Re: xubuntu 19.10 fails to install with /boot on different drive - grub-install error

[Chris Green]

On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 07:45:56AM -0500, Nathan Stratton Treadway wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 10:18:34 +0000, Chris Green wrote:
> > I run the xubuntu 19.10 installation selecting "something else" at the
> > disk partitioning stage.  I have partitioned as follows:-
> > 
> >     /dev/nvme0n1
> >         /dev/nvme0n1p1     2048   31250431   31248384 14.9G Linux swap
> >         /dev/nvme0n1p2 31250432 2000408575 1969158144  939G Linux filesystem
> > 
> >     /dev/sda
> >         /dev/sda1                                      4xxG Linux filesystem
> > 
> > ... and I say mount /boot on /dev/sda1, / on /dev/nvme0n1p2.
> 
> Right.
> 
> > The installation proceeds and does all the usual things, copies files,
> > installs stuff, etc.  The over half-way through it pops up an error
> > box:-
> > 
> >     Executing 'grub-install /dev/nvme0n1' failed
> >     This is a fatal error
> 
> You do not want to be installing grub on the NVMe drive (since your BIOS
> can't boot to it).  Somewhere in the installation process you should
> have had an opportunity to select /dev/sda (and only sda, in this case)
> as the target for installing GRUB.
> 
Exactly!  I thought telling the install that /boot is on /dev/sda1
should set the target for grub shouldn't it?

>  
> > The install is then totally broken as none of the options to get past
> > this point actually work when you click the buttons! 
> 
> (These non-functioning buttons are a problem with the Xubuntu installer
> rather than GRUB per se, and ideally you should file a bug report with
> Xubuntu....)  
> 
Yes, in fact I think the whole shambles is probably an [x]ubuntu bug
report.

I have since managed to get xubuntu 19.10 installed wholly on
/dev/sda1 by running the install with *only* that disk connected. I've
alse reconnected all the other disks and now have a boot menu that
allows me to boot either 19.04 or 19.10 - progress! :-)   All I need
to do now is move the 19.10 installation from /dev/sda1 to the NVME
SSD (leaving /boot on /dev/sda1 of course).

-- 
Chris Green