GRUB package failed to install

[lwalper]

I just got a new Toshiba Satellite U945-S4110 laptop with Win8.1 installed. In addition to the 500Gb HDD it has a 32Gb SSD and boots using UEFI. I have resized the HDD to accommodate the Ubuntu installation and am trying to install 12.04.3 from a USB stick. After making appropriate changes in the UEFI to allow boot from USB I have successfully begun the installation, but have been presented with an error message that tells me

"The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/."

For the boot partition I selected the pre-defined (by Windows) EFI partition which was already on the drive and / for mount point on free-space blank partition (now partitioned as sda7) where I had planned to install Ubuntu.

This EFI mess has got me befuddled. Where do I install Ubuntu and boot stuff? GPARTED tells me the drive is partitioned as:

sda1 (ntfs)
sda2 (fat32-efi)
sda3 (unknown file system)
sda4 (ntfs)
sda5 (ntfs)
sda6 (ntfs)
sda7 (ext4)
and an unallocated 1Mb

[fantab]

Boot with Ubuntu DVD/USB (Try Ubuntu without installing)- download and install Boot-Repair (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair). Run Boot-Repair; the second option will "create a Bootinfo Summary", create it and note the link it generates for the Bootinfo and post the link here.

[Bucky Ball]

For the boot partition you shouldn't select anything. If you are installing in EFI then Ubuntu should automagically see the existing Win EFI partition. You don't do anything; don't format it, rename it, or assign it as boot partition.

Run boot repair as suggested and lets see what you have in there. Boot Repair may also be able to repair this EFI problem so give that a try first. It can also change non-EFI Ubuntu installs to EFI.

[lwalper]

OK, Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[lwalper]

I ran BootRepair and installed the OS with the same warning as above. The URL generated by BootRepair is:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/6809507/

That said, the OS did seem to install OK. Upon removing the USB stick and rebooting there was no GRUB presented, but Ubuntu loaded without any apperent problems. The only thing whch appears to have not installed competely was English language support which has subsequently installed without any problems.

Now, how do I get GRUB to recognize the Windows8.1 OS? When I look at the files everything seems to be intact on the Win partition.

[Bucky Ball]

Open a terminal and run:

sudo update-grub

Boot Repair should have done this, but you never know. Keep an eye out for mention of Win in the output after that command.

I'll just have a look at the infoscript output.

When you say that it's booting straight to Ubuntu, do you just mean you're not getting a menu at boot? Try holding down the shift key at boot to get the grub menu. You should then seeit whether Windows is on it or not.

* From what I can see, and I'm no expert, everything appears reasonable in the EFI partition sda2.


sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Windows 8/2012: FAT32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /EFI/Boot/bkpbootx64.efi /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bkpbootmgfw.efi
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootx64.efi
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/memtest.efi
/EFI/toshiba/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
/EFI/toshiba/Boot/bootmgr.efi
/EFI/toshiba/Boot/memtest.efi

Whether there's some glitch with Ubuntu not launching in EFI, and thus disregarding this partition, I'm not sure. Is sdb the Boot Repair USB? If not, please remove so that it's out of the equation.

Perhaps your boot is not looking at sda2 ... :-k

* Further stab in the dark, but perhaps you're booting from this:


Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /casper/vmlinuz.efi
/EFI/BOOT/grubx64.efi

... in sdb1. That could be confusing things so get rid of it at boot. Do you see a grub screen at all at boot? If you get to one using my instructions above, at the top you should see 'grub-efi' or 'grub-pc'. Which have you got?

[lwalper]

Correct, no boot menu.

Currently installing updates. Will give that a try when all is squared away.

[Bucky Ball]

I added some more thoughts to my last post ...

Did you try the Bootrepair option to turn Ubuntu in EFI install? That might work.

[lwalper]

Don't remember seeing that option.

Have run update-grub with the following response:

Generating grub.cfg ...
Warning: Setting GRUB_TIMEOUT to a non-zero value when GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is set is no longer supported.
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-35-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-35-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-29-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-29-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done

EFI may not have been set up. Time for a reboot.

[lwalper]

REboot with same outcome. Boots staight into Ubuntu without a menu. Tried holding the shift key (right and left on separate attempts) with loss of peripherals (no mouse or keyboard) when the OS finally loaded. OS loads fine when uninterrupted, but no boot menu and no Windoz boot options.

Have other things to do at the moment. I'll be back. Thanks for your help so far.

[lwalper]

Re-ran update-grub with the same result as above.

[lwalper]

I've still got a Install RELEASE icon in the screen so thought I'd just try to reinstall. That would probably work OK except for the fact that I come to the same decision making point about partitions and where to put the installation.

I'm choosing sda7 for the Ubuntu installation. If i select the option to make that the EFI boot partition I am prompted that there is no file system, so I select ext4. Below that there's a checkbox oprion to format the partition and below that an option for selecting a mount point. I notice there is an option for "Reserved bios boot area" as a mount point. Should I be using that? instead of /. The installation will not proceed without specifying a mount point.

[oldfred]

You should be getting grub menu. With UEFI sudo update-grub only works with 13.10 or later versions of grub. Only Boot-Repair entry will work whether the renamed bkb backup or Windows efi boot entry. Do not use os-probers entry.
Grub also has major issues installing on Ultrabooks with Intel SRT like you have. The RAID SRT uses confuses it on where it should boot from.

Do not often see this, did you run install from an old copy of 12.04, not current 12.04.3? Only versions 12.04.2 or later support secure boot.

GRUB too old for SecureBoot

Also many updates to UEFI and those are in 13.04 and will be in 12.04.4 in a couple of weeks in Feb. Newest version works with newest hardware better. Also many vendors have updates to UEFI/BIOS as they also have bugs.

It looks like you ran this. Not sure if required or not. It is for those UEFI where vendor has modified UEFI to only boot Windows. Currently from UEFI menu, booting both Windows or ubuntu will boot to grub menu or Ubuntu. If you can boot ubuntu entry then turn this off. When it is on you can only boot bkpbootmgfw.efi entry from grub menu.


buggy-kernel detected. Do you want to activate [Backup and rename Windows EFI files]? yes (if any choice fails, please retry with the other)

To undo & to rename files to their original names, you just need to tick the "Restore EFI backups" option of Boot-Repair.

Then you can boot Windows from UEFI menu or from one time boot key, often f12 but varies by vendor.

You may still have to remove the RAID meta-data to get grub to install. One work around is to add a one line grub.cfg in the efi partition so it knows where to boot from.

In efi partition's folder /EFI/ubuntu add another grub.cfg to tell UEFI where to find grub.cfg with just this one line
configfile (hd0,gpt7)/boot/grub/grub.cfg

If that does not work then see how to remove RAID meta-data in links in my signature.

[angryfirelord]

I just got a new Toshiba Satellite U945-S4110 laptop with Win8.1 installed. In addition to the 500Gb HDD it has a 32Gb SSD and boots using UEFI. I have resized the HDD to accommodate the Ubuntu installation and am trying to install 12.04.3 from a USB stick. After making appropriate changes in the UEFI to allow boot from USB I have successfully begun the installation, but have been presented with an error message that tells me

"The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/."
I've received this message on a fresh install as well, but it turns out that Ubiquity for some reason isn't mounting the existing EFI partition automatically. I don't know why since the Debian installer picks it up fine. But it's an easy fix.

Open a terminal and become root. Find the partition and mount it. My system has the EFI partition on /dev/sda1, so change it as necessary for your system.

sudo su
mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
Run the installer and set up the partitions as necessary. You don't need to do anything with the EFI partition as is. Just point the bootloader installation to it (/dev/sda1).