[Bug 464743] Re: error: sparse file not allowed

[Sven Romeike]

Same problem after installing Ubuntu 12.04 from a USB Stick to HD
formated with btrfs

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/464743

Title:
  error: sparse file not allowed

Status in GRand Unified Bootloader:
  New
Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: grub-pc

  I have just upgraded my laptop to Ubuntu 9.10 and thought I would try
  to switch to Grub2. I followed the instructions from
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 and the installation did not
  show any errors. The version of grub-pc that was installed was
  1.97~beta4-1ubuntu3

  When I rebooted, I got the legacy grub menu and chose the "Chainload"
  option. The Grub 2 menu screen came up, with the choices I expected
  for Ubuntu, Memory test and Windows.  When I select the "Ubuntu, Linux
  2.6.31-14-generic" option, grub shows:

  error: sparse files not allowed

  Press any key to continue.

  I tried the options for "Memory test" and "Windows", which worked just
  fine. I followed the instructions at

  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Command Line & Rescue Mode

  specifically, I dropped to the command line mode and issued the
  following commands:

  set root=(hd0,3)
  linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda3 ro
  initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
  boot

  and the system booted... I then rebooted and chose to edit the
  "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" grub 2 menu entry. Looking through
  all the commands, I chose to remove the following lines:

  recordfail=1
  if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi

  when I removed these entries, the system booted just fine.

  I have no idea why these two lines would cause a problem, but they
  appear to. It is not clear if I would have had this problem if I had
  performed a fresh install of 9.10, but I expect I would have  - which
  would have landed less technical users with an unusable Ubuntu
  installation!

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