[Bug 1889989] Re: Grub fails to install in a VirtualBox installation of Ubuntu MATE Groovy 20.10 Aug 01, 2020

[Sai Vinoba]

*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 1885414 ***
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1885414

BIOS grub is not mandatory from my testing. However, if using, it has to
be the first partition and need only be 1M. It should not be formatted.
In your example you made it second partition (/dev/sda2).

So, for your test case, try the following partitioning scheme,
1) /dev/sda1, BIOS grub, 1M, no mount point
2) /dev/sda2, EFI System partition, 512M, /boot/efi
3) /dev/sda3, ext4, <root size as you wish/available>, /
4) /dev/sda4, swap, <swap size of choice> # This is not required now as Ubuntu uses swapfile. 

OR, skip BIOS grub and try,
1) /dev/sda1, EFI System partition, 512M, /boot/efi
2) /dev/sda2, ext4, <root size as you wish/available>, /
3) /dev/sda3, swap, <swap size of choice> # This is not required now as Ubuntu uses swapfile.

P.S.: Instead of creating new bug report for same issue, you could use
tags to include additional info like other distros/releases affected, or
if that is not possible, just update comment.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1889989

Title:
  Grub fails to install in a VirtualBox installation of Ubuntu MATE
  Groovy 20.10 Aug 01, 2020

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Grub fails to install in VirtualBox installation of Ubuntu MATE Groovy
  20.10 Aug 01, 2020 64-bit.

  Note: This is a duplicate bug report similar to one filed on July 06,
  2020:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1886580

  
  Though I'm trying to install Ubuntu MATE Groovy in a VirtualBox installation, I like to make it clear that, this is a desktop PC with old-style BIOS (No UEFI at all).

  Ubuntu MATE 20.10 daily live ISO I'm installing from is of Aug 01,
  2020

  VirtualBox version is: VirtualBox-6.1.97-139665-Linux_amd64, and it
  runs Ubuntu MATE 20.04 Focal with kernel version 5.7.11

  
  Issue: When I first tried to install it with just two partitions (like I always have up until now),

  (1) First EXT4 partition of 22GB, and
  (2) Second SWAP partition of 3GB;

  installer displayed:

  Error-1:
  "No EFI System Partition was found. This system will likely not be able to boot successfully, and the installation process may fail. Please go back and add an EFI System Partition, or continue at your own risk".

  and upon clicking Continue, it displayed:

  Error-2:
  "The partition table format in use on your disks normally requires you to create a separate partition for boot loader code. This partition should be marked as a "Reserved BIOS boot area" and should be at leat 1 MB in size. Note that thi is not the same as a partition mounted on /boot.

  If you do not go back to the partitioning menu and correct this error,
  boot loader installation may fail later, although it may still be
  possible to install the boot loader to a partition".

  So I went back and created:
  (1) EFI partition 1GB
  (2) Reserved BIOS boot area partition 1GB
  (3) / EXT4 partition 20GB
  (4) SWAP partition 3GB

  So even with "EFI" and "biosgrub" partitions, grub fails to install on
  either SDA/SDA1/SDA2/SDA3 with a message,

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

  Thanks.

  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: 2.20.11-0ubuntu43
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
  CasperVersion: 1.452
  Date: Sat Aug  1 08:45:58 2020
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu-mate.seed maybe-ubiquity quiet splash ---
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu-MATE 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" - Alpha amd64 (20200801)
  SourcePackage: grub-installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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