Grub fails to install on Lucid guests running under KVM during installation

[Brian Knoll]

Binary package hint: grub

Grub does not install if Lucid is installed onto a KVM guest using virtio disks. The installation will progress to the point where the boot loader is supposed to be installed, and an error message will pop up saying that grub failed to install. If you continue the installation anyhow, the system will of course not boot because there is no grub boot loader installed.

Further, if you then boot off the Lucid CD ISO to rescue the system, you will find that the Lucid CD in rescue mode does not detect any disks. You must to a modprobe of the virtio driver in order to get the Lucid ISO to recognize the virtio disk in rescue mode. Then, of course, you have to repair the installation.

This only happens if you install the system onto a virtio disk. If you install onto, for instance, an IDE disk, then switch KVM to use virtio, everything is fine. But it's obvious that something is very broken in the virtio handling of Lucid at installation time.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Feb 20 10:45:56 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha amd64 (20091209)
Package: grub (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-13.18-generic
SourcePackage: grub
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-13-generic x86_64

[Sense Egbert Hofstede (sense)]

I can confirm that this bug exists in the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Alpha 2 amd64 iso installed on a Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala amd64 KVM host.

[Sense Egbert Hofstede (sense)]

Note: Installing LILO also fails, so this issue could be unrelated to Grub2.

[Graham Crumb (gcrumb)]

Seeing the same problem while performing a clean install of Lucid on a 5.0 TB LVM (IBM RAID). As Grub is being installed, it informs the user that 'You have chosen not to install grub on any device....', trying to go back or replying 'No' to the question 'Do you want to continue without installing Grub?' result in looping behaviour.

My early guess is that no eligible devices were found or errors occurred during device discovery. Will take steps to confirm.

Assuming this is the case - and that the cause is similar for all of these reports - the bug title should be amended to reflect the broader nature of the problem.

[Doug Stanley (doug-stanley)]

I tried changing the disk type to scsi and also IDE, and installation still failed at the same point for me. So it wasn't necessarily virtio related.

[Brian Knoll (brianknoll)]

I just changed the description of the bug to remove the requirement that the guest be virtio-based in order to trigger the bug. I can also confirm that I have, now, seen the failure under guests that were ide-based and scsi-based, as well as virtio-based guests.

[Doug Stanley (doug-stanley)]

I just tested with the daily iso from yesterday (basically what will be alpha 3) and it installs 100% fine now.
So it seems like whatever caused this problem is fixed for now. I'll keep testing future ISOs to make sure
the bug doesn't pop back up.

[Sense Egbert Hofstede (sense)]

I can confirm this is fixed in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha 3. I'm marking this bug as Fix Released, thank you all for your input.
Please feel free to reopen this bug report if you're able to verify this bug still.