Failed to install Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS on Dell C6220

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1. Intel chipset raid is a type of software raid so it being detected as an md device is expected.
2. Does the machine get to the grub menu?
3. How did you partition the Raid 1?
4. What did you select for the grub install device?

I tried it here on a C6220 in the Dell lab and found the same thing. The tar'ed var/log dir is attached.

Notes:

## BIOS boot, not UEFI
## ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64.iso -> usb disk
## Add a second disk to array, hit ctl-I on way up and set up RAID1 array
## - exit, status of RAID1 disk is "Rebuild"
## Trusty Server install disk finds the raid 1 and seems to ask the right questions.
## Nope. fails to boot. ctl-alt-delete, reboot
## f11 to boot to usb drive (note: raid1 comes up with "degraded" status)
walk thru standard stuff (keyboard, network, hostname, login, encrypt home?, ntp, etc) until:
One or more drives containing MDADM containers (Intel/DDF RAID) have been found.
Do you wish to acivate these RAID devices?
## say yes
ne or more drives containing Serial ATA RAID configurations have been found.
Do you wish to acivate these RAID devices?
## say yes
## partitioner will come up with guided - use entire disk and set up LVM

https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/advanced-installation.html
## select Manual, follow above directions, still will not boot into hd
## at some point it asks where to install grub, select default
grub-install /dev/md126p1

## reboot, hangs, doesn't even seem to get to grub

/var/log/installer/syslog shows:

Sep 17 22:19:09 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/md126p1'
Sep 17 22:19:09 grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --force "/dev/md126p1"
Sep 17 22:19:09 grub-installer: Installing for i386-pc platform.
Sep 17 22:19:21 grub-installer: grub-install: warning: File system `ext2' doesn't support embedding.
Sep 17 22:19:21 grub-installer: grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
Sep 17 22:19:21 grub-installer: Installation finished. No error reported.
Sep 17 22:19:21 grub-installer: info: grub-install ran successfully

So it appears grub has been installed to the first partition. Does this partition show as bootable in the partition table?

Normally I would expect grub to be installed to the MBR, not to the first partition. Was this the result of a deliberate selection, or was this automatic?

(/var/log/installer/cdebconf/questions.dat:
Name: grub-installer/bootdev
Template: grub-installer/bootdev
Value: /dev/md126p1
Owners: grub-installer
)

Colin, can you please have a look at this next week? I'm sure you have a much better idea than I do what's going on here with grub.

It seems likely that installing to /dev/md126p1 rather than /dev/md126 is the problem here. I've uploaded a fix for that. I'm flying blind here, though, so I would really appreciate testing of the next daily build of utopic (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily/current/ should update tomorrow). If that works then I should be able to backport this to trusty.

This bug was fixed in the package grub-installer - 1.78ubuntu22

---------------
grub-installer (1.78ubuntu22) utopic; urgency=medium

  * Handle partitioned /dev/mdNNN devices, installing to the corresponding
    disk instead (LP: #1370368).
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:50:41 +0100

This is the problem which failed booting after installation as below

Near the end of the installation, default location of grub-installation is /dev/md127p1.

and I changed default to /dev/md/Volume0_0

After that, it doesn't have a problem to boot and no '_' prompot.

There is similar problem when enabling raid1 after installation, I create array, add both discs, RAID1 seems OK, I change fstab to UUID of RAID1 and voila: It doesn't boot, only black screen with "-" and I have md0 and md0p2 devices.