Grub loader Failure on Linux Mint

JeffS

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Hello There,
I have Linux Mint 19 on a USB stick and am trying to install Linux mint onto a PC. If I use
non UEFI USB mode then the display is corrupted (Duplicate displays on same screen but each is only the left half of the normal display) (PC only has HDMI monitor output with integrated video). If I boot into UEFI boot mode then the display is fine and Mint 19 seems to install fine onto three HD's. First HD is mounted as / and the 2nd HD is mounted as /home and the 3rd HD is mounted as /backup. But when it comes to installing the Grub boot loader it fails stating 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/'. The response from parted -l on the 1st HD is "Partition Table: GPT". I installed Mint 19 on three other PC.s (Different ASUS MB's) and the installs and PC's boot fine. The problem PC has a Gigabyte gaming MB. I had Ubuntu v17.04 previously installed on the problem PC and it installed fine. Any thoughts?

Jeff
 


Is "Secure Boot" turned off in the UEFI BIOS?
 
"Is "Secure Boot" turned off in the UEFI BIOS?"

Yes it was. The attempted install was done with me doing the "Something Else" option and manually formatting the HD's and their mount points. As in HD1 mounted as / and HD2 mounted as /home and HD3 mounted as /backup. As
a test I tried the install using both USB and DVD media as the install source with the same result. As another test I decided to let the install handle the HD management part of the installation and install Linux Mint to just HD1 which is a 2TB SATA drive. HD2 and HD3 are also 2 TB SATA drives. The result was that
Linux Mint v19 did install with no Grub install errors or failures.

The question then is why does the manual HD setup during the install fail to
allow Grub to be installed properly? As stated all HD were setup to be formatted
as Ext4 v1.

I know that the /home directory can be moved to a separate HD after installation. but would be alot easier to do it during the install process.

Jeff
 
The question then is why does the manual HD setup during the install fail to
allow Grub to be installed properly? As stated all HD were setup to be formatted
as Ext4 v1.
Hi Jeff, and welcome! If you use Gparted to examine the working install that Mint did itself, you would see that it created a /efi partition (FAT32, about 500 MB). This is where GRUB is stored and is essential in a UEFI system. It sounds like you missed that with your manual install. Further, you can leave Secure Boot enabled with Mint if you like... it can handle it.

So, if setting up manually, the /efi partition must also have "flags" set for boot and esp (efi system partition). Then direct the installer to put GRUB there, and it should work properly. Famous last words. :eek::D

Cheers
 
So, if setting up manually, the /efi partition must also have "flags" set for boot and esp (efi system partition). Then direct the installer to put GRUB there, and it should work properly. Famous last words. :eek::DCheers

I understand what you are saying and I was looking for the portions of the boot HD that Grub should be installed to. The thing that struck me as odd is that I have installed earlier versions of Ubuntu and did the "Something Else" partitioning manually and the install completed fine. With a three HD setup. I opted to let
the installer do the HD install itself and then after Mint 19 was installed. I moved the /home directory to a second SATA drive. Mint is installed and happy. :)
Jeff
 
I have installed earlier versions of Ubuntu and did the "Something Else" partitioning manually and the install completed fine.
Unless you remember all the pertinent details of your earlier Ubuntu install, we might only guess what the differences could be between then and now, But the first guess I might make would be that your hard drive could have been setup as msdos (old BIOS/MBR method) instead of gpt as you have currently (the newer UEFI method). The Ubuntu/Mint installer does have a default setting to install GRUB to the MBR of /dev/sda, so that could explain your success with Ubuntu, but I don't think that works with UEFI/GPT. @wizardfromoz will jump in to correct me if I'm wrong about that.

UEFI compatibility with Linux is a still-evolving drama. Some distros still do not support UEFI at all, and the UEFI setup must be configured as "Legacy BIOS" or "CSM" (and disable Secure Boot). Many distros support UEFI but do not support Secure Boot. So it is common to advise folks to disable UEFI and/or Secure Boot in an effort to solve problems. Dual booting with Windows can complicate things even more... you should not mix MBR and GPT installations on the same hard drive, but the potential for this arises with a dual-boot scenario.

Mint is installed and happy.
If Mint is happy, and you're happy... then I'm happy too! :D Getting things to work as you want is the goal, no matter how you get there.

Cheers
 
@wizardfromoz will jump in to correct me if I'm wrong about that.

Somebody rang? Nope, you're right, Stan.

(Wizard appears in a puff of smoke, yawning)

Tarnation, I miss all the action some (of my) nights :mad:

Elaine's just poured my 3rd coffee for the morning, back soon :D

Congrats Stan for 1,800 Likes (I gave you 1801 and 1802)

upload_2018-11-29_7-58-27.jpeg


Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
G'day all and welcome to linux.org @JeffS :)

There is a bug reported at Launchpad

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1767259

... which might shed some light on what may have been involved. Read right through to the very last comment.

Linux Mint used to include the options near the beginning of their install to :
  1. Install updates to save time (which is crap if you can find a faster local mirror later, eg in Australia) and
  2. Install 3rd-party software some of which is proprietary
Somewhere around their 17.3 series into the early 18s they did away with the updates comment/choice, but a certain amount of it is included automatically, which you can see happening if you click the "Details" down button and watch the tty output spool through once the install proper begins.

Assumption here is that an internet connection is active.

All's well that ends well, anyway, but Jeff you don't really need a dedicated Home partition or drive if you make full use of Timeshift.

See my Tute here (needs updating, imminently)

https://www.linux.org/threads/timeshift-similar-solutions-safeguard-recover-your-linux.15241/

... and there is also a good guide @arochester found in Linux Lite's Manual here

https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/tutorials.html#timeshift

If you have any questions on Timeshift, feel free to ask over at my Tute. :D

I have on this computer, a Dell Inspiron lappie, a 256GB SSD /dev/sdb with a 2TB Sata HDD /dev/sda and hooked in is a 4TB WD My Book USB3.0., /dev/sdc

On the MyBook I have a 400GB Timeshift partition, but I run over 30 Linux on this baby, 50 - 100GB would be heaps for most users.

Cheers

Wizard
 

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