Installation of 13.04 from live-usb denied (ubiquity / partman error 141)

[gigi]

Date: 2013-may-11

I'm trying to install Kubuntu 13.04 on a Dell-Vostro 3560-1792 (core I7, AMD/Intel-Graphics, HD1=500GB, HD2=32 GB SSD).
After the "Prepare"-form, when partman is being started, ubiquity reports :

"ubi-partman failed with exit code 141".

System: Live-USB of Kubuntu 13.04.
lsb_release reports: "Ubuntu 13.04, release 13.04".

apt-cache policy ubiquity:
ubiquity:
  installed: 2.14.8
  candidate: 2.14.8
  versiontable:
 *** 2.14.8 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.14.6 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main i386 Packages

Uname: Linux kubuntu 3.8.0-19-generic

I've set up the bios to "ATA-Harddisk-Mode", so the SSD won't be used for a "fake RAID-0", and did a partitioning with the live-usb (kubuntu 13.04) like this:

/dev/sda ( ATA WDC WD5000BPKT-7, 500 GB) :
No. Size Type File system Flags
1 41.1MB primary fat16 diag
2 10.7GB primary linux-swap(v1)
3 162GB primary ext3
4 328GB primary ntfs boot

/dev/sdb (ATA SAMSUNG SSD PM83, 32 GB)
No. Size Type File system Flags
1 32.0GB primary ext4

I installed Windows 7 on /dev/sda4, which worked fine.

Since bug #1080701 was fixed in version 2.14.18, it should be a different problem.
Mounting all partitions before executing ubiquity doesn't change anything.

Apart from partman-log and sys-log I will upload the report of "boot-repair" (http://paste.ubuntu.com/5655905/).

[Matthew Carpenter (matt-eisgr)]

Does this machine have Windows 8 and UEFI on it? I am also having difficulties installing 13.04 on an HP ENVY h8 with similar ressults, and it seems to be tied to the fact that I have a Win8 UEFI partition existing on the drive.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[gigi (georg-drews)]

@Matthew Carpenter (matt-eisgr)
No, the BIOS is not set to UEFI-Mode.
I actually wiped everything on the harddisk and formated the Harddisk and the SSD with 'parted magic'.
After that I did a clean install of windows 7.
During this installation I was asked how to handle the harddisk: as ATA-Disk or together with the SSD as raid.
I chose ATA. The windows-installation wored fine afterwards.
As far as I do understand the situation, there is a 'fake-raid'-controller inside the laptop.
Fake, because this controller does not work on it's own like a real raid-controller, but you need
a special soft-driver. This is pretty much like thos crippled laser-printers for windows, which needed
a special GDI-driver.
I believe, that at the moment there is no proper driver for this 'crippled' raid-controller.

When I tried to install Kubuntu 12.04 (alternate), the installation procedure asked my,
if I wanted to use a raid-driver or use the disks in a plain ATA-Mode.
After choosing 'plain-ATA-Mode', the installation worked fine.

Since there is no 'alternate'-Installer anymore for 13.04, you can only use the offered installer.
And this installer does not ask 'do you want to use a raid-driver' or use an 'ATA-driver'.
It seems the installer realises, that there is a raid-controller-hardware inside the laptop,
automatically loads one (or several - I don't know), and by doing so, the disks can't be controlled
properly, since the raid-controller is 'fake'.

So as far as my researches have gone, the problem lies within the installer.

The only solution to the problem was for me to install 12.04 with the alternate-installer, then
upgrade to 12.10 and then upgrade to 13.04. It's a lot of work, but at least it works.

Lot's of greetings
george