ubuntu installer crashes during installation from USB

[Rob Teszka]

Installing ubuntu 17.10 from live USB. The live desktop works fine, installer runs, allows me to partition drives and set mount points, connects to wifi, downloads programs, etc.

However, several minutes into the process, it stops and shows an error message that it was unable to install GRUB on / so the system won't be able to boot. Then it exits the installer.

Situation: I am installing onto a SSD + HDD combination. The SSD is to mount / and hold the bootloader, while the HDD has an existing /home partition so I'm -not- formatting it.

Possible clue: I started the USB installer in UEFI mode from my bios, but near the beginning of installation I received a warning that I was installing onto media with a legacy bios and that pushing on with UEFI will prevent the old system from booting. I assumed that was ok, as I was just going to format the old / partition on the HDD.

Attached are /var/log/partman and /var/log/syslog

Any ideas?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: ubiquity 17.10.10
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.387
Date: Mon Dec 25 12:17:52 2017
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171018)
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Exception during installation:
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: Traceback (most recent call last):
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 1721, in <module>
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: install.run()
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 61, in wrapper
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: func(self)
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 227, in run
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: self.configure_bootloader()
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 971, in configure_bootloader
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: "GrubInstaller failed with code %d" % ret)
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: ubiquity.install_misc.InstallStepError: GrubInstaller failed with code 1
Dec 25 20:17:47 ubuntu /plugininstall.py:

[chavellas (capo-distria)]

I encountered exactly the same problem. I had an SSD SATA/SSD M.2 combination.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Your disk is currently partitioned to boot in bios mode, but you booted the installer in EFI mode. A warning message prompted you that this could be a problem and recommended performing a bios mode install instead, but you chose not to. You either need to perform the bios mode install, or partition the disk using GPT and set up an EFI system partition to install in EFI mode. This will be done for you if you choose the "use entire disk" guided install option.