Unable to install GRUB in /dev/sda: "Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sda1. Check your device.map."

[Sander Jonkers]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

Ubuntu-version: 9.04 Jaunty AMD64 ALPHA 5, running from live-CD.

Trying to install to an USB flash stick (4GB) as a normal drive (not the USB-live-disk option), with ext4 and boot loader (?) checked to install to /dev/sda, not /dev/hd (!). There are no other harddisks present in the system, I have not select to create a swap as I've 4GB of RAM.

At 94% / 95% completion, I get a GUI popup:

   Unable to install GRUB in /dev/sda

   Executing 'grub-install /dev/sda' failed.

   This is a fatal error.

AFTER that: "ubiquity crashed with InstallStepError in configure_bootloader()", which is probably a result, not the cause, so something else than https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/260001

I would expect to after installing the OS to /dev/sda, installing GRUB should work too.

tail of /var/log/messages

Mar 8 23:25:21 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity chroot /target update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.28-8-generic
Mar 8 23:25:21 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity umount /target/tmp/.X11-unix
Mar 8 23:25:22 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity chroot /target umount /sys
Mar 8 23:25:22 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity chroot /target umount /proc
Mar 8 23:25:22 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity mount --bind /proc /target/proc
Mar 8 23:25:22 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity mount --bind /dev /target/dev

Mar 8 23:25:22 ubuntu grub-installer: info: architecture: amd64/generic
Mar 8 23:25:26 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Identified partition label for /dev/sda1: msdos
Mar 8 23:25:26 ubuntu grub-installer: dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove grub-pc which isn't installed.
Mar 8 23:25:27 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sda'
Mar 8 23:25:27 ubuntu grub-installer: info: grub-install supports --no-floppy
Mar 8 23:25:27 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --no-floppy "/dev/sda"
Mar 8 23:25:39 ubuntu grub-installer: Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
Mar 8 23:25:40 ubuntu grub-installer: Searching for GRUB installation directory ...
Mar 8 23:25:40 ubuntu grub-installer: found: /boot/grub
Mar 8 23:25:44 ubuntu grub-installer: grub-probe: error:
Mar 8 23:25:44 ubuntu grub-installer: Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sda1. Check your device.map.
Mar 8 23:25:44 ubuntu grub-installer:
Mar 8 23:25:44 ubuntu grub-installer: [: 494: =: unexpected operator
Mar 8 23:25:53 ubuntu grub-installer: The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.
Mar 8 23:25:53 ubuntu grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install --no-floppy "/dev/sda"' failed.

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

I was able to successfully install Jaunty to the USB-stick-harddisc by selecting hda0 (or hda1), ext3 and again no swap.

So could the bug above be caused by selecting hda (without number) and/or ext4?

[Balan Nadaajah (thana)]

I have been trying to install Ubuntu 11.10 since one week. Everytime it fails in the end with bootloader can be loaded. That is the grub part. it is bit frustrating and there is no clear steps to resolve this issue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

9.04 reached end of life a long time ago, and we switched to grub2 in 9.10. Have you had this problem with 12.04 or 13.10?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]