[Bug 1061269] Re: 'Precise' installation via CD failed to create GRUB menu.

[Michael Hislop]

2012-10-03

Hi Yann,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you. I have reported the bug. The
url is:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1061269

Per your mail dated 2012/9/18, I have had a look at using GParted to
resize the sda5 (123GB) partition. Trouble is GParted detects no file
systems on /dev/sda? Partition is indicated as 'unallocated' and File
System is indicated as 'unallocated'. Size 232.89 GiB. You will recall
that I noted that Partition Magic from within windows reported the same
situation and your sense was that this was a Partition Magic bug. It is
concerning that both applications are unable to detect partitions and
file systems. Within Windows the OS still detects the drives and space
utilisation as before and appears to be working normally.

Any insight into how to proceed would be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Michael

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1061269

Title:
  'Precise' installation via CD failed to create GRUB menu.

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Boot Repair
  	
  19 Sep
  		
  to me
  2012/9/18 Michael Hislop <mike.hislop at gmail.com>

      Hello Yann,

      Thank you for your prompt reply.

      The problem is related to trying to upgrade from Oneric to Precise
  using a CD. Previously I have upgraded over the internet. I have been
  running Ubuntu on this particular PC since 2007 as a dual boot with
  Windows XP. As the upgrades have become bigger and bigger upgrading
  has become tedious with the poor bandwidth on my DSL line. Bandwidth
  in general is not great in South Africa. On this upgrade I decided to
  rather upgrade from a CD which a colleague had used to install Precise
  on another system. This seemed to be a fool-proof strategy for a
  painless upgrade (wrong).

  
  Upgrading via a liveCD is always much more reliable than from the Update Manager... you're not lucky...
   

  
      I have installed various versions of Linux over the years from as far back as 1999 including Red Hat and Suse. Of all the installations I have done this has turned out to be by far the most epic fail that I have ever experienced. The issue may possibly be related to a hardware quirk on this PC. On my first attempt I selected the upgrade install process (12.04). This got to the 'choose region' dialogue and then hung. I left the system all night with no progress and non-responsive forcing a restart. This aborted process broke Oneric; the GRUB menu still worked but Linux would not start.

  
      I tried to reinstall again. This time the upgrade option was no longer available, only (i) replace existing Linux or (ii) replace Linux and Windows. This was sad as it meant I would loose all my customised software installations. I went ahead (out of desperation) and once again the install got to the 'region' screen and then the system became non-responsive forcing a restart, excepting this time nothing started. To recover the Windows MBR I used the XP installation disk to 'fixmbr'.

      After a few days (licking my wounds) I got hold of a copy of
  12.04.01 on CD in case my installation problems were related to a bug
  in the 12.04 release. Once again the install process got to the
  'choose region' dialogue and then hung. I forced a restart and this
  time I plugged in a blank 2 GB USB stick before once again attempting
  the install process. This time the installation completed?!? However,
  on restarting Windows was no longer accessible. On booting the screen
  was blank with a floating 'bubble' message which states something like
  "The input device could not be located." Then after a few seconds
  Ubuntu started up. The GRUB menu was not displayed. I need my Windows
  installation for work, so I had to restore the ability to boot
  Windows. This time the machine wouldn't even boot from the Windows
  recovery CD so I was forced to look for a Linux solution. If I
  remember correctly (it was late) I ran 'sudo apt-get install lilo' and
  'sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr' from the live CD to restore the Windows
  MBR.

  
  Please report this installer bug(s) here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+filebug
  And tell me the URL of the report, so that I can follow-up.


      So now I have a system which boots directly into Windows. Precise
  is installed but GRUB is not working so I cannot access it. A
  frustrating situation.

      Originally the system had a 250 GB HDD with three partitions for
  Windows (C: [NTFS] for OS and applications and E: and F: for data
  [FAT32]) and default partitions for Ubuntu install. More recently I
  added a 1 TB disk to the system which is Windows 'extended'. Under
  Windows explorer the different original 'drives' are available, but
  applications like PowerQuest Partition Magic no longer detects the
  extents of the partitions, reporting simply BAD which is concerning. I
  cannot afford the time wastage of damaging the Windows installation.

  
  This is a bug of PowerQuest.


  
      I am mystified why GRUB ran perfectly in the past but now does not? What happened to the original boot partition? 1GB is relatively small, but is still quite a fair amount of space; as a matter of interest will Linux fully utilise this space? Do you have any suggestions to restore the 'health' of the Windows partitions?

  
  1GB is not much when you have 250GB+1TB. Boot files need to be placed somewhere anyway.
  You may be affected by this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1030887

  Yann

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