i attempted to follow instruction in comment #8 and failure during install
- sony vaio thingy

failure reported by calamares
---
The bootloader could not be installed. The installation command <pre>grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=ubuntu --force</pre> returned error code 1.
---

modified file is 
---
lubuntu@lubuntu:/etc/calamares/modules$ cat before_bootloader_context.conf 
# Make sure the correct bootloader package is installed for EFI.
# Also pull in shim so secureboot has a chance at working.
# Because of edge cases, we ignore BIOS, and do the same
# procedure for all EFI types.
---
firmwareType:
    bios:    "-/bin/true"
    "*":
        -    command: apt-cdrom add -m -d=/media/cdrom/
             timeout: 10
        -    command: sed -i '/deb http/d' /etc/apt/sources.list
             timeout: 10
        -    command: apt-get update
             timeout: 120
        -    command: apt install -y --no-upgrade -o Acquire::gpgv::Options::=--ignore-time-conflict grub-efi-$(if grep -q 64 /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size; then echo amd64-signed; else echo ia32; fi)
             timeout: 300
        -    command: apt install -y --no-upgrade -o Acquire::gpgv::Options::=--ignore-time-conflict shim-signed
             timeout: 300

#firmwareType:
#    bios:    "-/bin/true"
# #   "*":
#        -    command: apt-cdrom add -m -d=/media/cdrom/
#             timeout: 10
#        -    command: sed -i '/deb http/d' /etc/apt/sources.list
#             timeout: 10
#        -    command: apt-get update
#             timeout: 120
#        -    command: apt install -y --no-upgrade -o Acquire::gpgv::Options::=--ignore-time-conflict grub-efi-$(if grep -q 64 /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size; then echo amd64-signed; else echo ia32; fi)
#             timeout: 300
#       -    command: apt install -y --no-upgrade -o Acquire::gpgv::Options::=--ignore-time-conflict shim-signed
           # # timeout: 300
---

note I didn't remove the prior contents; just commented them out, then attempted to copy & paste the details from comment 8 above into the file.

a diff however I hoped would show me a difference (I didn't see any), but I didn't get any..

---
lubuntu@lubuntu:/etc/calamares/modules$ diff compare before_bootloader_context.conf 
0a1,5
> # Make sure the correct bootloader package is installed for EFI.
> # Also pull in shim so secureboot has a chance at working.
> # Because of edge cases, we ignore BIOS, and do the same
> # procedure for all EFI types.
> ---
14a20,32
> #firmwareType:
> #    bios:    "-/bin/true"
> # #   "*":
> #        -    command: apt-cdrom add -m -d=/media/cdrom/
> #             timeout: 10
> #        -    command: sed -i '/deb http/d' /etc/apt/sources.list
> #             timeout: 10
> #        -    command: apt-get update
> #             timeout: 120
> #        -    command: apt install -y --no-upgrade -o Acquire::gpgv::Options::=--ignore-time-conflict grub-efi-$(if grep -q 64 /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size; then echo amd64-signed; else echo ia32; fi)
> #             timeout: 300
> #       -    command: apt install -y --no-upgrade -o Acquire::gpgv::Options::=--ignore-time-conflict shim-signed
>            # # timeout: 300
---

the file 'compare' contains only what i copy/pasted from comment #8 above, and all I see in the diff is the comments i didn't touch and my badly commented out trailing bits..

Did I misunderstand your instructions Aaron ??

-- iso,qa log can be found here https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/450/builds/289603/testcases/1701/results/