[Bug 1893964] Re: Installation of Ubuntu Groovy with manual partitioning without an EFI System Partition fails on 'grub-install /dev/sda' even on non-UEFI systems

[Jeremie Tamburini]

@juliank
OK you won, it looks things are working :)

When all the troubles came out with the 20.10 release a did tried all
the possible combinations with partitions and I remember I had problems
with the EFI in a logical partition. I did a new test and this time it
was successful.

I managed to grab an old computer with BIOS and I have:
- installed Ubuntu 22.04 manually creating the EFI in a logical partition in a disk with msdos (MBR) partition table 
- moved the hard disk to a computer with UEFI
- booted the system selecting the hard drive from the EFI menu
...and the system booted regularly.

Now the major problem is more related to the content of the message that doesn't describe properly the purpose of the EFI on old fashion computers:
Julian Andres Klode has already opened a new bug report:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1983719


P.S.
For most users setting the EFI in disk with MBR doesn't make sense. This is quite a big feature and a big change, it should have been communicated/documented in a better way. 
Ubuntu has all the channels to make its users aware ;)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1893964

Title:
  Installation of Ubuntu Groovy with manual partitioning without an EFI
  System Partition fails on 'grub-install /dev/sda' even on non-UEFI
  systems

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in ubiquity source package in Hirsute:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  Hello,

  trying to install current daily-live images of Groovy in VirtualBox
  fails for me when I'm using manual partitioning without an EFI System
  Partition (ESP).

  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).

  Modifying the setup by creating an ESP manually like described in #7
  makes the installation complete successfully without error.

  The setups I have tested (my machine and VirtualBox) don't support
  UEFI or don't have UEFI support enabled respectively (and thus don't
  actually require an ESP to boot).

  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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