grub fails to install when using entire disk with 3 disks with grub already on /dev/sdb

[Lyn Perrine]

To reproduce have sda as a 2tb hard disk with my main home partition and one other install on it of 14.10. Then I have my ssd /dev/sdb which is where the grun2 is installed and with the / partition and a manually install other partition of vivid on it that works. Then boot the lubuntu amd64 live iso for march 11th and tell it to use all of /dev/sdc a 250 gb hard disk I got from a lug member to test installs on. Grub will try to install to sda and fail and then bring up a menu to select which device to install to. grub2:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2.02~beta2-21
  Version table:
     2.02~beta2-21 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/universe amd64 Packages
Description: Ubuntu Vivid Vervet (development branch)
Release: 15.04

I expected grub2 to install or on the second time allow installing to /dev/sdb instead it fails to install.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: grub2 (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-8.8-generic 3.19.1
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.16.2-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.352
Date: Wed Mar 11 16:14:50 2015
LiveMediaBuild: Lubuntu 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Alpha amd64 (20150311)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=linux
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub2
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/1431067

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Was this bug automatically filed or did you do it manually? If it were automatically filed after the failure, it should have included log files. To investigate the issue we need a copy of /var/log/syslog.

[Lyn Perrine (walterorlin)]

I filed this manually. I have also get the same result trying an autoresize with free space left over after a manual partitioning that allowed me to install the bootloader to /dev/sdb. I have the /var/log attached of the failed autoresize into free space.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Can you run sudo grub-probe -v -d /dev/sdc6 and post the output? It seems grub can't figure out what /dev/sdc6 is.

[Lyn Perrine (walterorlin)]

grub-probe: info: /dev/sdc6 is not present.
grub-probe: info: Looking for /dev/sdc6.
grub-probe: info: /dev/sdc is a parent of /dev/sdc6.
grub-probe: info: /dev/sdc6 starts from 292970496.
grub-probe: info: opening the device hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: drive = 0.
grub-probe: info: the size of hostdisk//dev/sdc is 488397168.
grub-probe: info: drive = 0.
grub-probe: info: the size of hostdisk//dev/sdc is 488397168.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for DISKFILTER devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid1x devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid09 devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid09_be devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for dmraid_nv devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for ldm devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: scanning hostdisk//dev/sdc for LDM.
grub-probe: info: no LDM signature found.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for lvm devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: no LVM signature found.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for DISKFILTER devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid1x devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid09 devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid09_be devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for dmraid_nv devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for ldm devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: scanning hostdisk//dev/sdc for LDM.
grub-probe: info: no LDM signature found.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for lvm devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: no LVM signature found.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for DISKFILTER devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid1x devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid09 devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid09_be devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for dmraid_nv devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for ldm devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: scanning hostdisk//dev/sdc for LDM.
grub-probe: info: no LDM signature found.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for lvm devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: no LVM signature found.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for DISKFILTER devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid1x devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid09 devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid09_be devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for dmraid_nv devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for ldm devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: scanning hostdisk//dev/sdc for LDM.
grub-probe: info: no LDM signature found.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for lvm devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: no LVM signature found.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for DISKFILTER devices on disk hostdisk//dev/sdc.
grub-probe: info: Scanning for mdraid1x devices on disk host...

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Hrm... how about sudo blkid?

[Lyn Perrine (walterorlin)]

/dev/sda1: UUID="8e99b860-0d2f-4d3a-8302-a21695b3ac9d" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="fbf09cdb-42ca-4463-903b-97b8573b273d"
/dev/sda2: UUID="babf469c-6110-4902-beff-5a5d31f994cc" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="19022a1a-2648-4e84-865d-b45cbc04fec6"
/dev/sda3: UUID="7694675e-cd2b-4291-8fde-ccd405b0f1e1" TYPE="xfs" PARTUUID="29b08a3a-5c28-4df0-a6ef-2544a88ca404"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="fa3d31ba-9fc4-4678-a8aa-8d59172ca54a" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="06815015-01"
/dev/sdb5: UUID="a74f9571-237b-4224-9286-d0d5aa828bb3" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="06815015-05"
/dev/sdb6: UUID="cd6c96e2-0109-43d0-918e-ae818c2b4925" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="06815015-06"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="b6b41ed2-702c-47c4-ab44-c8d9c7ebdf36" TYPE="xfs" PARTUUID="dccf0355-01"
/dev/sdc5: UUID="c4b577f3-240e-4967-ae43-fd55910b9c09" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dccf0355-05"
/dev/sdc6: UUID="4325d26c-2784-46d4-b7e6-f3499d4d563c" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="dccf0355-06"
/dev/sdc7: UUID="fe9d6099-45dc-405d-b9b4-f21e3889a66f" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dccf0355-07"

Is sudo blkid but I ahve done other testcases since then and partitioning changes. I do not get this with manual partitioning and setting disc to /dev/sdb

Also I find that if you reinstall grub from the system that has the bootloader as documented in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing under post restoration commands.

[Lyn Perrine (walterorlin)]

I also get this on a latest trusty daily image for lubuntu 14.04.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

sdc6 appears to be a swap partition, which grub should not care about. What configuration did you select in the partitioning screen? In particular, which partition is your root, and do you have a /boot?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]