Comment 2 for bug 287309

If it didn't run, what's all this in syslog? This all looks quite normal as far as I can tell. Note that grub-installer doesn't prompt if there are no other operating systems on the disk.

Oct 22 00:09:01 main-menu[2669]: INFO: Menu item 'grub-installer' selected
Oct 22 00:09:01 grub-installer: info: architecture: i386/generic
Oct 22 00:09:02 grub-installer: info: Identified partition label for /dev/sda1: msdos
Oct 22 00:09:02 grub-installer: dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove grub-pc which isn't installed.
Oct 22 00:09:07 in-target: Reading package lists...
Oct 22 00:09:08 in-target:
Oct 22 00:09:08 in-target: Building dependency tree...
Oct 22 00:09:12 in-target:
Oct 22 00:09:12 in-target: Reading state information...
Oct 22 00:09:12 in-target:
Oct 22 00:09:17 in-target: The following extra packages will be installed:
Oct 22 00:09:17 in-target: ucf
Oct 22 00:09:17 in-target: Suggested packages:
Oct 22 00:09:17 in-target: grub-doc mdadm
Oct 22 00:09:17 in-target: The following NEW packages will be installed:
Oct 22 00:09:17 in-target: grub ucf
Oct 22 00:09:21 in-target: Preconfiguring packages ...
Oct 22 00:09:21 debconf: Obsolete command TITLE Configuring ucf called
Oct 22 00:09:21 in-target: Use of uninitialized value $x in scalar assignment at /usr/share/perl/5.10/utf8_heavy.pl line 242, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:21 in-target: Use of uninitialized value $x in pattern match (m//) at /usr/share/perl/5.10/utf8_heavy.pl line 243, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:21 in-target: Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Passthrough.pm line 68, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:21 in-target: Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Passthrough.pm line 68, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:22 in-target: Use of uninitialized value $x in scalar assignment at /usr/share/perl/5.10/utf8_heavy.pl line 242, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:22 in-target: Use of uninitialized value $x in pattern match (m//) at /usr/share/perl/5.10/utf8_heavy.pl line 243, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:22 in-target: Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Passthrough.pm line 68, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:22 in-target: Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Passthrough.pm line 68, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:22 debconf: Obsolete command TITLE Configuring grub called
Oct 22 00:09:22 in-target: 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Oct 22 00:09:22 in-target: Need to get 0B/464kB of archives.
Oct 22 00:09:22 in-target: After this operation, 1200kB of additional disk space will be used.
Oct 22 00:09:23 in-target: Selecting previously deselected package ucf.
Oct 22 00:09:23 in-target: (Reading database ...
Oct 22 00:09:23 in-target: 12442 files and directories currently installed.)
Oct 22 00:09:23 in-target: Unpacking ucf (from .../main/u/ucf/ucf_3.0010_all.deb) ...
Oct 22 00:09:23 in-target: Moving old data out of the way
Oct 22 00:09:24 in-target: Selecting previously deselected package grub.
Oct 22 00:09:24 in-target: Unpacking grub (from .../grub_0.97-29ubuntu44_i386.deb) ...
Oct 22 00:09:25 in-target: Setting up ucf (3.0010) ...
Oct 22 00:09:28 debconf: Obsolete command TITLE Configuring ucf called
Oct 22 00:09:28 in-target: Use of uninitialized value $x in scalar assignment at /usr/share/perl/5.10/utf8_heavy.pl line 242, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:28 in-target: Use of uninitialized value $x in pattern match (m//) at /usr/share/perl/5.10/utf8_heavy.pl line 243, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:28 in-target: Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Passthrough.pm line 68, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:28 in-target: Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Passthrough.pm line 68, <GEN0> line 1.
Oct 22 00:09:29 in-target:
Oct 22 00:09:29 in-target: Setting up grub (0.97-29ubuntu44) ...
Oct 22 00:09:30 in-target:
[os-prober guff]
Oct 22 00:09:41 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '(hd0)'
Oct 22 00:09:41 grub-installer: info: grub-install supports --no-floppy
Oct 22 00:09:41 grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --no-floppy "(hd0)"
Oct 22 00:09:41 grub-installer: You shouldn't call /sbin/grub-install. Please call /usr/sbin/grub-install instead!
Oct 22 00:09:41 grub-installer:
Oct 22 00:09:41 grub-installer: Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
Oct 22 00:09:42 grub-installer: Searching for GRUB installation directory ...
Oct 22 00:09:42 grub-installer: found: /boot/grub
Oct 22 00:09:44 grub-installer: Installing GRUB to (hd0) as (hd0)...
Oct 22 00:09:45 grub-installer: Installation finished. No error reported.
Oct 22 00:09:45 grub-installer: This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Oct 22 00:09:45 grub-installer: Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
Oct 22 00:09:45 grub-installer: fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.
Oct 22 00:09:45 grub-installer:
Oct 22 00:09:45 grub-installer: (hd0) /dev/sda
Oct 22 00:09:45 grub-installer: info: grub-install ran successfully
Oct 22 00:09:46 grub-installer: Searching for GRUB installation directory ...
Oct 22 00:09:46 grub-installer: found: /boot/grub
Oct 22 00:09:48 grub-installer: Searching for default file ...
Oct 22 00:09:48 grub-installer: found: /boot/grub/default
Oct 22 00:09:48 grub-installer: Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ...
Oct 22 00:09:48 grub-installer:
Oct 22 00:09:48 grub-installer:
Oct 22 00:09:48 grub-installer: Could not find /boot/grub/menu.lst file.
Oct 22 00:09:48 grub-installer:
Oct 22 00:09:48 grub-installer: Generating /boot/grub/menu.lst
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: Searching for splash image ...
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: none found, skipping ...
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: LANGUAGE = (unset),
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: LC_ALL = (unset),
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: LANG = "C.UTF-8"
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: are supported and installed on your system.
Oct 22 00:09:49 grub-installer: perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
Oct 22 00:09:51 grub-installer: perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
Oct 22 00:09:51 grub-installer: perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
Oct 22 00:09:51 grub-installer: LANGUAGE = (unset),
Oct 22 00:09:51 grub-installer: LC_ALL = (unset),
Oct 22 00:09:51 grub-installer: LANG = "C.UTF-8"
Oct 22 00:09:51 grub-installer: are supported and installed on your system.
Oct 22 00:09:51 grub-installer: perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
Oct 22 00:09:52 grub-installer: Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic
Oct 22 00:09:53 grub-installer: perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
Oct 22 00:09:53 grub-installer: perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
Oct 22 00:09:53 grub-installer: LANGUAGE = (unset),
Oct 22 00:09:53 grub-installer: LC_ALL = (unset),
Oct 22 00:09:53 grub-installer: LANG = "C.UTF-8"
Oct 22 00:09:53 grub-installer: are supported and installed on your system.
Oct 22 00:09:53 grub-installer: perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
Oct 22 00:09:54 grub-installer: Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ...
Oct 22 00:09:54 grub-installer: done
Oct 22 00:09:54 grub-installer:
Oct 22 00:09:54 main-menu[2669]: (process:10707): I: Setting partition 1 of /dev/sda to active...
Oct 22 00:09:54 main-menu[2669]: (process:10707): Done
Oct 22 00:09:54 main-menu[2669]: (process:10707):
Oct 22 00:09:54 main-menu[2669]: (process:10707): done.

Assuming you can reproduce this, can you extract 'od -Ax -tx1 -N512 /dev/sda' after the initial install but before installing grub?