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Dobroslav
October 16th, 2010, 08:32 PM
Error message is:

Sorry, an error occurred and it was not possible to install the bootloader at the specified location.

It appears during fresh installation of Ubi 10.10. I have three options: to continue without it, to try again(unsuccessful) and to stop installation. I have continued without it and i have tried to install grub from livecd, but it seems not working....

What to do now? i'm stuck at the installation, please help...

lemming465
October 18th, 2010, 01:21 AM
When you tried to install the boot loader from the live CD, what specifically did you do? Also, what is your partition layout? My best results with boot problems come when I use chroot to transition to the disk based filesytem. E.g. if your ubuntu install was a single root partition on /dev/sda3, something like:
sudo bash
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
cd /mnt
for f in sys dev proc; do mount -o bind /$f $f; done
chroot .
grub-install /dev/sda

bsampson
October 26th, 2010, 05:35 PM
I hate to hijack a thread, but this appears abandoned, and I'm having the exact same problem.

I install 10.10 to an older MSI Pentium D Celeron based system, using a 200 GB IDE drive. I've also tried a 1.5TB SATA drive, with the exact same results. I let the system use the entire disk and partition the drive using default settings.

The install seems to go fine, until the very end where it appears to create the bootloader. The error is the same as the original post described. The drive seems to have the full install loaded to it, I just can't boot to it.

It's almost as if the boot sector is protected. I've also tried 10.04 with the same result - although the error is presented slightly differently.

Can anybody give me any tips?

Rubi1200
October 26th, 2010, 07:04 PM
Hi and welcome to the forums :-)
it might be better to start your own thread as each situation is different.

In any event, use a LiveCD to boot the computer and choose to try Ubuntu in live mode.

Follow the instructions in the link at the bottom of my post and post the results back here.

Please wrap the text with the # tag which can be found on the menu bar.

Thanks.

bsampson
October 27th, 2010, 12:20 AM
Thanks for your reply Rubi - here are the contents of the RESULTS.txt file:


Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.10
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390721968 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 2,048 374,792,191 374,790,144 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 374,794,238 390,721,535 15,927,298 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 374,794,240 390,721,535 15,927,296 82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991 ext4
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda5 e5ba74c4-5fcc-424c-86cc-73722c322170 swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)


=========================== sda1/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
set have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
}

if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ "x${timeout}" != "x-1" ]; then
if keystatus; then
if keystatus --shift; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=0
fi
else
if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
set timeout=0
fi
fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=95123108-a3d4-49b6-8f5f-f7d8668f0991 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=e5ba74c4-5fcc-424c-86cc-73722c322170 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


64.5GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
.7GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
.4GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
17.3GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
.7GB: initrd.img
17.3GB: vmlinuz
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Downloads$

ronparent
October 27th, 2010, 01:41 AM
Have you tried the grub 2 reinstall. From a live cd session oppen a terminal. Then mount your install partition

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
Then the reinstall:

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

If it doesn't boot now then something might be blocking the MBR - but I doubt it.

bsampson
October 27th, 2010, 02:03 PM
Thanks ronparent, that did the trick!

Rubi1200
October 27th, 2010, 02:20 PM
Don't forget to run
sudo update-grub as well.

Glad you got things sorted out :)

Please mark this thread Solved using te Thread Tools near the top of the page.

bsampson
October 27th, 2010, 02:59 PM
Thanks Rubi - Apparently another reason I should have started my own thread - so I can mark it 'solved'... I don't see the option under thread tools.

Rubi1200
October 27th, 2010, 03:36 PM
Thanks Rubi - Apparently another reason I should have started my own thread - so I can mark it 'solved'... I don't see the option under thread tools.
Oops! Yes, you are right of course :)

baldmountain
October 28th, 2010, 01:59 PM
Hi, I'm having this issue too. I have a bit more information about my system. I previously installed Ubuntu on this disk. The original install may have been v7 or 8 or 5. I think. In any case the disk had grub legacy installed on it. I decided to wipe the disk and start fresh with 10.10. The install ran to the end, and like the other posters, I got the "Bootloader install failed" message. (I let the install finish without installing the bootloader.) I'm guessing the transition from from grub legacy to grub 2 is the issue. I tried ronparent's suggestion of:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

The commands run fine, but when I rebooted the system, it boots to:

grub>

not grub edit, but grub.

I'll probably try the steps in:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows

when I get home tonight. But I'm worried that it might not work since 'ls /media' returns an empty directory.

Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

halfdan.k
November 2nd, 2010, 05:54 PM
hey everyone
I'm installing ubuntu 10.10 NBR on an IBM x41 previously running 10.04 NBR.
Install is uneventful until it fails to install grub. I have tried all three options but the install simply hangs at that point. Only option is turning the pc off.
When booted from livecd bootscript gets me the RESULTS.TXT below.


Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
=> Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.10
Boot files/dirs: /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sdb1 starts
at sector 0. But according to the info from fdisk,
sdb1 starts at sector 32.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders, total 78140160 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 2,048 74,840,063 74,838,016 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 74,842,110 78,139,391 3,297,282 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 74,842,112 78,139,391 3,297,280 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0 GB, 16028794368 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15286 cylinders, total 31306239 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 32 31,305,727 31,305,696 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/loop1 ac216f20-6820-4553-b17a-3b866840b723 ext3
/dev/mmcblk0p1 327E-4105 vfat Med
/dev/sda1 4c883372-3e8c-40b4-bc60-75e488ee3cd5 ext4
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda5 a4cf0113-b556-444e-a3ff-6168eb60f67a swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb1 002C-A1F1 vfat
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos"

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437, iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)


=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=4c883372-3e8c-40b4-bc60-75e488ee3cd5 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=a4cf0113-b556-444e-a3ff-6168eb60f67a none swap sw 0 0

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


6.6GB: boot/grub/core.img
2.4GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
6.6GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
2.4GB: initrd.img
6.6GB: vmlinuz
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader on sda2

00000000 b6 2f 08 d1 60 b4 ef 88 b1 67 ce 98 d6 66 65 3b |./..`....g...fe;|
00000010 86 1e e4 fa 4e 79 9b c0 95 c4 3e 13 f8 c8 1a 43 |....Ny....>....C|
00000020 9c e4 58 ec 10 29 f6 a5 d4 5d 61 da 78 7e f3 28 |..X..)...]a.x~.(|
00000030 7e ee 15 9f a8 a8 33 ab 4b a9 be 6b a8 f1 56 5b |~.....3.K..k..V[|
00000040 86 18 3d b0 c2 94 c2 0a f7 49 a3 de e9 54 19 9d |..=......I...T..|
00000050 23 d2 7a 71 6a 05 94 70 3b 74 da b1 b0 4e 9b 83 |#.zqj..p;t...N..|
00000060 a3 cc cd 31 53 7d 5b 07 ca 1c a1 5c 67 fd 75 d1 |...1S}[....\g.u.|
00000070 82 65 fe 07 07 a9 77 2a a7 95 b7 76 3f d2 d4 1a |.e....w*...v?...|
00000080 12 d2 aa 99 eb 70 0e 58 1d c4 68 79 7d 99 c5 13 |.....p.X..hy}...|
00000090 99 8f 84 84 8f e0 da a9 44 29 d3 82 f8 9c 2c 4f |........D)....,O|
000000a0 e0 57 fa 99 e9 11 0b 52 a7 93 38 e0 c2 ba c4 33 |.W.....R..8....3|
000000b0 3d 44 b0 12 e8 8f ed de 50 32 89 bc 71 72 76 e3 |=D......P2..qrv.|
000000c0 f7 44 15 38 ac 12 23 46 f5 b6 69 00 d6 cf 2b e7 |.D.8..#F..i...+.|
000000d0 9a 28 4f 5d 0d f5 19 a8 d7 14 fd 78 fd ae 38 ac |.(O].......x..8.|
000000e0 78 a2 3f b8 1f ba 34 8c a4 a5 57 eb 6d 33 ba 94 |x.?...4...W.m3..|
000000f0 58 54 7b 2e e9 f7 05 ab 7f 57 6c 4c 39 4c 52 fe |XT{......WlL9LR.|
00000100 0d f5 2e d5 3a a0 b7 bb 5c 6a 25 bf 7d 49 4c 05 |....:...\j%.}IL.|
00000110 51 5c db 3e 5d 90 d6 c3 36 68 ce 4e d6 58 de 78 |Q\.>]...6h.N.X.x|
00000120 d4 d6 4d 62 fd db 91 81 c0 04 bd aa f2 5e 0c 59 |..Mb.........^.Y|
00000130 27 00 6d 2c 9f 38 a9 ef 53 6a 57 fc 58 3a 61 13 |'.m,.8..SjW.X:a.|
00000140 e3 95 2a 68 ba eb bf 82 10 b6 6c 16 eb cc 80 b7 |..*h......l.....|
00000150 0b c6 bb d3 8b e0 f9 2f 15 a1 e9 2a 65 19 8e 3f |......./...*e..?|
00000160 67 97 ba ca fb 4a 2c 52 6d 40 a0 da c3 ec da bf |g....J,Rm@......|
00000170 9f cb 7f d1 b4 0b 51 64 dd b7 07 78 6b 90 92 d0 |......Qd...xk...|
00000180 e9 ca f5 35 26 5f 65 62 0a f3 bc a4 fc 3a b6 72 |...5&_eb.....:.r|
00000190 03 b9 a4 5a 65 52 0d e0 bc 2f 85 7c 87 d3 21 af |...ZeR.../.|..!.|
000001a0 a5 63 72 1a b6 b8 2c f7 0a dc d3 90 5a c1 1b c9 |.cr...,.....Z...|
000001b0 3b 7e b0 e9 4e 48 24 9a 38 e2 1f 47 90 89 00 fe |;~..NH$.8..G....|
000001c0 ff ff 82 fe ff ff 02 00 00 00 00 50 32 00 00 00 |...........P2...|
000001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200

Rubi1200
November 2nd, 2010, 06:04 PM
Hi halfdan.k,


No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdasda1:
Boot files/dirs: /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.imgObviously, GRUB failed to install correctly to the MBR and you are missing files on sda1. It should look like this:
/boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

I recommend you do a complete purge and reinstall of GRUB using the chroot method outlined in the following link:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099

If you need help or anything is unclear, please ask before proceeding.

halfdan.k
November 2nd, 2010, 07:01 PM
thank you - that solved my issue. excellent!
as an aside: figured out my issue - accidentally left an 8gb SD card in my card reader which led to the installer trying to put grub on /dev/mmcblk0 which was read only. Why it would hang even when choosing the "continue without boot loader" is however beyond me.

thanks again though.

Rubi1200
November 2nd, 2010, 07:13 PM
You are more than welcome halfdan.k :)

And, yes, it is funny that it did that. Normally, if one continues choosing not to install a bootloader there should not be a problem.

Oh well, at least things work now.

Enjoy!

therrmann
January 3rd, 2011, 05:39 AM
I had the same problem on a brand-new Dell desktop machine, even though I was erasing the entire 160GB disk and doing a fresh install. It would not install the bootloader, so I let it install without it. Then I went to the thread suggested by Rubi1200 and installed Grub2. Worked! But I still don't understand why this should be needed. It is not like I was trying to retain a windows partition or anything like that. BTW the netbook version of 10.10 installed flawlessly on my Asus netbook, replacing 10.04 and keeping the separate Windows and /home partitions just fine.

sonichedgehog
March 30th, 2011, 03:58 PM
Have you tried the grub 2 reinstall. From a live cd session oppen a terminal.
Another belated thank you ronparent. Saved me a lot of bother:guitar: