Public bug reported:
This is a report of a partially-failed Ubuntu installation,
of version 8.10 ("Intrepid Ibex"), using the "desktop" CDROM
(ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso, whose md5sum matched what you
posted and which "verified" when I initially selected that
option, at boot-up). Many of them, actually.
My apologies in advance if this isn't in your usual format,
or something. This is only the second (third?) bug report
I've ever made in my life, so I'm not an expert. It took me
a while to find you, then sign up, that sort of thing.
I am not an experienced Ubuntu user at all. In fact it was
because I wanted to try to learn about Ubuntu that I decided
to install it. And while I am not a programmer and could
not do something like compiling the kernel, I am comfortable
with linux command-line commands, in a text window.
So here are some notes I made during the installation, more
or less in the order they happened (this time -- I've been
trying this for a few weeks, sometimes choosing different
choices, such as first booting into the "live" session and
then choosing to install, for instance), in case my choices
matter, since such failures don't seem to be common.
I am more paranoid than most people, and thus always do the
installation in an isolated PC (with its Ethernet cable
unplugged and its wireless antenna unscrewed), stand-alone.
(So it doesn't get the time from the network for instance.)
I initially selected the "Install Ubuntu" option.
In the "Prepare disk space" window I selected "Manual" then
selected a particular partition (/dev/sda14 this time), and
select "use as" "Ext2 file system" with a "mount point" of
"/" for the root partition. (I had previously used another
linux on that machine to generate a new filesystem on that
partition, using mke2fs, so it was already formatted and
essentially empty for the Ubuntu install, each attempt.)
This time I also chose to mount another (/dev/sda3) ext2
partition as /home, as it does indeed have my home
directory, already populated. Other attempts I have not
done that and thus /home was created in / -- but it didn't
seem to matter, it always still failed to install.
This time I chose not to check the "Format?" box for either
partition, but other times I chose to let it format the root
partition -- but it didn't seem to matter, it always still
failed to install.
Each attempt I click the "Forward" button a window pops up
saying (to start) "Error!!! File system has incompatible
feature enabled." And when I clicked "OK" another window
popped up specifying that "partition #3" still had
"uncorrected errors." This is my /home partition and
previous checking showed me that it must be complaining that
my (/dev/sda3) filesystem has the "ext_attr" feature.
Unfortunately the "tune2fs" it suggests does not seem to
know about that "feature" and will not remove it -- either
the tune2fs on your Ubuntu CDROM or the tune2fs on my other
linux partition. (I admit I've never tried using the
"debugfs" it also suggested.) But even if I don't chose to
mount that (#3) partition I still get the error messages,
complaining Ubuntu-8.10 can't cope with a filesystem like
that. (Since that "feature" has been around since at least
Fedora 5, and possibly Fedora 3, I would have thought that
Ubuntu would have learned to cope, or at least print a
message saying that it would ignore it, since it wasn't
implemented in Ubuntu, or whatever.) So I mention it here
but I don't know if it matters or not, to the failure to
install. So I just hit "Continue" on the error window since
there isn't anything else I can do.
In the "Ready to install" window, it always finds my old
linux partition, but always says something strange like "10
migration-assistant/sda6/users doesn't exist" and an
even-longer "doesn't exist" message too. (My /dev/sda6 does
have my old linux partition, a yum-updated Red Hat 7.3.)
But once I managed to install an Ubuntu (7.04 and the
"alternate" 8.10, see later on), that "Ready to install"
window then also gave the usernames for those other Ubuntu
partitions. Again, I don't know if it matters.
Usually, I click the "Advanced" button in that window, and
select to install the boot loader in the Ubuntu partition
itself (/dev/sda14, this time), since I have grub already
installed in the MBR on that disk and I don't like Ubuntu
overwriting it. But one try I didn't hit that Advanced
button, thus letting it overwrite mine; that attempt was so
many days ago I no longer remember what happened. Sorry.
It then goes on, with the "Installing system" window and all
its myriad details. Eventually, after a last message (about
"Importing documents and settings ..."), it goes into a
ten-seconds login window, then leaves me in the "live"
session window.
About a minute later a message pops up saying "Crash report
detected ..." and saying I should click on the icon for more
details. But that explanatory message is only visible for
sixty seconds and then there is just the error icon, so I
would suggest a longer display period if you really want
people to notice it, since I didn't the first few times.
Then I plugged my Ethernet cable in again, and waited until
Firefox showed that I am indeed connected to the Internet.
Then if I click on the error icon it disappears and another
window eventually pops up saying "Application problem --
Sorry, the program 'ubiquity' closed unexpectedly ..." -- so
then I click on the "Report Problem" button, whereupon it
"collects" the information, then I hit "Send Report" -- but
it says "Network problem -- could not upload report data to
crash database." Yet if I use Firefox after that, I am
still able to get web pages, so I don't understand the
"network problem" it encountered. But then I unplug my
Ethernet cable since I have no use for it anymore.
At that point what I do varies, but the failure -- whatever
it is -- has already happened so I don't think it matters.
If I go into a console window for instance (in the "live"
session) and say "ls -l /target" it shows both the
initrd.img and vmlinuz symlinks, but the initrd.img is
always dangling as it never gets created in /target/boot.
Using the 8.10 "desktop" CDROM I have never seen (the
/target) /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic be created. So
that is the main bug I am submitting this report for.
Most of the time, indeed the last two times, from which I am
making these notes, (the /target) /boot/grub directory never
gets created either, thus never gets populated.
(Although I once used scripts which I saw mentioned in other
bug reports to make everything I needed, "update-grub" and
"update-initramfs" and the one which installs the grub
object files. But I would claim that it is unreasonable to
expect the average Ubuntu installer to know about those. I
certainly didn't, the first few times it failed to install.)
But after 8.10 failed the first few times I tried to install
it, I downloaded 8.04 (ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso, whose
md5sum matched, etc.) -- and it also failed to install, with
no initrd.img file. I think I only tried that once.
However, when I was looking through my CDROM collection I
came across an Ubuntu-7.04 ("Feisty Fawn") CDROM, so I tried
that too. (Although a subsequent web search showed me that
version is deprecated, so I never went online with it.) To
my pleasure it installed just fine; grub was there as well
as both the initrd.img and vmlinuz files. It booted just
fine and perhaps that is data for you. I don't know.
In that vein, the other thing I can report is that after
reading about it in some other bug reports on your site,
once I'd discovered your bug report site, I also downloaded
the "alternate" CDROM of Ubuntu-8.10, the text-based
"curses" version (ubuntu-8.10-alternate-i386.iso). To my
great pleasure it too installed just fine! The /boot/grub
directory was fine as well as both the initrd.img and
vmlinuz files. It booted just fine and I'm sure that will
be relevant -- to whatever this bug is.
Whatever the problem is, it seems to be specific to the
"desktop" CDROM, somehow.
Another clue may be the fact that 8.10 seems to leave my old
linux partitions (/home and RH7.3) mounted, even when I
manually select shutdown or reboot in the "live" session,
since an e2fsck is always necessary when I then reboot into
RH7.3, to clear the Ubuntu partition in order to try again.
I always have to reset the hardware clock on the machine too
(using hwclock), each try; I wish there was an "advanced"
button on the time zone window, where I could then specify
"the hardware clock is ALREADY on UTC so leave it alone."
All my attempts have been made on the same machine, a Dell
800-MHz Pentium-3, with only 256MB of RAM. I looked at the
two other machines of mine I could try installing it on but
all of them had some linux partition with the "ext_attr"
filesystem feature too, and until I can find out what that
"feature" is for, and whether I need it, and how to remove
it if I don't, I am leaving all those partitions alone.
Also, on the machine I've been using, Windows XP is
installed, with a "boot" primary partition and the main
files in another extended partition. I doubt it matters.
I guess that's it.
Please feel free to let me know if there is some (specific)
information I can provide which will help you. Or something
different I can try, maybe. The failure is consistent and
the 8.10 "desktop" CDROM has always failed to install for me
and so I feel confident predicting that if you ask me to try
it again and then report the contents of some file (or
files), or the output of some program, that I will be able
to help you, whether in the "live" version or by reading the
files from some other linux. I don't know if that "crash
report" file exists for instance, as a real file and not
just a temporary file in the "live" ramdisk, but if it is a
file and you can tell me where it is, maybe I can then
somehow send it to you, or post it here, or whatever.
Thanks for your attention, to this problem.
** Affects: ubuntu
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
--
ubiquity crash, no initrd.img -- 8.10 desktop
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/309748
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