Executing 'grub-install /dev/sda' failed. This is a fatal error.

**Melhisedek** · 07-02-2009

Been trying and trying for a while but can't get it to work at all

I'm trying to install Ubuntu (tried all versions from 7.10-9.04). It all goes fine and hits dead end at 94%, where I get this horrible message. I just use "Use largest continuous free space" option in the installer. I believe it formats 94 Gigs as ext3 and 3-4 gigs as swap. It tries to install GRUB to /dev/sda

Here is fdisk -l

Code:

ubuntuATubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01940193

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       12748   102398278+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2           12749      182401  1362737722+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           12749       88911   611779266    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6           89238      168377   635691764    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7          168378      181826   108029061   83  Linux
/dev/sda8          181827      182401     4618656   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xed42928a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1        6902    55440283+   5  Extended
/dev/sdb2   *        6903       13914    56323890    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb3           13915       38913   200804467+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb5               1        6902    55440252    7  HPFS/NTFS

here is what var/log/messages says:

Code:

Jul  1 22:06:30 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sda'
Jul  1 22:06:30 ubuntu grub-installer: info: grub-install supports --no-floppy
Jul  1 22:06:30 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install  --no-floppy  "/dev/sda"
Jul  1 22:06:30 ubuntu grub-installer: Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
Jul  1 22:06:30 ubuntu grub-installer: Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Jul  1 22:06:36 ubuntu grub-installer: The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.
Jul  1 22:06:36 ubuntu grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install  --no-floppy  "/dev/sda"' failed.

Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thank you for your time!

**devils casper** · 07-02-2009

Hi and Welcome !

If installer is throwing that error then some thing is wrong with either .iso image(s) or the way your burning those images.

From where did you download Ubuntu .iso image? Have you verified its MD5SUM? Try to burn .iso image at lowest possible speed supported by your CD/DVD burner.

**Melhisedek** · 07-02-2009

Thank you casper,

I've tried all LiveCDs from 7.10 up until today. Even tried installing from USB stick, always the same problem. I checked for CD integrity and it was ok so I would rule that out.

**devils casper** · 07-02-2009

If you are sure that Installation CDs are good then create partition structure manually and try to re-install Ubuntu.

Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD and open GParted Partition Manager. Its in Administrative menu. Delete Linux partitions and create two new partitions.

* SWAP, 1GB is more than enough.
* ext3, rest of free space.

Start installation and select Manual Partitioning. Assign / mount point to ext3 partition. Installer will detect SWAP and other installed OS.

**Melhisedek** · 07-02-2009

Please excuse me for my ignorance but should I chose to install mbr to some special place?

I've been trying to fool around with Super Grub Disk but all I get is

Error 15: File not found

no matter what I pick, at the end I tried all the options but got the exact same answer every time

**devils casper** · 07-02-2009

You should install GRUB in MBR only. Its default location in most of distros. Do not change anything in Boot Loader install section during installation.

**Melhisedek** · 07-02-2009

Nope it is no go.
I've tried fooling around with "Super Grub Disk" that shoul help me restore GRUB but I only get "Error 15: File not found"

I've followed some guides online that involve

find /boot/grub/stage1

but there is no files there. I even went so far to copy those files to right position but grub still can't see them.

Problem seems to be that GRUB can't find stage1 file. I have no idea why though

I've disconnected all other drives and am trying to install with USB stick but it doesn't want to be installed

Is there a way to install GRUB on its own? Most of the guides I've found involve having GRUB on your partition already. how do I install GRUB for the hell of it?

Also would having /boot partition help anything? And how should I format it? (ext3 or) Does it have to be at the start of disk or can it be closer to the end?

Thank you for your time!

**Melhisedek** · 07-02-2009

I'm sure my grub isn't installed at all, there is no grub folder inside /boot...
Is there some other way of installing it?

Here is some boot info if it can help perhaps:

Code:

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
 => Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows Vista
    Boot files/dirs:   /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Extended Partition
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sda5: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista
    Boot sector info:  According to the info in the boot sector, sda5 starts 
                       at sector 63.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

sda6: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista
    Boot sector info:  According to the info in the boot sector, sda6 starts 
                       at sector 63.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

sda7: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sda8: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext3
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 9.04
    Boot files/dirs:   /etc/fstab

sdb1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  Fat32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01940193

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1    *             63   204,796,619   204,796,557   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2         204,796,620 2,930,272,064 2,725,475,445   f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5         204,796,683 1,433,592,404 1,228,795,722   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6       1,433,592,468 2,704,975,995 1,271,383,528   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7       2,704,976,568 2,707,016,759     2,040,192  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8       2,707,016,823 2,930,272,064   223,255,242  83 Linux


Drive: sdb ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 1999 MB, 1999568384 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243 cylinders, total 3905407 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000330b0

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sdb1    *             63     3,905,406     3,905,344   b W95 FAT32


blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" 
/dev/sda1: UUID="8808F12108F10F46" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda5: UUID="74442E20442DE618" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda6: UUID="42285551285544D7" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda7: UUID="259fc2cb-ae67-4b88-91a9-706152e6cf62" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sda8: UUID="0137c039-7903-42ab-8353-59d911d1ce98" TYPE="ext3" 
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="IPREP_V008" UUID="FA78-3824" TYPE="vfat" 

=============================== "mount" output: ===============================

proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
/dev/sdb1 on /cdrom type vfat (ro,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1)
/dev/loop0 on /rofs type squashfs (ro,noatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/ubuntu/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=ubuntu)
/dev/sda8 on /target type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
/proc on /target/proc type none (rw,bind)
/dev on /target/dev type none (rw,bind)


=============================== sda8/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'vol_id --uuid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# / was on /dev/sda8 during installation
UUID=0137c039-7903-42ab-8353-59d911d1ce98 /               ext3    relatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=259fc2cb-ae67-4b88-91a9-706152e6cf62 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sdb1       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

=================== sda8: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


1430.0GB: boot/grub/stage2
1430.0GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
1430.1GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic
1430.0GB: initrd.img
1430.1GB: vmlinuz

sadly I can't post screens of my Gparted but here is fdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01940193

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       12748   102398278+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2           12749      182401  1362737722+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           12749       89237   614397861    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6           89238      168377   635691764    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7          168378      168504     1020096   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8          168505      182401   111627621   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 1999 MB, 1999568384 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000330b0

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1         244     1952672    b  W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(242, 254, 63) logical=(243, 25, 37)

Anything else you guys need?

**Jonathan183** · 07-02-2009

Try Ubuntu install but select not to install grub, after install try manual install of grub to mbr ... assuming you have the same partition structure as you last output then try

Code:

sudo grub
root (hd0,7)
setup (hd0)
quit

then try a reboot ... does it work?

**Melhisedek** · 07-03-2009

I get this problem:

Code:

grub> root (hd0,7)

Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS

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