grub installed to wrong location when trying along side then whole disk

[Ryhan Naimi]

Initially had windows installed with all 4 primary partitions used. Tried to install along side, which of course, failed. Then tried to install using whole disk. It appears that the attempt to install along side decided that grub needed to be installed to the existing windows boot fat32 partition, and after installing using the whole disk, grub failed to install because that partition no longer existed. The initial choice of where to install grub should have been discarded and /dev/sda chosen instead.

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Dec 31 18:29:58 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sda4'
Dec 31 18:29:58 ubuntu grub-installer: info: grub-install supports --no-floppy
Dec 31 18:29:58 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --no-floppy --force "/dev/sda4"
Dec 31 18:29:59 ubuntu grub-installer: /usr/sbin/grub-probe : erreur : cannot stat `/dev/sda4'.
Dec 31 18:29:59 ubuntu grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install --no-floppy --force "/dev/sda4"' failed.
Dec 31 18:30:09 ubuntu activate-dmraid: No Serial ATA RAID disks detected
Dec 31 18:30:09 ubuntu ubiquity[3179]: Reverting lockdown of the desktop environment.
Dec 31 18:30:09 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /target: device is busy.
Dec 31 18:30:09 ubuntu ubiquity: (In some cases useful info about processes that use
Dec 31 18:30:09 ubuntu ubiquity: the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1))
Dec 31 18:30:09 ubuntu ubiquity[3179]: debconffilter_done: ubi-partman (current: ubi-partman)
Dec 31 17:49:44 ubuntu wpa_supplicant[1783]: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:18:4d:c5:e0:e2 [GTK=TKIP]
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu ubiquity[3179]: Reverting lockdown of the desktop environment.
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /target/cdrom: not mounted
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: log-output -t ubiquity umount /target/cdrom
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu finish-install: Disabling CD in sources.list
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: Exception during installation:
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: Traceback (most recent call last):
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 1641, in <module>
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: install.run()
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 55, in wrapper
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: func(self)
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 199, in run
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: self.configure_bootloader()
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 955, in configure_bootloader
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: "GrubInstaller failed with code %d" % ret)
Dec 31 18:51:48 ubuntu plugininstall.py: InstallStepError: GrubInstaller failed with code 1
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[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. While we appreciate the difficulties you are facing, it would appear that the CD image (ISO file) you downloaded could be corrupt. There is an easy way to verify the integrity of the Ubuntu ISO files you download. Could you please visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM follow the instructions and report back as to whether or not the MD5SUM verified? Thanks in advance.
---
Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
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[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

How did you choose to install? Did you first try to install using free space, and then go back and choose to install using the whole disk?

[Ryhan Naimi (rhnm-15)]

Le 03. 01. 12 18:15, Phillip Susi a écrit :
> How did you choose to install? Did you first try to install using free
> space, and then go back and choose to install using the whole disk?
>
Hello,
I am sorry for the disturbance. I tried to install again (with the same
CD) and this time, I didn't meet problems. I think the problem was
coming from me and not from ubuntu.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Can you answer my question please? I think what happened is that you had windows on the disk with all 4 partitions used, and tried to install along side. This failed because all 4 partitions were in use. I think that for some reason the installer decided that grub needed to be installed to /dev/sda4 ( probably because that was your windows boot partition ), and it remembered that decision after you backed up and tried to install using the whole disk, which deleted /dev/sda4, and at that point, grub should be installed to /dev/sda.

If that is how it went, then this is a bug that should be fixed.

[Ryhan Naimi (rhnm-15)]

Le 03. 01. 12 20:43, Phillip Susi a écrit :
> Can you answer my question please? I think what happened is that you
> had windows on the disk with all 4 partitions used, and tried to install
> along side. This failed because all 4 partitions were in use. I think
> that for some reason the installer decided that grub needed to be
> installed to /dev/sda4 ( probably because that was your windows boot
> partition ), and it remembered that decision after you backed up and
> tried to install using the whole disk, which deleted /dev/sda4, and at
> that point, grub should be installed to /dev/sda.
>
> If that is how it went, then this is a bug that should be fixed.
>
>
> ** Package changed: grub2 (Ubuntu) => ubiquity (Ubuntu)
>
Your question was: "

How did you choose to install? Did you first try to install using free
space, and then go back and choose to install using the whole disk?

"
Yes, it's what happen. At first, I wanted to have two OS on my computer
so I install with the partitions but something happen and blocked the
installation. After I decided to come back and to put Ubuntu on the
whole disk but a problem happen, a "fatal error" was written on the
screen. I think what you say is true because one day later, using the
same CD, there were no problems. I don't know if it changes something
but I have a HP Pavillon dv6, windows 7.

[Ryhan Naimi (rhnm-15)]

Le 06. 01. 12 00:00, Brian Murray a écrit :
> ** Summary changed:
>
> - grub installed to wron location when trying along side then whole disk
> + grub installed to wrong location when trying along side then whole disk
>
Ok thanks for this information. But I have an other question/problem.
When I want to improve or decrease the brightness, there is no
difference but the picture comes. Have you an idee?

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

You should ask questions on the freenode irc network in #ubuntu, the ubuntu forums, or here: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion.