bootloader install failed, installer crashed

[Michael Dooley]

Using live USB to install MATE 20.10 20200717 iso. BIOS install fails, installer crashes.

Normal installation. When attempting to install grub, received the following error: Sorry, an error occurred and it was not possible to install the boot loader at the specified location. /dev/sda

I elected to install without bootloader and subsequently installer crashed.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
Package: ubiquity 20.10.8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-26.30-generic 5.4.30
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-26-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu42
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckMismatches: ./casper/filesystem.squashfs
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CasperVersion: 1.452
Date: Sat Jul 18 16:13:59 2020
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu-mate.seed maybe-ubiquity quiet splash ---
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu-MATE 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" - Alpha amd64 (20200718)
SourcePackage: grub-installer
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Michael Dooley (mdooley)]

This was my fifth attempt to install MATE 20.10 on a Dell laptop using BIOS mode and this particular laptop made it all the way to an apport report as the wifi worked during install.

I think this bug has been previously reported as bug #1885414

Happy to supply more information if needed.

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

I have an Acer Aspire 5 4700U octacore APU, graphics included on-board.

My installation did not crash per se. It froze at the point where it was going to begin writing to disk, displaying something wild about finding a lot of disk partitions. The mouse, touchpad, and keyboard were inoperative. I wish that I had taken a photo!

My successful work-around to install 20.10:
* Install 20.04.1
* Bring it up to date.
* Turn on considering development releases somewhere in synaptic.
* update-manager -d

Now, I am on 20.10.

More good news for me:
* Kernel 5.8 succeeds (where kernel 5.4 failed) detects that I need an amdgpu video driver.
* Suspend followed by Resume works on 20.10; it did not on 20.04.
* Power management works on 20.10; it did not on 20.04.

Finally, I can close the lid, open the lid, walk away, come back - all these power mgmt functions work just as well on Linux as they did on Windoze.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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