[Bug 1893964] Re: Installation of Ubuntu Groovy in VirtualBox with manual partitioning fails on 'grub-install /dev/sda'

[Jan Rathmann]

This happens also when I try to install Kubuntu Groovy, the only thing
that's different is that after the "grub-install /dev/sda failed" dialog
there is for 1-2 seconds a window telling "Sorry the installer had
crashed" which disappears again without interventention, and then there
is dialog with the following message:

"The installer encountered an unrecoverable error. A desktop session
will now be run so that you may investigate the problem or try
installing again."

That dialog sends you to the live session.

But that seems to be the only difference between Kubuntu and Ubuntu -
the installation will boot despite the failure, but is "not complete",
as described above.

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Title:
  Installation of Ubuntu Groovy in VirtualBox with manual partitioning
  fails on 'grub-install /dev/sda'

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Hello,

  trying to install current daily-live images of Groovy in VirtualBox
  fails for me when I'm using manual partitioning.

  Steps to reproduce:

  1. Partition layout I have used in VirtualBox:
   * Partition table: MBR
   * A single primary ext4 partition (/dev/sda1) using up the entire virtual harddisk with 1 MB free space before start of the partition
  2. Boot current Groovy daily-live image, click on "Install Ubuntu"
  3. Choose "Something else" (manual partitioning)
  4. Select /dev/sda1 as target for '/', check "format partition".
  5. Ignore warning about missing EFI system partition.

  Result:

  The installation proceeds until GRUB is about to be installed.
  Then an error dialog appears: "Executing 'grub-install /dev/sda' failed. This is a fatal error." (screenshot attached).
  If I click 'Ok', after a moment Ubiquity nevertheless shows the usual dialog saying "Installation is complete. Please restart." The only option the dialog offered was to click on "Restart now".
  After that, booting the failed installation succeeds, but it is obvious that Ubiquity couldn't complete its job: Packages like ubiquity itself, which usually get purged from the fresh system at the end of a successful installation, are still installed. There is also a pop-up in gnome-shell showing an error regarding package management (screenshot attached, not sure if this is related to the failed install). 

  To send this report, I was running 'sudo ubuntu-bug ubiquity' on the
  "failed", but nevertheless booting fresh installation.

  Kind regards, Jan

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
  Package: ubiquity 20.10.9
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-42.46-generic 5.4.44
  Uname: Linux 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
  ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu45
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
  Date: Wed Sep  2 16:55:14 2020
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-42-generic root=UUID=6ba06971-16c7-4df6-afcc-3bc101cba9a5 ro quiet splash
  SourcePackage: ubiquity
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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