Ubuntu
ubiquity package

installation seems to proceed OK but is incomplete

Asked by Martin Devon

After install from 10.04 CD, uuid=(whatever) is not found.
Same issue with Xubuntu 10.04 CD.
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(apologies for previous)

Using a 10.04 CD which has been used successfully several times and is known OK. Trying to install on new machine with Gigabyte 880GM-UD2H motherboard and Athlon II X2. HDD has 2 partitions specified in the install as / and /home.

Installation appears to run as usual right through to the reboot stage. Remove CD, boot from HDD fails. Files initrd.img and vmlinuz are missing from / and /home is also missing.

Any help,please!

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

I suggest you reinstall

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Martin Devon (martin-devon) said : 		#2

Have tried that with the same CD and also with an Xubuntu 10.04 CD. The problem is reproduced every time.

I shall report this as a bug.

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delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#3

There is a standard script provided to analyse boot configuration.
Could you download script at:

   http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/
Then in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) run command:
    sudo bash boot_info_script055.sh
This will produce a file named: RESULTS.txt
Paste content of this file in http://paste.ubuntu.com/ and provide in this thread the link to Web page.
Please don't post file directly in thread, else it will make thread difficult to read.

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Martin Devon (martin-devon) said : 		#4

delance, sorry, I'm not clear how to run that script on the HDD when I can't boot that HDD?

I've taken this a bit further. I put in a new HDD and attempted a completely standard install. The result is the same. I think I was wrong in saying initrd.img and vmlinuz are missing because when it drops back to a shell it is in initramfs. Those files are in fact present on the ext4 HDD.

The error reported seems to be that the disc uuid=(whatever) is not found.

While still in initramfs, "cat /proc/cmdline" shows a value for uuid which is the same value that I can see (when running Ubuntu from the cd) mounted in /media. That value also appears in /etc/fstab on the HDD - the text shows "# found as /dev/sda1 at installation".

So all the uuids seem correct.

It's a new motherboard with 1 40-pin IDE and some SATA sockets, but this doesn't make any difference either..

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delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#5

1-"delance, sorry, I'm not clear how to run that script on the HDD when I can't boot that HDD?"
You can boot on Ubuntu CD/USB stick and choose "Try without install"
2-"disc uuid=(whatever) is not found."
Reinstall Grub2, following
   https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD
Grub2 installation can fail at Ubuntu installation, but succeed after if you reinstall.
3-Could you provide raw data in http://paste.ubuntu.com/

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Martin Devon (martin-devon) said : 		#6

Following above instruction I did sudo aptitude install grub-pc and it reported no files to be changed.

I did sudo aptitude reinstall grub-pc which it duly did, to the end of para 3. But:-

"4. Once the system has installed GRUB 2, the user can reboot and will be greeted by an updated menu" - unfortunately, not. It still fails to boot, exactly as before.

I'll set up some data a.s.a.p. but it won't be today, now.

As a retired network manager I'm going to observe here, that if the average Joe had problems like this to install on main-line new hardware, it's no wonder Windows keeps its dominance.

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Martin Devon (martin-devon) said : 		#7

delance, if after reading the following it will be useful to reinstate the problem condition and prepare a boot report, please say so and I will do it.

The problem is solved and it was all my fault. Although it is a new SATA motherboard, I attempted to reuse my previous (almost new) 40 pin IDE disc together with a SATA to IDE plug-in adaptor. This evidently does not work with identifying discs by UUID, even though the values seemed to be correct. Presumable other OS which did install (WIndows and FreeBSD don't use UUID.

Thanks to those who offered suggestions.