Bug in the Calamares installer resulting in no installation of the boot loader in the BIOS mode

[Saptarshi Roy]

Dear Lubuntu Team

I’m writing to let you know that there is a serious bug in the Calamares installer with the potential to brick computers due to installations without a boot loader in BIOS+MBR mode.

I thought I’ll update another thread with the same issue 1, however, considering that thread is locked, I’m creating this one with the resolution.

When we try to install Lubuntu 20.04 LTS using the Calamares installer in the BIOS mode, the installer should by default install the boot loader in a 538MB fat32 partition with the boot flag, however, Calamares doesn’t do that at all.

This results in a bricked device.

Anyone who wants to install Lubuntu 20.04 LTS in the BIOS mode with MBR, needs to go for a manual partitioning, and then creating a MBR partitioning table.

This bug is not present in the Ubiquity or the Kubuntu installer, because I have installed all the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS flavours except Lubuntu without any issues in the same system applying the same method - automatically partitioning the entire disk in the BIOS+MBR mode.

I also encountered this bug while installing the most recent version of Q4OS.

The Lubuntu team should either use the Ubiquity installer or fix this.

Thank you.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:

apport-collect 1929346

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Also note:

> Anyone who wants to install Lubuntu 20.04 LTS in the BIOS
> mode with MBR, needs to go for a manual partitioning, and
> then creating a MBR partitioning table.

Lubuntu 20.04 LTS along with all releases, is QA-tested and installs fine in all BIOS boxes tested (the team has access to). If issues are discovered they are reported (on bug trackers like here) and once confirmed & evaluated, get reported in the release notes (see known issues on https://lubuntu.me/focal-2-released/).

See also https://discourse.lubuntu.me/t/bug-in-the-calamares-installer-resulting-in-no-installation-of-the-boot-loader-in-the-bios-mode/2523/2

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

I've changed this to incomplete.

We can't really do much until fields have been filled out with more details, ie. the apport-collect is performed on the box in question.

If you believe I'm in error, please leave a comment explaining why, and the status can be returned to "New".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for calamares (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]