Installation of Ubuntu Groovy with manual partitioning without an EFI System Partition fails on 'grub-install /dev/sda' even on non-UEFI systems
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ubiquity (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
High
|
Julian Andres Klode | ||
Hirsute |
Fix Released
|
High
|
Julian Andres Klode |
Bug Description
Hello,
trying to install current daily-live images of Groovy in VirtualBox fails for me when I'm using manual partitioning without an EFI System Partition (ESP).
Steps to reproduce:
1. Partition layout I have used in VirtualBox:
* Partition table: MBR
* A single primary ext4 partition (/dev/sda1) using up the entire virtual harddisk with 1 MB free space before start of the partition
2. Boot current Groovy daily-live image, click on "Install Ubuntu"
3. Choose "Something else" (manual partitioning)
4. Select /dev/sda1 as target for '/', check "format partition".
5. Ignore warning about missing EFI system partition.
Result:
The installation proceeds until GRUB is about to be installed.
Then an error dialog appears: "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sda' failed. This is a fatal error." (screenshot attached).
If I click 'Ok', after a moment Ubiquity nevertheless shows the usual dialog saying "Installation is complete. Please restart." The only option the dialog offered was to click on "Restart now".
After that, booting the failed installation succeeds, but it is obvious that Ubiquity couldn't complete its job: Packages like ubiquity itself, which usually get purged from the fresh system at the end of a successful installation, are still installed. There is also a pop-up in gnome-shell showing an error regarding package management (screenshot attached, not sure if this is related to the failed install).
Modifying the setup by creating an ESP manually like described in #7 makes the installation complete successfully without error.
The setups I have tested (my machine and VirtualBox) don't support UEFI or don't have UEFI support enabled respectively (and thus don't actually require an ESP to boot).
To send this report, I was running 'sudo ubuntu-bug ubiquity' on the "failed", but nevertheless booting fresh installation.
Kind regards, Jan
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
Package: ubiquity 20.10.9
ProcVersionSign
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelMo
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu45
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckR
Date: Wed Sep 2 16:55:14 2020
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
Related branches
- Ubuntu Installer Team: Pending requested
-
Diff: 13 lines (+1/-1)1 file modifiedscripts/plugininstall.py (+1/-1)
Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu): | |
milestone: | none → ubuntu-20.10 |
description: | updated |
tags: | added: rls-gg-incoming |
Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu): | |
milestone: | ubuntu-20.10 → none |
tags: |
added: rls-hh-incoming removed: rls-gg-incoming |
Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu Hirsute): | |
assignee: | nobody → Julian Andres Klode (juliank) |
status: | Confirmed → In Progress |
Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu Hirsute): | |
status: | In Progress → Fix Committed |
This happens also when I try to install Kubuntu Groovy, the only thing that's different is that after the "grub-install /dev/sda failed" dialog there is for 1-2 seconds a window telling "Sorry the installer had crashed" which disappears again without interventention, and then there is dialog with the following message:
"The installer encountered an unrecoverable error. A desktop session will now be run so that you may investigate the problem or try installing again."
That dialog sends you to the live session.
But that seems to be the only difference between Kubuntu and Ubuntu - the installation will boot despite the failure, but is "not complete", as described above.