Install failure, /dev/disk/by-uuid/8**** does not exist.

[Aart Koelewijn]

I had an old computer runnig 7.10 quite nicely.

I upgraded it to 8.04, but when I had to reboot it, it failed me, nothing 
happened anymore, a hardware (motherboard?) failure, I suppose.

Now with bits and parts of this computer and an other old computer, about 
the same age, both Pentium III I build something which I think should 
work.

I tried the live 8.04 cd, which worked nicely, so I proceded to install. 
All seemed to go well, but at the end the install procedure broke off and 
when I tried to boot from hard-disk I got "GRUB loading stage 1.5.  Error 
15". In the /boot directory there is no grub subdirectory. The last 50 
lines of /var/log/syslog are below, but what took my attention was the 
line:

Jun 13 13:21:00 ubuntu migration-assistant: error: /dev/disk/by-
uuid/8eddddba-dc57-4771-b1bf-015323dade22 does not exist.

I tried this a number of times with somewhat different hd parameters, but 
always got the same result. I also tried to install 7.10, which was 
originally installed on these computers, but again the same result.

The computer has a 450 MHz Pentium III, about 750 MB ram and 2 harddisks, 
one of 6.5 GB which I use as root and one of about 14 GB which is used 
as /home and /swap and on which I once also tried to install /boot. The 
other times /boot was not in a separate partition.  I  did  not  
format   /home, but did format all the other partitions.

I hope someone is able to give me some ideas about how to proceed further.
Now those lines from syslog (not wrapped):

Jun 13 13:20:59 ubuntu kernel: [ 3907.010333] kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
Jun 13 13:20:59 ubuntu kernel: [ 3907.013931] EXT3 FS on sdf3, internal journal
Jun 13 13:20:59 ubuntu kernel: [ 3907.015926] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Jun 13 13:21:00 ubuntu migration-assistant: error: /dev/disk/by-uuid/8eddddba-dc57-4771-b1bf-015323dade22 does not exist.
Jun 13 13:21:00 ubuntu ubiquity: mount: can't find /mnt/migrationassistant/home in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
Jun 13 13:21:00 ubuntu ubiquity: 
Jun 13 13:21:00 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy
Jun 13 13:21:00 ubuntu ubiquity: 
Jun 13 13:21:00 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy
Jun 13 13:21:00 ubuntu ubiquity: 
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu ubiquity: 
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu ubiquity: umount: /mnt/migrationassistant: device is busy
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu ubiquity: 
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu ubiquity: return: 74: 
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu ubiquity: Illegal number: #
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu ubiquity: 
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity umount /target/cdrom
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu finish-install: Disabling CD in sources.list
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python: Exception during installation:
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python: Traceback (most recent call last):
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python:   File "/usr/share/ubiquity/install.py", line 1911, in <module>
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python:     install.run()
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python:   File "/usr/share/ubiquity/install.py", line 405, in run
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python:     self.configure_ma()
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python:   File "/usr/share/ubiquity/install.py", line 1101, in configure_ma
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python:     raise InstallStepError("MigrationAssistantApply failed with code %d" % ret)
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python: InstallStepError: MigrationAssistantApply failed with code 2
Jun 13 13:21:15 ubuntu python: 
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]: debconffilter_done: Install (current: None)
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]: Exception in GTK frontend (invoking crash handler):
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]: Traceback (most recent call last):
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:   File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 229, in <module>
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:     main()
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:   File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 224, in main
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:     install(args[0])
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:   File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 68, in install
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:     ret = wizard.run()
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:   File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/frontend/gtk_ui.py", line 428, in run
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:     self.progress_loop()
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:   File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/frontend/gtk_ui.py", line 797, in progress_loop
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:     (ret, realtb))
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]: RuntimeError: Install failed with exit code 1
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]: Traceback (most recent call last):
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:   File "/usr/share/ubiquity/install.py", line 1911, in <module>
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:     install.run()
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:   File "/usr/share/ubiquity/install.py", line 405, in run
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:     self.configure_ma()
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:   File "/usr/share/ubiquity/install.py", line 1101, in configure_ma
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]:     raise InstallStepError("MigrationAssistantApply failed with code %d" % ret)
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]: InstallStepError: MigrationAssistantApply failed with code 2
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu ubiquity[9590]: 
Jun 13 13:21:18 ubuntu last message repeated 2 times
Jun 13 13:41:53 ubuntu -- MARK --