[Bug 996617] Re: New install on laptop installed incorrect version of Grub (Grub-efi)

[Brian Candler]

I have seen what I believe is the same problem several times with
ubuntu-server edition.

* Boot up from USB stick (possibly this forces EFI mode?)
* Install, everything looks fine
* Reboot, machine doesn't boot :-(
* Turns out that the machine has msdos partitions but grub-efi was installed, rather than grub-pc

I see the following as possible issues, but beware that I am certainly
no EFI expert.

1. If the disk has MSDOS rather than GPT partition table, I don't think
EFI booting is possible. In that case I think grub-pc should be
installed instead of grub-efi. In fact, it should probably also check
that there is a suitable EFI boot partition too.

(Or: perhaps grub-efi should always be subject to confirmation, always
giving you the option to install grub-pc instead)

2. The ubuntu-server text-based partitioning doesn't appear to have any
option to create a GPT partition table. At least I have just tried this
with ubuntu-12.04 server in a VM, and it doesn't offer me this choice in
manual partitioning.

This is rather forces people to continue to use legacy partitioning and
booting. If you know what you are doing you can boot from a live CD,
partition with gparted, and then reboot into the installer.

3. Actually what I said in (2) is not true if you use "expert mode". At
the point "Create empty partition table on this device?", you can select
gpt. But expert mode is painful and tedious.

Another solution would be if "Create empty partition table?" in non-
expert mode could offer the option of GPT. Or to avoid another prompt,
it could automatically create a GPT table if you booted in EFI mode and
grub-efi is going to be installed later. Maybe it does this already, I
haven't tested it. But this still doesn't help if the disk has a pre-
existing msdos partition table and you don't remember to overwrite it.

(Aside: I have just tried installing an ubuntu server VM in virtualbox
with EFI enabled, using expert mode and gpt, but it wouldn't boot and
dropped me into EFI shell instead. I told you I wasn't an EFI expert :-)

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to ubiquity in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/996617

Title:
  New install on laptop installed incorrect version of Grub (Grub-efi)

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Colin Watson looked at this at UDS and requested bug be filed so he
  could examine the logs.

  Was a new install at 12.04 Beta laptop has a hybrid drive that has a
  500 gig rotating media that is SDA and 16Gig SSD that is SDB.  Laptop
  BIOS is efi enabled but was doing a standard bios boot.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: ubiquity (not installed)
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
  Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Tue May  8 09:16:22 2012
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash --
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120328)
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: ubiquity
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/996617/+subscriptions