xubuntu groovy install - bootloader install failure

This issue has been noted before, but it was occuring after the error reported in the bug

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1897173

the error message that is mentioned in that bug however no longer appears, thus the separate filing

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1897991

FYI. This box isn't mine, so it's not used very often in my QA

Lubuntu & main Ubuntu have installed to it in recent day(s) though.

(I've been trying to re-install windows 7 for it's owner, and it's been failing to install for unknown reason.. When that's resolved I'll lose access to the box again)

kubuntu groovy (daily) installed cleanly to this box
(minor unrelated graphic glitches after reboot)

Is this issue reproducible on that machine? This feels machine-specific - but also weird that Kubuntu and other flavors did not surface this problem. I think there's not much we can do for beta, but I poked the Xubuntu flavor maintainers to take a look.

(repeat of comments made earlier on #ubuntu-flavors)

I had the issue with prior ISOs as mentioned comment #3

Yes I performed test again (same box) & got same result (photos were from 2nd attempt; box turned off between re-try.

I did NOT re-create this issue using the Ubuntu daily (2020-09-30) on same d990 box.

--
I tried using the Xubuntu daily on
sony vaio svp112a1cw (i5-9400u, 4gb, intel haswell-ULT)
and it did NOT have this issue either.

This install however had what I considered a different issue "System Bootloader not found. Initializing defaults\n..."
which is filed as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1898041 right/wrongly

(I also clouded issue by including two issues; filing against linux as I couldn't decide on package; & kernel sure is wrong. If the bootloader is related to this, it should be removed from other bug & package changed to xubuntu-desktop|meta on 1898041)

I'm also seeing the same with Vmware Workstation on Xubuntu 200930.

I tried to QA-test installs on

- hp dc7700 (c2d-e6320, 5gb, nvidia quadro nvs 290)

error installing bootloader, as per this bug report; couldn't select sda to write to, eventually continued. on reboot, it fails to load, last BIOS message was

"Attempting Boot from Hard Drive" & just sits there.

- dell [optiplex] 755 (c2d-e8300, 8gb, amd/ati radeon rv610/radeon hd2400 pro/xt)

error on bootloader appeared as per this bug report, where it wouldn't accept sda as device to install bootloader to... after numerous tries I hit continue via skip..

on reboot, I get only a blinking cursor top left

I also have this problem.
Today's Xubuntu iso (Sun Oct 11 2020) boots well in KVM/QEMU virt-manager and appears to install until it bets to grub installation where it says it can ot install grub to /dev/sda and offers alternatives which are the partitions.

I tried creating a new partition gpt table and adding EFI and small grub-boot partition (can't remember exactly what it's called) but still no success.

Possible duplicates, or related to this are

- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1898342
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1899370

Adding to my report at #10, I replaced my daily current iso with daily pending and tried again using KVM/QUEMU and virt-manager.
This time I noticed for the first time, an option to boot using UEFI firmware and at last the installation was a success.

It looks as if the iso boots in UEFI mode by default if installed in KVM virt-manager, and this is the first and only time that I have seen this behaviour.

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 20.10 (groovy) reached end-of-life on July 22, 2021.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in.

[Expired for ubiquity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]