install of bootloader failed without RAID or LVM

[Giuseppe Sacco]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

hardware: DELL T300, 4 SAS physical disks building 2 logical disks, 2Gb RAM, CPU X3363@2.83GHz
software: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS live DVD for amd64 architecture

I partitioned the first logical disk with only one partition of 5Gb as /dev/sda1, then complete the install forms and waited. After a few minutes I got a popup window displaying and error while installing bootloader and prompting about a new device to install bootloader on, or continue without booloader, or cancel the installation.
Of course I selected first option using the suggested device name /dev/sda, but I got the very same problem.
Second time, I selected option 2: continue without a bootloader.

This is a relevant part from /var/log/messages:

May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: debug: parsing menu.lst
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: result: /dev/sdc1:/dev/sdc1:Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, kernel 2.6.24-16-server:/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-server:/boot/i
nitrd.img-2.6.24-16-server:root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 ro quiet splash
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: result: /dev/sdc1:/dev/sdc1:Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, kernel 2.6.24-16-server (recovery mode):/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-1
6-server:/boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-server:root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 ro single
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: result: /dev/sdc1:/dev/sdc1:Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, kernel 2.6.15-54-server:/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-54-server:/boot/i
nitrd.img-2.6.15-54-server:root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 ro quiet splash
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: result: /dev/sdc1:/dev/sdc1:Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, kernel 2.6.15-54-server (recovery mode):/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-5
4-server:/boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-54-server:root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 ro single
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: result: /dev/sdc1:/dev/sdc1:Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, kernel 2.6.15-53-server:/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-53-server:/boot/i
nitrd.img-2.6.15-53-server:root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 ro quiet splash
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: result: /dev/sdc1:/dev/sdc1:Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, kernel 2.6.15-53-server (recovery mode):/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-53-server:/boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-53-server:root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 ro single
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: result: /dev/sdc1:/dev/sdc1:Chainload into GRUB 2:/boot/grub/core.img::
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 40grub: result: /dev/sdc1:/dev/sdc1:Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, memtest86+:/boot/memtest86+.bin::
May 13 04:31:07 ubuntu 50mounted-tests: debug: /usr/lib/linux-boot-probes/mounted/40grub succeeded
May 13 04:31:08 ubuntu linux-boot-prober: debug: linux detected by /usr/lib/linux-boot-probes/50mounted-tests
May 13 04:31:11 ubuntu ubiquity: grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdc1. Check your device.map.
May 13 04:31:11 ubuntu ubiquity: grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdc1. Check your device.map.
May 13 04:48:14 ubuntu grub-installer: info: architecture: amd64/generic
May 13 04:48:21 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Identified partition label for /dev/sda1: msdos
May 13 04:48:23 ubuntu grub-installer: dpkg: attenzione: viene ignorata la richiesta di rimuovere grub poiché non è installato.
May 13 04:48:23 ubuntu grub-installer: dpkg: attenzione: viene ignorata la richiesta di rimuovere grub-legacy poiché non è installato.
May 13 04:48:23 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sda'
May 13 04:48:23 ubuntu grub-installer: info: grub-install supports --no-floppy
May 13 04:48:23 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --no-floppy --force "/dev/sda"
May 13 04:48:25 ubuntu grub-installer: Installation finished. No error reported.
May 13 04:48:25 ubuntu grub-installer: info: grub-install ran successfully
May 13 04:48:31 ubuntu ubiquity: grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdc1. Check your device.map.
May 13 04:48:31 ubuntu ubiquity: grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdc1. Check your device.map.

please note /dev/sdc is an external usb storage I plugged in while installing the system on /dev/sda1

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: ubiquity 2.2.24
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu May 13 06:41:17 2010
ExecutablePath: /usr/share/ubiquity/install.py
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.6
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANGUAGE=it_IT.UTF-8
 LC_COLLATE=C
SourcePackage: ubiquity

[Giuseppe Sacco (eppesuig)]

Reading again /var/log/messages I better understand the problem: the disk I plugged in as /dev/sdc1 is a copy of complete file system from a different machine. Basically, I would copy all that data to the new machine I was installing 10.04.
So, /dev/sdc1 included /boot and /boot/grub directories, and this tricked os-prober thinking it should add all those information on the newly created boot configuration. Nevertless, that disk should be completely ignored.
BTW, the problem being /dev/sdc missing from device,map, as written in /var/log/messages.

[Giuseppe Sacco (eppesuig)]

Please note, that booting the machine while USB disk is already plugged, all disk names changed: sda is the external one, sdb and sdc are the internal logical disks.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Anoop Katti (anoopkatti)]

I replaced MS XP with Ubuntu 12.04. While installation, the above error came that bootloader cannot be installed on the selected device and asked me to select a different device. The error appeared with every device I selected. This was reported as fatal error and installation failed.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Are you able to reproduce this with a currently supported release?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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