Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Installer tries to install grub on the wrong disk

Bug #1476178 reported by Kjeld Flarup
16
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Incomplete
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

I have just installed Ubuntu 14.04 on a Dell precision M3800, via download of the USB network installer.

This gave me some headache installing grub, since during the install, the hard disk was assigned to /dev/sdb.
Installing the file system worked well, but the grub part failed. No matter what I did, it always tried to install grub on /dev/sda

I ended up in continuing the install without bootloader, and when finished, I escaped the install sequence and executed a shell where I executed this command:
grub-install --root-directory=/target /dev/sda

Thus I worked around the problem, but I think that this is an easily fixable bug in the installer. It should just check which device is mounted on /target

PS: I guess the cause of this behaviour, is that the USB stick which I use, does not contain a driver for the disk controller. Thus the driver module is first loaded when the USB gets network access and can fetch the driver from the net. Thus the USB is always assigned /dev/sda. When the system is installed the kernel knows the driver and the disk gets /dev/sda

Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)
affects: xubuntu-meta (Ubuntu) → ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

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

Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Per-Inge (per-inge-hallin) wrote :

I have the same problem but on wily

Revision history for this message
Phillip Susi (psusi) wrote :

We need you to attach your logs from /var/log/installer/ to troubleshoot this.

Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Kjeld Flarup (kfc-j) wrote :

Here goes the log

Revision history for this message
Phillip Susi (psusi) wrote :

Your primary drive ( /dev/sda ) appears to have been partitioned with an ancient partitioning tool that started the one partition there ( fat16 ) very close to the start of the disk, which does not leave enough room for grub. You either need to repartition it with a modern partitioning tool or choose to install grub to /dev/sdb instead ( and make sure your bios is set to boot that drive ).

Revision history for this message
Kjeld Flarup (kfc-j) wrote :

Of course /dev/sda is ancient it is a removeable USB stick!
Bug or feature, that grub install fails? A successful grub install might have broken my install media.

As I wrote in the error description the harddisk which I install on always ends up beeing /dev/sdb during install, but when I remove the USB stick it becomes /dev/sda at next boot.

Also as I wrote, I actually solved this by manually installing into /dev/sdb via the /target mount, but still referring to /dev/sda

Thus I do not see that this is a duplicate of #1059827

To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.
Subscribing...

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.