args, **kw: self.command(command, *args, **kw))
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/debconf.py", line 65, in command
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: self.write.flush()
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py: IOError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe
Oct 13 16:02:18 ubuntu plugininstall.py:

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Oct 13 16:24:34 ubuntu grub-installer: /usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: Your embedding area is unusually small. core.img won't fit in it..
Oct 13 16:24:34 ubuntu grub-installer: /usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
Oct 13 16:24:39 ubuntu grub-installer: /usr/sbin/grub-setup: error:
Oct 13 16:24:39 ubuntu grub-installer:
Oct 13 16:24:39 ubuntu grub-installer: cannot read `/@/boot/grub/core.img' correctly
Oct 13 16:24:39 ubuntu grub-installer: .
Oct 13 16:24:39 ubuntu grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install --no-floppy --force "/dev/sda"' failed.

[Gary M (garym)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 842247, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Gary M (garym)]

(Corrected dup to bug 879109. Sorry for extra emails.)