Munged bootloader?

[jack elliott]

I've been testing a few OSs for serving files on my old Dell laptop. After installing and test-driving FreeNAS from the HDD, I wanted to install Ubuntu Linux and try some things with it. The Ubuntu LiveCD installed normally until it got to the grub-install part and reported "Bootloader install failed, not possible to install at the specified location." (/dev/sda)

My options were "choose a different device" (and only /dev/sda was offered); "continue without a bootloader," or "cancel the installation." I re-tried /dev/sda, no go.

The machine will not boot off the HDD so I'm kind of stuck. I re-installed FreeNAS and it boots so it looks like maybe FreeNAS did something to the bootloader that Ubuntu can't undo? Any suggestions on how to un-do whatever FreeNAS did would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DrKK]

I'm not sure how FreeNAS could have done anything that would in any way interfere with a thermonuclear clean install of another OS on the device.

Did you choose the whole automatic partition/wipe out my disk option for partitioning during the Ubuntu install?

 

[jack elliott]

Yes, I did a full-on, overwrite older OSs install of Ubuntu. I overcame the problem by unearthing an old Windows NT 2000 Server install disk. It found three small partitions and I deleted them before installing NT. Then Ubuntu was able to install itself fully. Go figure.

 

[cyberjock]

I've been testing a few OSs for serving files on my old Dell laptop. After installing and test-driving FreeNAS from the HDD, I wanted to install Ubuntu Linux and try some things with it. The Ubuntu LiveCD installed normally until it got to the grub-install part and reported "Bootloader install failed, not possible to install at the specified location." (/dev/sda)

My options were "choose a different device" (and only /dev/sda was offered); "continue without a bootloader," or "cancel the installation." I re-tried /dev/sda, no go.

The machine will not boot off the HDD so I'm kind of stuck. I re-installed FreeNAS and it boots so it looks like maybe FreeNAS did something to the bootloader that Ubuntu can't undo? Any suggestions on how to un-do whatever FreeNAS did would be greatly appreciated.

There's nothing FreeNAS does that isn't undoable. My guess is that there's something FreeNAS does that the Ubuntu installer isn't expecting to be a situation and isn't properly handling itself. I'd go to the Ubuntu forums for support with your issue or wipe your drive between using FreeNAS and Ubuntu.

My first guess is the 4 partitions FreeNAS creates has confused the heck out of your Ubuntu installer.

 

[cyberjock]

Doh, and you just posted that it was the partitions.. haha. 1 minute too slow.