[Bug 1571230] Re: Installer crashes with UEFI, can't install grub to /target/

[Peter Stoll]

Hello,

thanks for your answer, though I do not agree for two reasons:

1) The disk is partitioned with GPT and runs currently with this 
partition table a EFI System. It did always (in past and present) boot 
in UEFI mode to the partition which used to contain the Ubuntu 14.04 
which was installed by Dell.
I did not get a warning as you wrote. I got another warning
which said, in my words, that there is an _other_ OS on some partition
on the disk which may be in bios mode and might not boot afterwards any 
more. This was ok for me, since I did not need that OS any more 
(actually the OS on the partition never worked, it was a previous 
failed attempt to install ubuntu 16.04 in legacy mode).

2) Even if your assumption would be right, it is not an acceptable 
behaviour that an application crashes if the user is doing something 
wrong, unless it is something nasty as deleting files which the
application needs to run. So the correct behaviour would be to raise an 
error message instead to crash.


Meanwhile I managed it to do this:
I did an upgrade of the already existing partition from Ubuntu 14.04 to
Ubuntu 16.04, by using a USB-Installer of Ubuntu 16.04, daily build from 
April 17th, thus almost final. That lead to a running 16.04 system on 
the old partition, booting with EFI, without changes of the partition
table.

A few minutes ago, I did another attempt to do a fresh install of Ubuntu 
16.04 (now Final Relase, offline, thus without downloading any
update during installation) on the other partition, just the way
that I did it when I reported the bug. That worked now! I still got the 
warning which I mentioned above (but not yours).
Whether there was the bug fixed meanwhile, or whether it worked because
I upgraded the other partition (and by that way also the grub on that 
disk), .. I can't tell.

I personally think it is unlikely that the bug was fixed in the few days 
between April 17th and final Release, where only very critical changes 
should have been allowed, and I recommend to reopen the ticket.

For me it works now, so I won't complain in any case, but I write this
to help you to make Ubuntu even better.

Regards,
Peter Stoll


Am 23.04.2016 um 20:54 schrieb Phillip Susi:
> You are trying to install in EFI mode to a disk that is not partitioned
> for it, and chose to ignore the warning suggesting a bios mode install.
>
> ** Changed in: grub-installer (Ubuntu)
>         Status: Confirmed => Invalid
>

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1571230

Title:
  Installer crashes with UEFI, can't install grub to /target/

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  I try to install Ubuntu 16.04, daily build from yesterday (2016-04-15) on a Dell XPS 13 (2015).
  The Dell has a preinstalled Ubuntu 14.04 (installed by Dell).
  I did this:
  Installer on USB Stick
  Power on
  Bios-Setting are keept as they were: UEFI on, secure boot off.
  Boot from USB Stick in UEFI-Mode.
  Try Ubuntu ...
  Then started the installer.
  Installed with this layout:
  / to /dev/sda5 (just a free partion)
  grub to /dev/sda
  The installer run a few minutes, the I get two messages:
  first, something with ' can' t install grub to /target/ ...' 
  Then " the installer crashed'  , and some apport reporting dialog opens, which redirects me to this web page.

  I tried serveral times, the result is every time the same.

  When I Install in Legacy mode, I can Install, but am not able to boot
  the installed system (which is another issue, and might be due to
  missing knowledge of myself, anyway any hint is welcome).

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: ubiquity 2.21.57 [modified: lib/partman/automatically_partition/question]
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-18.34-generic 4.4.6
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-18-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.372
  Date: Sat Apr 16 19:52:56 2016
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity quiet splash ---
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Beta amd64 (20160415)
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: grub-installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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