migration-assistant: error: /dev/disk/by-label//home does not exist.

From the log:

May 25 18:24:03 ubuntu migration-assistant: error: /dev/disk/by-label//home does not exist.
May 25 18:24:03 ubuntu ubiquity: mount: can't find /mnt/migrationassistant/home in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
May 25 18:24:03 ubuntu ubiquity:
May 25 18:24:03 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy
May 25 18:24:03 ubuntu ubiquity:
May 25 18:24:03 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy
May 25 18:24:03 ubuntu ubiquity:
May 25 18:24:18 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy
May 25 18:24:18 ubuntu ubiquity:
May 25 18:24:18 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy
May 25 18:24:18 ubuntu ubiquity:
May 25 18:24:18 ubuntu ubiquity: return: 74:
May 25 18:24:18 ubuntu ubiquity: Illegal number: LABEL=/home/ania/Windo

Installing Xubuntu Intrepid beta test release, when this crash occurred.

Same thing on Ubuntu livecd installer. Skipped time server sync step, and installer crashed

Same installing Ubuntu Intrepid beta test release for Intel x64.
"ubiquity --no-migration-assistant"
solved my problem for now.

Ubuntu Intrepid AMD64 release has this bug also in my case. Using "ubiquity --no-migration-assistant" as indicated by Harald also fixed my installation problem.

I have a similar problem with intrepid 64 and hardy 64.

Before the installation, the computer had 2 disks of 500 GB, and the installation of hardy 64 working successfully.

We have replaced the primary disk with a 1 TB disk and the installation quit with ubiquity error report.

I used "ubiquity --no-migration-assistant" and the installation not working.

For solving this problem, we have disconnected the secondary 500 GB hard disk and only let the 1 TB disk.

With the 1 TB disk only, the installation of Intrepid 64 or Hardy 64 working successfully.

I had some problems with a swap-partition, which I turned off before starting the installer. I then got these errors in /var/log/messages:

Nov 4 20:20:48 ubuntu migration-assistant: error: /dev/disk/by-uuid/8a215554-46c3-497e-9e30-6062ad7d2b5c does not exist.
Nov 4 20:20:48 ubuntu ubiquity: mount: can't find /mnt/migrationassistant/home in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
Nov 4 20:20:48 ubuntu ubiquity:
Nov 4 20:20:48 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy.
Nov 4 20:20:48 ubuntu ubiquity: (In some cases useful info about processes that use
Nov 4 20:20:48 ubuntu ubiquity: the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1))
Nov 4 20:20:48 ubuntu ubiquity:
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy.
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu ubiquity: (In some cases useful info about processes that use
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu ubiquity: the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1))
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu ubiquity:
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu ubiquity: return: 74:
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu ubiquity: Illegal number: #
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu ubiquity:
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity umount /target/cdrom
Nov 4 20:21:03 ubuntu finish-install: Disabling CD in sources.list

I think it somehow tries to see the contents of this drive, and then fails. Or it is the deleted partition between sda3 and sda4.

Does anybody know if the installation finished before this mess, except for grub?

I encountered the bug installing Intrepid Ibex with "/" on a reiserFS partition. When changing it to ext3, the problem went away. Did not encountered the bug when installing Mythbuntu 8.10.

I think it is the same as https://bugs.launchpad.net/baltix/+source/migration-assistant/+bug/288371/

Confirmed on x86_64 intrepid version. Please turn the importance to critical.

just reported it there https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/309817
and then i saw this bug report
bug still exists

I just reported this bug and was told my report was a duplicate of this one. I have the same experience with Jaunty alpha3 and alpha4. The only way to avoid it that I have found is to run the live cd and then open a terminal and run ubiquity

ubiquity --no-migration-assistant

I hope this helps someone.

Thanks!

> ubiquity --no-migration-assistant
I found the same solution (after a lot of searching) - it should be
displayed prominently before the installation ....
--
mk

----- Message from <email address hidden> ---------
     Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:01:47 -0000
     From: Mark Falcey <email address hidden>
Reply-To: Bug 234835 <email address hidden>
  Subject: [Bug 234835] Re: almost at the end of installation
       To: <email address hidden>

> I just reported this bug and was told my report was a duplicate of this
> one. I have the same experience with Jaunty alpha3 and alpha4. The only
> way to avoid it that I have found is to run the live cd and then open a
> terminal and run ubiquity
>
> ubiquity --no-migration-assistant
>
> I hope this helps someone.
>
> --
> almost at the end of installation
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/234835
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in ?ubiquity? source package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: ubiquity
>
> installer at the end just starting live version, ubuntu seems to be
> installed ( files kopied, and i think configured) boot loader isn't
> changed
>
> ProblemType: Crash
> Architecture: i386
> Date: Sun May 25 18:24:21 2008
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
> ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity
> InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.5
> Package: ubiquity 1.8.7
> PackageArchitecture: i386
> ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity --only
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=
> PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
> LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8
> PythonArgs: ['/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity', '--only']
> SourcePackage: ubiquity
> Title: ubiquity crashed with InstallStepError in configure_ma()
> Uname: Linux 2.6.24-16-generic i686
> UserGroups:
>
> POSSIBLE WORKAROUND:
> add "ubiquity --no-migration-assistant" to the F6 options
>

----- End message from <email address hidden> -----

I just did a clean install of Jauntyrc and this problem seems to be fixed, at least for me.

Thanks for all the fish!!

just to say that I have encountered this bug when installing jaunty (ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso.torrent).

downloaded the iso via bittorent. ubiquity crashes and brings up dialog after install nearly finished. reboot leads to grub error 15, and the /boot contains no grub or initrd.

Turns out my bug is a separate bug: user stupidity :)

Probably should have checked the permissions of the separate home partition before installing.

If you are comfortable doing a command line install, I just did a clean install using the alternate download .iso and didn't crash at all. It isn't quite as pretty as installing with the gui, but all the information is the exact same. www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors#alternate This is the link to download the alternate text based installer.

ubiquity --no-migration-assistant
worked for me too

ubiquity --no-migration-assistant

did not work for me.

ubiquity --no-migration-assistant
worked for me too

But I needed install grub manually.

I hit this issue during Ubuntu 9.10 (final) release. I have Ubuntu8.10 , Ubuntu9.04 and WIn7 on separate partitions on two disks which may have confused the migration assistant.
Anyways due to the crash at the end the installation did not complete but my previous grub menu was intact. I manually added a new grub menu item for 9.10 but was surprised to find that the initrd.img was missing from the newly installed OS's /boot folder. I could copying the initrd.lz from the 9.10 installation disk to /boot and then boot from it.
I was surprised why the initrd file was missing from the /boot folder while the vmlinuz file was correctly copied.

It is because "initrd.img" is made by "update-initramfs" command for every machine individually just before GRUB is configured. Since "migration-manager" crashed then no "initrd.img" was made.
"intrd.img" from LiveCD is for it and might load way to much "things" to memory during bootup so generate your own "initrd.img" by "sudo update-intramfs -u"

Thanks dk75, I was able to create and boot with custom initrd.img using "sudo update-initramfs -u" but surprisingly it is larger that the initrd.lz image on the live CD.

initrd.lz ~ 5.5 Mb
initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic ~ 7.7 Mb

Oh well... every time kernel will be updated new "initrd.img" will be created by system so it's inevitable.
You may check "/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf" for tighter "initrd.img" creation.

Actually I had a screwier problem that entailed multiple installations of Ubuntu whose settings and files remained when I re installed - long story.
Suffice it to say that I backed up my data, reformatted Linux partitions, and installed the 9.10 64 bit I386     works great!

thank you so much for responding

--- On Fri, 11/6/09, dk75 <email address hidden> wrote:

From: dk75 <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 234835] Re: almost at the end of installation
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Friday, November 6, 2009, 5:27 PM

Oh well... every time kernel will be updated new "initrd.img" will be created by system so it's inevitable.
You may check "/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf" for tighter "initrd.img" creation.

POSSIBLE WORKAROUND:
add "ubiquity --no-migration-assistant" to the F6 options

>Ok so, this problem seems to be caused by running ubiquity within a
>liveboot that was booted from an iso file on the hdd (in my case I used
>grub2's loopback interface). It would seem that the migration assistant
>wanted to access other files on the partition that had the iso on it and
>refused to run without unmounting the partition, which I assumed
>wouldn't be good for the live system.

>Simply calling ubiquity using "ubiquity --no-migration-assistant" from
>the command line instead of the shortcut on the live desktop prevented
>the migration assistant from complaining.

>It would be nice if ubiquity could tell that the liveboot came from an
>iso file that is still mounted, (ie check if the /isodevice (created I
>assume by grub2) mount folder exists and offer to not run the migration
>assistant, either at all or give a warning and then use the assistant on
>the other partitions that it can access.

> ALL IN ALL THIS ISN'T REALLY A BUG!

I disagree. the fact that you can explain exactly how "properly behaving" programs end up doing something unexpected when combined, does not mean that it isn't a bug.

In this case, "it crashes" is definitively unwanted behavior, and whatever-it-takes should be done to prevent the end user getting confronted with this situation. (several decades ago, there was this daemon that would send "you have mail" messages to the logged in users. The mailer was supposed to send it the tty where the user was logged in, and the subject of the Email. unprivileged users could link /etc/passwd to /tmp/a and then send it: tty: ../tmp/a (8 chars max) and subject: bla\nmyroot::0:0::/:/bin/sh which worked exactly as specified in the manual....)

>I disagree. the fact that you can explain exactly how "properly behaving" programs end up doing something unexpected when combined, does not mean that it isn't a bug.

>In this case, "it crashes" is definitively unwanted behavior, and whatever-it-takes should be done to prevent the end user getting confronted with this situation. (several decades ago, there was this daemon that would send "you have mail" messages to the logged in users. The mailer was supposed to send it the tty where the user was logged in, and the subject of the Email. unprivileged users could link /etc/passwd to /tmp/a and then send it: tty: ../tmp/a (8 chars max) and subject: bla\nmyroot::0:0::/:/bin/sh which worked exactly as specified in the manual....)

Yeah, got a bit ahead of myself there, upon further reflection it is clearly a bug.
Now I'm just disputing the fact that it (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/493479) is a duplicate of this bug :).

Abd thanks for keeping me in check.

I loved your mention of the old tty messages. In 1972 or 1973 I was introduced to the world of computers while in pharmacy school at U Pitt. At first we had a teletype, that saved programs on ticker tape (lol) then we got hot and had the green datapoint monitors. Hot stuff.  Ahhh the old days, good to remember but glad I am not there!  ;)

----Sam

--- On Mon, 12/7/09, othrayte <email address hidden> wrote:

From: othrayte <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 234835] Re: almost at the end of installation
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Monday, December 7, 2009, 9:08 AM

>I disagree. the fact that you can explain exactly how "properly
behaving" programs end up doing something unexpected when combined, does
not mean that it isn't a bug.

>In this case, "it crashes" is definitively unwanted behavior,

Ok, I have written a bug that will be erase because it's a duplicate of this bug. (#526733)
Because I want this bug to be corrected, I post my situation and solutions to improve Ubuntu (I don't want new user to search hours like I did).

Version : Karmic Koala 9.10
Media :
- desktop installation cd
- alternate installation cd of Karmic Koala 9.10
- cd
- USB boot drive and
- in french and english.

When :
At 89%, at the stage of "importing documents and settings" the installer crash and then i have a windows saying :
Application problem
Sorry, the program "ubiquity" closed unexpectedly

Observations :
1-When looking at the new partition that was programmed to be mounted as /home, i can see that the Document folder (/home/jp/Documents) was trying to copy all the files contained in my windows XP profile.
Easy to understand that if this windows folder contained 33,8 gig and that my new linux partition for the /home only has 15 gig allocated, it won't work.
2- I already had a partition called /home (as a backup) and I was assigning another one to /home !
3- There is no step where you can chose to import your XP data (it appears later after erasing this second /home partition)

The bug is :
- The installer copy my Windows folder to his new partition without my permission.
- Once it does it, it doesn't check if there is enough space in the new location, so it crashes when it gets full.
- It copy it to the wrong /home partition that wasn't assignated in the manual partitioning.

Solution to correct this bug:
1- After a manual partitionning, Ubiquity check if there a partition that is already called /home and make the user chose. (something like : Oh I see you already have an installation on /home, you're a cleaver linux user so I'll make you save your datas, do you want to use the same user name or create another one and access your datas once Ubuntu is fully installed?
2- If it's too complicated, obey to what the user said. If he chose a new partition to be /home, don't look anywhere else, and install it to this exact location. So the user can try to restore is data hardfully later (mine are already lost).

Once this is done, the migration assistant work perfectly and make the user chose if they want to import their Windows documents. (my recommandation would be to just to make a shortcut instead of a copy).

Hope this bug get solved by a programmer, not by the users. (hope this doesn't sound too ironic, i've just noticed this bug has 2 years old).

Thank you

Can someone please clean the title and description of this report up? I was going to, but I can't make any sense of it.

Solution 2 doesn't work : if the user chose a partition to be /home when there is already one called /home there will be two partition labeled /home. So, something wrong will happen.

I think it's a good opportunity to explain to user how he can restore his datas and what will happen. It is so much said it's a good idea to have 3 partitions (/, /home, swap) to install Ubuntu instead of 2 (/home, swap) because in this way you can save your personnal data when you reinstall, but it's very unclear how i would do it when I was face to it. I think, when you are right at the moment to install a new system, you need to have a maximum of info offline.

Things I didn't know :
- What about the user I had before, should I choose a new one (I think it's safer, but don't know)...
- If I chose the same, the password is different, what will happen, what with all those compatibilities problem for the applications, will the system try to fix them (let say I was on 8.10 and now I install 9.10), will it overwrite my settings.
- How can I access those old data, without touching to the partition at the installation, (everything was locked), (maybe the installer can rename the partition to /home_old (don't know)... so the new one can be installed without problem.

Trying to help.

Please ask your support / help questions on the users mailing list or in the forums instead of in the bug report. The bug report is not to explain how things work, but to report and fix what did not work. http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists might be a good start for determining which mailing list to use. You can also ask questions using the launchpad support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if you are uncertain if they are bugs.

This BUG has been explained as clear as possible so a programmer can fix it, not a user. I've just explained my point of view on how to fix it. Please take time to read and make the corrections to the sytem. If nobody take time to explain their bugs, programmers will fix problems on their own intuition rather than on the experiences of the users, it will take months or years and the system won't get as clever as it could.

I have marked this ubiquity bug (concerning a crash caused by migration-assistant) as Triaged as all the necessary information should be available in this bug or through duplicates. The bug has also has be assigned to a developer. If you are experiencing this issue please log into Launchpad and click the "Does this bug affect you?" at the top of the bug. Please discuss this issue using mailing lists or IRC. Thank you.

Le 11/03/2010 22:39, komputes a écrit :
> I have marked this ubiquity bug (concerning a crash caused by migration-
> assistant) as Triaged as all the necessary information should be
> available in this bug or through duplicates. The bug has also has be
> assigned to a developer. If you are experiencing this issue please log
> into Launchpad and click the "Does this bug affect you?" at the top of
> the bug. Please discuss this issue using mailing lists or IRC. Thank
> you.
>
>

Can anyone experiencing this bug please add set -x to the second line of /usr/share/migration-assistant/ma-script-utils so that it looks like:
#!/bin/sh
set -x
. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule

Then hit alt-f2 and type `ubiquity -d`. Run the installer until it crashes, then hit alt-f2 again and type `apport-collect 234835`.

Thanks!

I think I've fixed this in migration-assistant 0.6.5. Can anyone that's experiencing this bug, please try with the latest daily-live CD (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/), and report back here if they were able to get past this point in the install or not.

Thanks!

Thanks for your quick response.
But, I think the error was mine. Multiple apps were running at the same
time and also the update manager was trying to check for updates. I
restarted the computer and it's worked ever since. Sorry, I should
checked this out before posting. I be more careful from now on and check
things out better before posting. thanks again.
On Mon, 2010-04-26 at 13:19 +0000, Evan Dandrea wrote:
> I think I've fixed this in migration-assistant 0.6.5. Can anyone that's
> experiencing this bug, please try with the latest daily-live CD
> (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/), and report back here if they
> were able to get past this point in the install or not.
>
> Thanks!
>