[KUBUNTU 20.04 LTS] Stuck in dual-boot installation hell on my Dell Vostro 14 3468.

[atta-asmi-01]

As long as USB drive is still seen as sda.
My USB flash drives as sdb, sdc or whatever often become sda on reboot or if directly booted. Sometimes I have to change depending on whether I have directly booted or rebooted flash drive.

I'm sorry, but this reply makes no sense to me.

/dev/sda is my HDD. USB is at /dev/sdb.

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I plugged in my USB and started a LIVE instance. On All my previous instances, I had been unable to get Boot Repair to run. On this try however, it installed and ran. In the end it gave me the error.

Locked-ESP detected. You may want to retry after creating a /boot/efi partition (FAT32, 100MB~250MB, start of the disk, boot flag). This can be performed via tools such as gParted. Then select this partition via the [Separate /boot/efi partition:] option of [Boot Repair].

So, I guess /dev/sda3 is locked. But I couldn't find any setting regarding to it in UEFI. Cannot create a /boot/efi partition from the KDE Partition Editor (built in) as it doesn't allow mount points. What to do next? Can't I just create another partition in the start of the HDD (I do have ~522MB unallocated space there) and let Ubuntu boot from there?

[ubfan1]

You can create a mount point at /tmp/efi to mount sda3, and then run the file system checks on it. sda3 is just a FAT filesystem, so it should be visible and fixable from Windows too.

[oldfred]

Either UEFI or Windows is locking it.
It may not mention ESP, but just security on boot or something similar. Or Windows turned fast startup/hibernation back on.

Really old bug, with some possible work arounds.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...2/+bug/1090829

Are you able to mount the ESP yourself?
Or mount read only?

[atta-asmi-01]

Oh Lord! I just tried to boot to Kubuntu Live and it wouldn't identify the 30 GB partition. Now while running installer, it says that the /dev/sda is read only.

At this point, I' ve just given up. I think Windows/UEFI is doing something to my HDD that freaks out the installation. Anyways, I've asked my friend to lend me his external Hdd so that I can backup necessary files, delete all partitions, install Kubuntu first, and then install Windows. That'll take a week or so. I'll mark this thread as answered.

THANKS TO ALL TO CHIMED IN AND HELPED.

[oldfred]

I still suggest to install Windows first. But I do not have Windows.
But if not gaming, many here suggest installing Windows in a virtual install.

[atta-asmi-01]

Acknowledged.