[Bug 1267922] [NEW] Installer becomes confused and crashes when grub-install fails

[Phillip Susi]

Public bug reported:

If grub-install fails, ubiquity screws up in two ways:

1) It unmounts /target/dev, so when you select another location ( the correct one ) to install grub to, that attempt fails as well
2) After selecting a different loation, the installer goes immediately to the installation complete dialog, while attempting to install grub in the background.  At this point, clicking just about anything causes ubiquity to crash.

You can easily reproduce this in a vm with two disk drives.  Install the
system on sda, but select sdb1 for grub.  This will fail because cross
disk installs require the embed area.  When the prompt comes up to pick
another location, pick sdb or sda, both of which will work if you chose
them the first time.  The installation complete message pops up
immediately.  A second or two later, the grub install failed dialog
comes back.  In syslog you will see the second attempt failed because
grub-probe could not find /boot.  This is because /dev is not mounted in
/target at this point.

We get many crash reports filed to grub as a result of this where the
wrong grub target was chosen the first time, then the user picks the
correct place, but installing there fails too.

** Affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
         Status: Triaged

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to ubiquity in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1267922

Title:
  Installer becomes confused and crashes when grub-install fails

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  If grub-install fails, ubiquity screws up in two ways:

  1) It unmounts /target/dev, so when you select another location ( the correct one ) to install grub to, that attempt fails as well
  2) After selecting a different loation, the installer goes immediately to the installation complete dialog, while attempting to install grub in the background.  At this point, clicking just about anything causes ubiquity to crash.

  You can easily reproduce this in a vm with two disk drives.  Install
  the system on sda, but select sdb1 for grub.  This will fail because
  cross disk installs require the embed area.  When the prompt comes up
  to pick another location, pick sdb or sda, both of which will work if
  you chose them the first time.  The installation complete message pops
  up immediately.  A second or two later, the grub install failed dialog
  comes back.  In syslog you will see the second attempt failed because
  grub-probe could not find /boot.  This is because /dev is not mounted
  in /target at this point.

  We get many crash reports filed to grub as a result of this where the
  wrong grub target was chosen the first time, then the user picks the
  correct place, but installing there fails too.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1267922/+subscriptions