Cannot install Ubuntu 14.04 on EFI hardware

[Budo Zindovic]

I've tried installing Ubuntu 14.04 alongside Windows 8 64bit in EFI mode and grub-installer keeps crashing.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: ubiquity 2.17.5 [modified: lib/partman/automatically_partition/question]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-8.27-generic 3.13.2
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.13.2-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.337
Date: Sat Feb 8 08:18:05 2014
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash --
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140208)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub-installer
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Feb 8 13:15:04 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Installing grub on 'dummy'
Feb 8 13:15:04 ubuntu grub-installer: info: grub-install does not support --no-floppy
Feb 8 13:15:04 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --force
Feb 8 13:15:04 ubuntu grub-installer: Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
Feb 8 13:15:04 ubuntu grub-installer: grub-install: error:
Feb 8 13:15:04 ubuntu grub-installer: cannot find EFI directory.
Feb 8 13:15:04 ubuntu grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install --force failed.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

To the original bug reporter here:
- what operating systems are installed on your machine?
- are they booting in UEFI or Legacy (BIOS) mode?
- how many drives are present on your system and which one did you want to install ubuntu on?

It appears that two drives are present, and resize_use_free was chosen that resized installation on /dev/sda.
/lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph: 1 1048576-368050175 367001600 primary ntfs /dev/sda1
/lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph: 2 368050176-161343340543 160975290368 primary ntfs /dev/sda2
/lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph: 8 161344389120-186202389503 24858000384 logical ext4 /dev/sda8
/lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph: 6 186202980352-201200979967 14997999616 logical linux-swap /dev/sda6
/lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph: 7 201201811456-266193600511 64991789056 logical ext4 /dev/sda7
/lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph: 5 266201989120-1000203091967 734001102848 logical ntfs /dev/sda5
parted_server: main_loop: iteration 98

But /dev/sda does not have UEFI partition, nor one was created.

[Flavio Primo (flavio-primo)]

When I install Ubuntu from a pendrive with UEFI mode the installation crashes as I described above.
If I install Ubuntu without UEFI mode it installs correctly on the "disk 2", but in the bios I can't set it as default bootable partition, but if I manually boot "disk 2" from the bios, grub and ubuntu start as they should and it works fine.

My HDD and partitions:
** disk 0 (500GB)
partition 1: NTFS (Documents)

**disk 1 (500GB)
partition 1 (350MB): NTFS - System Reserved for Windows 8.1
partition 2: NTFS - Windows 8.1 x64

**disk 2 (80GB)
partition 1: ext4 - Ubuntu Linux 14.04 x64 and grub <-- The drive where I want to install ubuntu

[naarg (naarg)]

Hi
I have windows 8.1 x64 and it boots in legacy mode. I wanted to install
Ubuntu on the same drive as windows is installed, with custom partition
layout (just added one / partition for linux). Second drive is for data
only. Both are new drives and ubuntu was installed just after windows
install.
In terminal below slideshow, some error was displayed about the ubiquity
package - something like "file doesn't exist", and then grub install error
and installation failed and then submit error dialog apeared.
After that I installed ubuntu LTS 12.04.3 x64 with no errors, however grub
menu didin't show automaticly after reboot.

*Bug #1278597*

2014-02-27 11:34 GMT+01:00 Dimitri John Ledkov <email address hidden>:

> To the original bug reporter here:
> - what operating systems are installed on your machine?
> - are they booting in UEFI or Legacy (BIOS) mode?
> - how many drives are present on your system and which one did you want to
> install ubuntu on?
>
> It appears that two drives are present, and resize_use_free was chosen
> that resized installation on /dev/sda.
> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
> 1 1048576-368050175 367001600 primary ntfs /dev/sda1
> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
> 2 368050176-161343340543 160975290368 primary ntfs /dev/sda2
> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
> 8 161344389120-186202389503 24858000384 logical ext4
> /dev/sda8
> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
> 6 186202980352-201200979967 14997999616 logical linux-swap
> /dev/sda6
> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
> 7 201201811456-266193600511 64991789056 logical ext4
> /dev/sda7
> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
> 5 266201989120-1000203091967 734001102848 logical ntfs
> /dev/sda5
> parted_server: main_loop: iteration 98
>
> But /dev/sda does not have UEFI partition, nor one was created.
>
> ** Also affects: partman-auto (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1278597).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1277865
>
> Title:
> Cannot install Ubuntu 14.04 on EFI hardware
>
> Status in “grub-installer” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
> Status in “partman-auto” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> I've tried installing Ubuntu 14.04 alongside Windows 8 64bit in EFI
> mode and grub-installer keeps crashing.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
> Package: ubiquity 2.17.5 [modified:
> lib/partman/automatically_partition/question]
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-8.27-generic 3.13.2
> Uname: Linux 3.13.0-8-generic x86_64
> ApportVersion: 2.13.2-0ubuntu2
> Architecture: amd64
> CasperVersion: 1.337
> Date: Sat Feb 8 08:18:05 2014
> InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi
> file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash --
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "T...

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

On 27 February 2014 19:10, naarg <email address hidden> wrote:
> Hi
> I have windows 8.1 x64 and it boots in legacy mode. I wanted to install
> Ubuntu on the same drive as windows is installed, with custom partition
> layout (just added one / partition for linux). Second drive is for data
> only. Both are new drives and ubuntu was installed just after windows
> install.
> In terminal below slideshow, some error was displayed about the ubiquity
> package - something like "file doesn't exist", and then grub install error
> and installation failed and then submit error dialog apeared.
> After that I installed ubuntu LTS 12.04.3 x64 with no errors, however grub
> menu didin't show automaticly after reboot.
>
> *Bug #1278597*
>

Based on the logs that you submitted, the installation media managed
to boot in UEFI mode, not in legacy mode.

When booting your machine, can you press DELETE, F2, F9 or similar to
enter firmware and verify that /only/ legacy mode of booting is
attempt, without UEFI/Secureboot at all (neither as higher, nor "and")

Regards,

Dimitri.

>
> 2014-02-27 11:34 GMT+01:00 Dimitri John Ledkov <email address hidden>:
>
>> To the original bug reporter here:
>> - what operating systems are installed on your machine?
>> - are they booting in UEFI or Legacy (BIOS) mode?
>> - how many drives are present on your system and which one did you want to
>> install ubuntu on?
>>
>> It appears that two drives are present, and resize_use_free was chosen
>> that resized installation on /dev/sda.
>> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
>> 1 1048576-368050175 367001600 primary ntfs /dev/sda1
>> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
>> 2 368050176-161343340543 160975290368 primary ntfs /dev/sda2
>> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
>> 8 161344389120-186202389503 24858000384 logical ext4
>> /dev/sda8
>> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
>> 6 186202980352-201200979967 14997999616 logical linux-swap
>> /dev/sda6
>> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
>> 7 201201811456-266193600511 64991789056 logical ext4
>> /dev/sda7
>> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices: paragraph:
>> 5 266201989120-1000203091967 734001102848 logical ntfs
>> /dev/sda5
>> parted_server: main_loop: iteration 98
>>
>> But /dev/sda does not have UEFI partition, nor one was created.
>>
>> ** Also affects: partman-auto (Ubuntu)
>> Importance: Undecided
>> Status: New
>>
>> --
>> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
>> duplicate bug report (1278597).
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1277865
>>
>> Title:
>> Cannot install Ubuntu 14.04 on EFI hardware
>>
>> Status in “grub-installer” package in Ubuntu:
>> Confirmed
>> Status in “partman-auto” package in Ubuntu:
>> New
>>
>> Bug description:
>> I've tried installing Ubuntu 14.04 alongside Windows 8 64bit in EFI
>> mode and grub-installer keeps crashing.
>>
>> ProblemType: Bug
>> DistroRelea...

[naarg (naarg)]

On my asus m5a97r2 motherboard I can only switch between "Windows UEFI
mode" and "Other OS", and have the second one selected. On the same screen
I can see that "Secure boot state" is enabled, whatever that mean.
Also Launch CMS (Compatibity Support Module) is set to 'Auto'.
Can't find any other settings with UEFI or non-UEFI mode.
Regards

2014-02-27 22:16 GMT+01:00 Dimitri John Ledkov <email address hidden>:

> On 27 February 2014 19:10, naarg <email address hidden> wrote:
> > Hi
> > I have windows 8.1 x64 and it boots in legacy mode. I wanted to install
> > Ubuntu on the same drive as windows is installed, with custom partition
> > layout (just added one / partition for linux). Second drive is for data
> > only. Both are new drives and ubuntu was installed just after windows
> > install.
> > In terminal below slideshow, some error was displayed about the ubiquity
> > package - something like "file doesn't exist", and then grub install
> error
> > and installation failed and then submit error dialog apeared.
> > After that I installed ubuntu LTS 12.04.3 x64 with no errors, however
> grub
> > menu didin't show automaticly after reboot.
> >
> > *Bug #1278597*
> >
>
> Based on the logs that you submitted, the installation media managed
> to boot in UEFI mode, not in legacy mode.
>
> When booting your machine, can you press DELETE, F2, F9 or similar to
> enter firmware and verify that /only/ legacy mode of booting is
> attempt, without UEFI/Secureboot at all (neither as higher, nor "and")
>
> Regards,
>
> Dimitri.
>
>
>
> >
> > 2014-02-27 11:34 GMT+01:00 Dimitri John Ledkov <email address hidden>:
> >
> >> To the original bug reporter here:
> >> - what operating systems are installed on your machine?
> >> - are they booting in UEFI or Legacy (BIOS) mode?
> >> - how many drives are present on your system and which one did you want
> to
> >> install ubuntu on?
> >>
> >> It appears that two drives are present, and resize_use_free was chosen
> >> that resized installation on /dev/sda.
> >> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices:
> paragraph:
> >> 1 1048576-368050175 367001600 primary ntfs /dev/sda1
> >> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices:
> paragraph:
> >> 2 368050176-161343340543 160975290368 primary ntfs /dev/sda2
> >> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices:
> paragraph:
> >> 8 161344389120-186202389503 24858000384 logical ext4
> >> /dev/sda8
> >> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices:
> paragraph:
> >> 6 186202980352-201200979967 14997999616 logical linux-swap
> >> /dev/sda6
> >> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices:
> paragraph:
> >> 7 201201811456-266193600511 64991789056 logical ext4
> >> /dev/sda7
> >> /lib/partman/automatically_partition/10resize_use_free/choices:
> paragraph:
> >> 5 266201989120-1000203091967 734001102848 logical ntfs
> >> /dev/sda5
> >> parted_server: main_loop: iteration 98
> >>
> >> But /dev/sda does not have UEFI partition, nor one was created.
> >>
> >> ** Also affects: partman-auto (Ubuntu)
> >> Importance: Un...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ray-Ven (ray-ven)]

Ih have to correct something. Bios was set on "both", "legacy first". But it used UEFI. Yesterdays Daily-Build won't boot from USB pendrive when "legacy only" is used... This confirmes #7 afaik. probably I'll use super grub disc.

[Ray-Ven (ray-ven)]

supergrub makes no sense - the efi partition was missing. Didn't set one up because I thought I'm using legacy mode. Installer broke on doing initramfs things (another bug probably), but I think grub-install did it's job.
I'm still wondering, why the pendrive won't boot in legacy mode!

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

It has a severe impact on a large portion of Ubuntu users.

[John Zila (1-jnhn-m)]

This happens to me on my ASUS Zenbook UX301LA. Since I'm booting from USB, I needed to disable secure boot and boot via legacy. Then when I go to install ubuntu I get this error.

I tried chrooting to manually run grub-install, but I get another error: "grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory."

[Kenny Stier (kestier19)]

The installer now works on EFI hardware!

[John Zila (1-jnhn-m)]

I tried to install 3-23's daily build, and it's still not working.

[Daniel Olivetti (quileab)]

I've done this... try the installer again "without" downloading updates...
restarted... all seems to be ok now
El mar 25, 2014 5:30 PM, "John Zila" <email address hidden> escribió:

> I tried to install 3-23's daily build, and it's still not working.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1295883).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1277865
>
> Title:
> Cannot install Ubuntu 14.04 on EFI hardware
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1277865/+subscriptions
>

[John Zila (1-jnhn-m)]

Nope, still doesn't work.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Are you getting the "cannot find EFI directory." error in your syslog, and are NOT doing a manual partitioned install? If you aren't getting that error, then your issue isn't related to this bug. If you are doing a manual partitioned setup, make sure you mounted the efi system partition in /boot/efi.

[John Zila (1-jnhn-m)]

Interesting. I'm doing a manually partitioned install through Ubiquity. I'm also using a liveusb image, which has no /boot/efi directory. However, when I submitted a bug after Ubiquity's crash, it got resolved as a dupe of this one.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

If you are doing manual partitioning and didn't set your efi system partition up to be mounted in /boot/efi, then that's not a bug. You need to do that step.

[John Zila (1-jnhn-m)]

Understood, thanks. That seems to have resolved the problem.

[Thomas (t.c)]

I also run in the issue with trusty-server-daily-20140326-amd64.iso

On the front I see: grub install dummy failed.

on tty4 I see:

grub-installer: info: Installing grub on 'dummy'
grub-installer: info: grub-install does not support --no-floppy
grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --force
grub-installer: Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-installer: grub-install: warning: Couldn't find physical volume '(null)'. Some modules may be missing from core image...
grub-installer: grub-install: warning:
grub-installer:
grub-installer: Couldn't find physical volume '(null)'. Some modules may be missing from core image...
grub-installer: .
grub-installer: grub-install: error: cannot open `/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/load.cfg`: No such file or directory.
grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install --force failed.

I booted my installer-cd over EFI mode.

[Thomas (t.c)]

I also did manual partitioning, in the follow steps:

(sorry, its my translation from the german promts)

select guided: use whole disk -> dont write to disk, because I wanna change the ext4 partition to a software raid.

So I select partition 2 and change type to raid and than run configure raid, write partition table, configure my raid, how I do it every time. on the created md0 I set to use it as ext4 mountet as /

On the EFIboot partition I dont change anything and also cannot select a mount path.

[Thomas (t.c)]

how is this load.cfg created? Why its missing?
manual grub-install from tty2 fails also with

grub-install: error: cannot open `/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/load.cfg`: No such file or directory.

[Thomas (t.c)]

Im now on the setup-cds-rescure-mode after I finisched setup without grub.

When I now try to run grub-install /dev/sda I get:
grub-install: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.

[Thomas (t.c)]

I come close to the resolution:

after I ran:

grub-install --bootloader-id ubuntu-hdd1 /dev/sda

I get
Installing for i386 platform.
grub-install: warning: Couldn't find physical volume '(null)'. Some modules may be missing from core image...
grub-install: warning: Couldn't find physical volume '(null)'. Some modules may be missing from core image...
grub-install: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible.
grub-install: error: embedding is not possible, but this required for RAID and LVM install.

after a

parted /dev/sda set 1 bios_grub on

it is possible to run grub-install without errors.

[Thomas (t.c)]

ok, fail... its not the efi bootloader... I forgot to say, that I installed grub-pc before... but booting is still not possible :(

[Thomas (t.c)]

Ok, I attached to Bug # 1298399 because I hope it fits more to me (software-raid and uefi)

[karlsebal (karlsebal)]

The problem here was: I did not create an efi boot partition. But the automatic installer did not create one as well nor complained about the missing partition. I installed manually and it works now.

But the automatic should give a hint at least.

[Jason Sharp (jsharp)]

I'm having the same problem, EFI or Non-EFI hardware.

On non-EFI hardware I recieve

Unable to install GRUB in (hd0, 1)
executing 'grub-install (hd0, 1)' failed.
this is a fatal error

/var/log/syslog has

grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '(hd0, 1)'
grub-installer: info: grub-install does not support --no-floppy
grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --force "(hd0, 1)"
grub-installer: Installing for i386-pc platform

**NOTE** uname -a shows this as a x86_64 machine, which is correct, but grub-installer thinks i386

grub-installer: grub-install: error: disk `hd0, 1` not found
grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install --force "(hd0, 1)"' failed

[arndtc (arndtc)]

I have an older Macbook, and when trying to use the mac 14.04 installer the GRUB installer always fails. It doesn't matter what partition or drive I point to, it just always fails.

But if I go back to the 12.04 (original) .iso and try to install, it installs without any problems.
The GUUB version in 12.04 was GRUB 1.99 (something).

I also saw a similar problem when trying to install OpenSUSE 13.1.

[arndtc (arndtc)]

I tried the non-MAC variant of 14.04 LTS today and didn't have any problems installing GRUB.
I have a Macbook 3,1 which is older so maybe it doesn't need the MAC variant installer.

[jorritlinnert (jorrit-linnert)]

Both the Ubuntu installer and grub-install react as if the installer is running in Legacy mode and not in (U)EFI mode.
I think the focus should be concentrated there in order to squash this bug.
Even when apt-get installing grub-x86_64-efi --reinstall from a chrooted system, including the necessary kernel option force.libata=noncq by hand, grub still won't boot.
Hardware Used: Sony SVP132A1CM (a.k.a Vaio Pro 13), using manual partitioning.
I have read
http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=1531751&p=1 (French)
on installing Ubuntu 13.10 on a machine which is only marginally different from mine which wipes the Windows 8 installation along with the support partitions.
I want to install it alongside Windows so I could not follow all the instructions there.

[jorritlinnert (jorrit-linnert)]

@moderator, please feel free to delete my latest comment #34 along with one.
My issue is not that the installer crashes, but it is an issue that prevent my system from booting grub2 and with that Ubuntu. I'll file another bug report related to the issue I ran into. It is related, but not the same.

[Hans Ostrowski (hans-ostrowski)]

A note - the error message says:

    Setting up grub-efi-amd64-signed (1.34+2.02~beta2-9) ...
    grub-install: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.
    dpkg: error processing package grub-efi-amd64-signed (--configure):
    subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

BUT

I have a 64 bit version, ie the right path should be

/usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi/modinfo.sh

seems like during the configuration process it is looking into the wrong directory

[Lo_pescofi (corbieres)]

Like "Hans Ostrowski" :
grub-install search modinfo.sh in "/usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/" directory
BUT
modinfo.sh is in "/usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi/" directory

[Ha-Duong Nguyen (cmpitg)]

For a workaround, symlinking x86_64-efi to i386-pc works:

$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/root-tmp
$ sudo /dev/<your-root-partition> /mnt/root-tmp
$ cd /mnt/root-tmp/usr/lib/grub
$ sudo ln -s x86_64-efi i386-pc

Then re-run the command to install grub-efi-amd64-signed.

Hope this helps.

-- Duong

[Kevin O'Gorman (kogorman-pacbell)]

This affects me too. I have a newer Toshiba laptop that came with Windows 8.1, and it boots UEFI. I created space using windows tools, created a Linux swap and root partition, and installed Xubuntu 14.04.1 from DVD.

Everything went as expected except the grub-install, it seems.

If I boot from the DVD, my partitions are there. I can bind-mount dev, proc and sys to the hard drive and chroot to the installed Xubuntu. But when I try 'grub-install' it says it's installing for x86-64-efi, which is correct, but then it also says cannot find EFI directory. The machine is booting Windows no matter what I do.

As I understand it, the EFI directory is a smallish VFAT partition. The disk has that as /dev/sda2, and it's 260 MiB and has the "boot" flag set. What else does GRUB need?