Grub bootloader failed to install.

[Daan W.]

Also tried to manually install it while still in live system, but got:

$ sudo grub-install --no-floppy /dev/sda
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot/grub (is /dev mounted?).

while ls /dev/ lists all devices (including sda).

Sorry about not comparing to all possible duplicates but without the nvidia driver the system is pitr to use.
Will try and see if the old grub still works (setup is pretty much the same as before, but / moved from ext4 to btrfs)
Will then try to reboot into live and install grub from there.

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 x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.287
Date: Tue Oct 25 11:57:42 2011
LiveMediaBuild: Xubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daan W. (dwynen)]

Ok, tried installing from newly booted (x)ubuntu 11.10 live systems and from 10.04 live (which is what I'm running now) to no avail.

[Daan W. (dwynen)]

Ok, reinstall with ext4 as root partition fixed that, I'm up and running.
If btrfs is not supported as root partition this should be noted though...

[Gary M (garym)]

Extract from UbiquitySyslog :

Oct 25 11:55:38 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sda'
Oct 25 11:55:39 ubuntu grub-installer: info: grub-install supports --no-floppy
Oct 25 11:55:39 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --no-floppy --force "/dev/sda"
Oct 25 11:55:40 ubuntu grub-installer: /usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: Your embedding area is unusually small. core.img won't fit in it..
Oct 25 11:55:40 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..

[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 774217, 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.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.