grub installation hangs at 33%

[tuxin]

- Installation blocked on GRUB install/configuration step ( progress bar stops
at 33% ( "searching for other os" ).
Managed to install LILO in expert mode.
- Base-config fails at xserver-xorg config : post-install script:
   "line 1075" ( postinstall script file ) in the if[...] statement: "integer
expr expected."
   my thought: either $NRES or $DISPLAY have no data
  Manually ran xorgconfig tool. ( nvidia card ok )
  start xorg failed: cannot find font installation ( no font directories exists )
  remove / re-install fontconfig; xserver-xorg; gdm ) -- no luck: same errors

Hardware:

Intel CPU P4 2.4 ghz 1.0GB DDR 333mhz RAM
Motherboard: Asus P800 SE with intel 865PE chipset
Video card:Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 AGP 128 MB
HardDisks geom ( from fdisk -l):
note: Ubuntu warty grub installed on HDA ' mbr

Disk /dev/hda: 61.4 GB, 61492838400 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7476 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 3824 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 3825 7475 29326657+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 3825 7475 29326626 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 155061 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 202 101776+ 83 Linux << Healthy /boot
Ubuntu warty partition ( ext3 ) + hoary lilo on first sector
/dev/hdb2 203 110453 55566504 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5 203 4077 1952968+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdb6 4078 63950 30175960+ 83 Linux << Healthy Ubuntu
warty / root partition installation ( reiserfs )
/dev/hdb7 63951 110453 23437480+ 83 Linux << Hoary / root
partition ( reiserfs )

can't tell more...

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Please file a separate bug against xserver-xorg regarding the post-install
script error

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

You mention having Warty grub installed...does that mean that you were able to
successfully install Ubuntu 4.10, and you only encountered this problem with Hoary?

[Remy Maucherat (remy-maucherat)]

I encountered the same grub-install problem on a single HD system, with the
following (weird) partition scheme:
   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 574 4610623+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2 575 1081 4072477+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 1149 2431 10305697+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda4 1082 1148 538177+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 1082 1148 538146 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I used manual partitioning, but didn't mount anything except the inux patition.
After a few failed attempts with Grub, Lilo worked fine.

I attempted instalation later again, but mounting all partitions. This time the
installation was successful.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Would it be possible for you to test installing with the current daily install
CD, or with Array 4, to see if this problem still exists? If it does, the
following information would be useful:

- /var/log/syslog from the installer environment
- "ps aux" output when the installation process is stalled

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

This is a problem with os-prober outputting non-UTF-8 data pulled out of the
boot.ini files from certain internationalised versions of Windows; French users
have tripped over this in Debian. It's been fixed upstream in os-prober 1.03,
which I'll merge shortly.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Fixed by sync from Debian:

os-prober (1.03) unstable; urgency=low

  * Joey Hess
    - Applied patch from Guillem Jover to detect many redhat derived
      distributions.
  * Frans Pop
    - Exclude partitions that are part of a software raid array.
      Closes: #273960.
    - Don't use the description from Windows' boot.ini if it contains
      non-ascii (or other unusual) characters. Closes: #293859.
  * Colin Watson
    - Probe ext3, xfs, and jfs modules too.

 -- Joey Hess <email address hidden> Fri, 11 Feb 2005 20:30:56 -0500

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

*** Bug 11526 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[tuxin (serge-lussier)]

After received repeated email from this bug and read that it is fixed, I burned hoary array-5 cd iso and then re-installed Ubuntu
with that version ( ~FEB 24/7? 2005 ). As expected, "Everythings" installed and processed with success:
- Grub installed fast and configured with success.
- XOrg server installed and configured with success ( out of this topic/bug I know ).

Thanks, sorry if I did not provide correct infos.
Serge Lussier
<email address hidden>