Install "failed to install grub"

[MarkF]

ISO testing 20.04 Mate daily-image (20200320). The installer failed with a msg about being unable to install grub on sda2. I didn't spend much time memorizing the error msg because it said it would automatically report the crash. But, that process failed saying it was unable to connect to the crash-reporting database, and I should check my network connection. I immediately ran ubuntu-bug from the command line, it worked ok (nothing wrong with the network connection).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: ubiquity 20.04.6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-18.22-generic 5.4.24
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-18-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu20
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.441
CurrentDesktop: MATE
Date: Fri Mar 20 10:50:52 2020
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu-mate.seed quiet splash ---
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Alpha amd64 (20200320)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=C.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub-installer
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1868292

[MarkF (az2008)]

Additional info: I rebooted the LiveUSB, and tried installing again using "entire disk" (instead of "alongside/resize" the first time, which failed). It installed without error.

I can try the "alongside" again using tomorrow's daily image. Maybe it was specific to that. (I have installed Mate's daily image a few times. But, I don't recall if I did "alongside" before, or with this particular machine.[1]

[1] i5-4200M 2.5Ghz; 4th gen core processor 4600 gfx; Intel 7260 (Lenovo ThinkPad E440 20C5 laptop).

[MarkF (az2008)]

UPDATE: I have encountered this error again (but it's different, too). It appears the installer (when auto-resizing the existing disk, installing "alongside,") has trouble when the disk is MBR/msdos & the computer is UEFI-only.

Yesterday (when I first experienced the "failed to install grub" error), I'm pretty sure the disk was MBR from testing the day before. The bios was definitely UEFI-only. (I didn't think about this until later in the day.).

Today, testing Mate's 20.04 daily image (20200321):

1. Installing with auto-resize (alongside) worked. But, the disk was GPT, the bios was still UEFI.

2. I set the bios to legacy/CSM, and installed "entire disk." This changed the disk to MBR.

3. I set the bios back to UEFI-only, and installed auto-resize (alongside). The installation failed. (However, the failure was different. The installer finished. But, when I rebooted, I was dropped at the grub prompt. Yesterday, the failure was more graceful. The installer detected a problem and told me about it.).

So, it seems like the auto-resize (install alongside) option doesn't navigate this condition (MBR disk, UEFI machine). Perhaps this isn't a valid way to install, and the installer shouldn't give the auto-resize/alongside option?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The UbiquitySyslog.txt file contains lines like the following many times:

Mar 20 17:50:34 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 1876.625066] wlp4s0: Connection to AP 74:da:88:50:00:47 lost
Mar 20 17:50:34 ubuntu-mate wpa_supplicant[1642]: wlp4s0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=74:da:88:50:00:47 reason=4 locally_generated=1

I suspect a disconnect event like this prevented the crash report from being filed automatically.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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