[Bug 1266195] Re: grub-installer fails to install when using btrfs

[Chris Murphy]

*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 1059827 ***
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1059827

Ideally the installer should test for a properly sized MBR gap earlier
on, so it can fail before going to the trouble of installing the OS,
only to have grub-install inevitably fail. Windows 7 uses LBA 2048/1MB
aligned first partition, and maybe even Vista did. XP does not, it
starts the first partition at LBA 63. Older versions of parted do the
same.

Next, the use of the --force flag for grub-install on a whole block
device seems ill advised. As far as I know, it's useful when directed to
a partition formatted ext[234] so that the boot strap code and block
list is placed in the VBR instead of the MBR gap. The --force flag will
fail on XFS and Btrfs.

In any case, the work around is to repartition with something even
somewhat recent, so that partition 1 starts at LBA 2048.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1266195

Title:
  grub-installer fails to install when using btrfs

Status in “grub-installer” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  With the daily Kubuntu 14.04 installer I tried to install with a btrfs
  root filesystem and a swap partition (there's also a Dell specific DOS
  partition, but I'm leaving that alone) the installer says it fails to
  install grub.

   Jan  5 12:02:24 kubuntu grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sda'
   Jan  5 12:02:25 kubuntu grub-installer: info: grub-install does not support --no-floppy
   Jan  5 12:02:25 kubuntu grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install  --force "/dev/sda"
   Jan  5 12:02:26 kubuntu grub-installer: /usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: warning: your core.img is unusually large.  It won't fit in the embedding area.
   Jan  5 12:02:26 kubuntu grub-installer: /usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: error: filesystem `btrfs' doesn't support blocklists.
   Jan  5 12:02:26 kubuntu grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install  --force "/dev/sda"' failed.

  Needless to say the system fails to boot after that. :-(

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: ubiquity 2.17.3
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.12.0-7.15-generic 3.12.4
  Uname: Linux 3.12.0-7-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.12.7-0ubuntu3
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.336ubuntu1
  CurrentDesktop: KDE
  Date: Sun Jan  5 23:02:33 2014
  InstallCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/kubuntu.seed boot=casper maybe-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
  LiveMediaBuild: Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140105)
  MarkForUpload: True
  SourcePackage: grub-installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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