Executing 'grub-install/dev/sda' failed This is a fatal error

[naive rain]

Any one knows how to solve this

Basically

Every linux distro like linux lite , zorin os

In which we choose EFI SYSTEM PARTITION instead of manually allocate fat32 and /boot/EFI

I got his error

One more thing I am installing this on external harddrive

If anyone can help me pls..

I am struggling for 3 weeks

[lofty cobalt]

it's important to know which way you booted the USB/DVD up in

if this is a modern-ish computer that supports oldskool (legacy/CSM) booting PLUS newskool UEFI booting, it's very important detail to know

• type efibootmgr in terminal as soon as you boot live to desktop. if it says in first line: "Boot Current: xxxx" then you've booted as UEFI mode

if it says "EFI vars not supported on this system" , you've booted legacy

if looking to do a modern-style UEFI install, then the external hard drive should be set up with GPT (GUID PARTITION TABLE)

and if looking to do legacy, it should be having an MSDOS MBR-scheme partition table

@naive rain ^

[naive rain]

I did this before installation I check th hdd properties to GPT and then I Rufus it to GPT because it's a hybrid images according to rufus..

Still get same error

I will recheck it try to reinstall and let you know

[lofty cobalt]

don't reinstall right away

just boot the live system

then do efibootmgr and read what I said above, about it

then do sudo parted -l and show results here.

@naive rain

also inxi -SM and show

[naive rain]

Ok

I think there are something extra is here

@lofty cobalt can you tell me the issue?

[lofty cobalt]

yeah let me read

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

ok hard drive is GPT.

and you're definitely in UEFI mode

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

so what's the issue?

does the external hdd not boot?

also, what OS is on the nvme drive?

[naive rain]

The grub bootloader cannot execute on the hdd

[naive rain]

Windows

[lofty cobalt]

only Windows?

[naive rain]

Yes

But there is residue of ubuntu also

Like bootloader of ubuntu

Maybe

Because when I boot to bios it shows both

[lofty cobalt]

in terminal type gnome-disks

[naive rain]

Ok

Wait a minute

[lofty cobalt]

got to clean this up a bit

do sudo efibootmgr -b 0001 -B to get rid of Garuda loader

then do sudo efibootmgr -b 000F -B on new line to get rid of Ubuntu loader. that's it. Don't touch anything else and type very precisely.

[lofty cobalt]

the the 1 TB HDD

[naive rain]

Yes

[lofty cobalt]

show it

photograph the window horizontally the whole window, dont cut off

landscape mode camera

[lofty cobalt]

ok u see the 3 dots in top right?

[naive rain]

Yes

[lofty cobalt]

click and do "Format Drive" ... for type choose GPT... and quick mode erase

[naive rain]

Is this ok ?

[lofty cobalt]

ok close that app

[naive rain]

Ok

Then ?

[lofty cobalt]

check all this again. and do the commands i put

[naive rain]

This final output after the commands u said

[lofty cobalt]

ok good

close terminal, run the Lite installer, and pick the "something else" option

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

mention when you're at the partitioning step

[naive rain]

So the PARTITIONs will be

1. EFI SYSTEM PARTITION 1024
2. LINUX SWAP 8000
3. EXT4 / 150000

[lofty cobalt]

no

show picture when u are at the step for that

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

in landscape, ofc

[naive rain]

yes

@lofty cobalt so now what PARTITIONs

[lofty cobalt]

click free space under /dev/sda in the chart

click the + icon. this must be done all very carefully and slow ok

first partition 315000 MB ; USE AS: "Efi system partition"

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

create at "beginning of drive space"

as primary, not logical

don't need more than 300 MiB (315 MB) for EFI

even to put Debian.

[naive rain]

Is this ok ?

[lofty cobalt]

perfect.

click OK, then click free space again

and do +

[naive rain]

Twn

[lofty cobalt]

for size, do rest of size ; primary ; use as: ext4 journ. fs

don't need swap cuz it should make swapfile automatically

[naive rain]

Moun point?

[lofty cobalt]

plus swap is gonna be slow if used a lot on an external drive.

moutnpoint put to

to /

[jade vigil]

has boot-repair tool been tried yet? I'm fairly certain just running it would fix this in 1 minute

[lofty cobalt]

no cuz it was blanked somewat before , anyway

one moment please, Manttiss

[naive rain]

Is this ok ?

[naive rain]

Ok ok

[lofty cobalt]

ok hit ok

you're giving linux root about 669 GiB

now show window.

this next part is very important

[lofty cobalt]

click the down arrow, in the bootloader location box

choose sda1

[naive rain]

After that

?

[lofty cobalt]

wait i saw an error

[naive rain]

Ok ok

[lofty cobalt]

lol u gave EFI over 300 GIGABYTES

just click - for both sda1 and sda2

[naive rain]

I was also thinking like it's just a bootloader 🙃

[lofty cobalt]

put 315 MB for new sda1

[naive rain]

How

Should I change the size first ?

[lofty cobalt]

highlight sda1 , then clik the minus button

[lofty cobalt]

ok u can also do that

highlight sda1, then "CHANGE" button

[naive rain]

Now sda1 is free space

[lofty cobalt]

ok so repeat like before

[lofty cobalt]

but with this value

[naive rain]

Is this perfect

[lofty cobalt]

yes

[naive rain]

This one

[lofty cobalt]

sda1

hit ok

then delete sda2

and redo it. for ext4 full remaining size of drive

then fix bootloader box back to sda1 and show final pic

[naive rain]

Check this

[lofty cobalt]

fix bootloader i said

click the down arrow

[naive rain]

It automatically switches to window

[lofty cobalt]

still wrong

[naive rain]

I don't know but it happens last time also

[lofty cobalt]

read what I said

it SHOULD go to sda1

[naive rain]

Oh ok ok

Ok?

[lofty cobalt]

yep hit install button.

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

oh forgot mountpoint

change - sda2

[naive rain]

Should I install now ?

[lofty cobalt]

good

yes

[naive rain]

Everything thing is ok ?

@lofty cobalt

[lofty cobalt]

yes u can see what it's going to do there

[naive rain]

It's started let's wait

@lofty cobalt

Is there any issue with HDD ?

[lofty cobalt]

hm

it shouldn't be.

one moment.

ok try this please.

close that box, and do reboot

back to the USB

@naive rain

idk why u keep disappearing.

[naive rain]

Sry

Wait

Hey I was thinking like if I do both hdd and usb drive car to MBR

Will it work

[lofty cobalt]

idk . last resort i guess. but show DISKS app from live AFTER fresh reboot to live

[naive rain]

Back to linuz

[lofty cobalt]

showing the sda2 highlighted, and hit play button

run gnome-disks again

or type-search disks in the start menu there

[lofty cobalt]

.

[naive rain]

Should click on the play button

Ok

Done

[lofty cobalt]

for sda2 only . then show

[lofty cobalt]

come on.....

[naive rain]

What

[lofty cobalt]

read what i said

[naive rain]

Sry

I unmount the sda1 and mount the sda2

[lofty cobalt]

yeah it shows used some, but still i want more info

in terminal, do lsblk -o name,type,size,fstype,fssize,fsused,fsavail,mountpoint

[jade vigil]

can you please run boot-repair?

[naive rain]

It looks like the boolader didn't install

@lofty cobalt

[lofty cobalt]

that's fair. 8.5 gigs for the OS is alredy installed

[naive rain]

Yes

[lofty cobalt]

search in start menu for boot repair

and show it carefully

[naive rain]

Here is nothing

Should I install boot repair ?

[lofty cobalt]

hm try just boot

if not, connect to internet there

make sure internet works..

do ping msn.com

if u get replies, then do ctrl-c to stop

then do :
sudo apt install software-properties-common;
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) universe";
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair;
sudo apt-get update;
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair

you can do each line without the backslashes, one line at a time, pressing enter

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

well, @naive rain ?

[lofty cobalt]

ooof

well Lite is based on Ubuntu already so try this

sudo apt update

then apt search boot-repair

see if it finds the program

plus u put damn comma instead of period in the repo information before. no wonder it errored

[naive rain]

I think issue is .list file

[lofty cobalt]

fucks sakes

do u have a ventoy'd USB???

probably not cuz i saw ur lsblk

[naive rain]

I make this one like I have ventoy in pc installed it just takes 4-5 minutes

[lofty cobalt]

go back to Windows. make ventoy USB IN GPT MODE

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

put linuxmint ISO (any kind) on it. that has boot repair tool included

[naive rain]

Ok

[naive rain]

Ok ok

[lofty cobalt]

dont click clear, that's just there underlined for information purposes

[naive rain]

Ok

Linux mint or linux lite which one ?

[lofty cobalt]

afterwards, boot Mint from ventoy to live desktop, and run boot repair tool. choose Advanced option so u can tell it WHICH efi partition to put on. (the sda1, not nvme p1)

MINT

[naive rain]

You mean lite right ?

[lofty cobalt]

MINT

USE ITS BOOT REPAIR TOOL

[naive rain]

Ok

I am going to remove this linux lite in this usb and will install mint

[lofty cobalt]

just ventoy it

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

in GPT,

that will blank the USB.

then copy Mint ISO (to use it for repair purposes)

[lofty cobalt]

ok

[naive rain]

Putting mint 22.1 cinnamon iso file here

[lofty cobalt]

yes and give it time to rest after copying says done

at least 1/2minute rest

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

then all this

[lofty cobalt]

he could if it came with that distro's live ISO 😛

[naive rain]

What's the command to run boot repair

[lofty cobalt]

are u booted up in Mint Live mode now?

if so, just type-search it in the menu

[lofty cobalt]

yeah make sure u are in EFI mode. do df -h in terminal

it should mention a line about efivars. if it does, then continue with Advanced Repair in tool

[naive rain]

Now what ?

[lofty cobalt]

check the next tab and show

[lofty cobalt]

what's in Main Options

[lofty cobalt]

ok click Apply

and let it run

[naive rain]

Ok

Done

[lofty cobalt]

cool

[naive rain]

Wait

For output

[lofty cobalt]

summary?

[lofty cobalt]

no.

[naive rain]

Which option

[lofty cobalt]

click no, but read the summary

[lofty cobalt]

maximize the summary text and show full pic

next...

[naive rain]

This is all summary

[lofty cobalt]

click ok

anything else?

[naive rain]

Yes

[lofty cobalt]

maximize and show landscape

[naive rain]

It's a file alot of things is here

[lofty cobalt]

im reading

[jade vigil]

the ubiquity installer is so ass.

[naive rain]

Wait a sec I will send. You the file

[lofty cobalt]

scroll down and show more of it

[lofty cobalt]

just dont waste time, take another pic of the rest

and send pic

i can read from photo just fine

I think it worked anyway. disregard the "locked NVRAM" thing.

that just means you gotta adjust boot order in BIOS yourself later.

To access the boot menu on an ASUS ROG Strix laptop, you typically need to press the Esc key repeatedly while the computer is starting up. Alternatively, some models might use F2 to enter the BIOS, which can then be used to access the boot menu or change the boot order

[naive rain]

I know this I open the usb file in that way

[lofty cobalt]

so you should be able to find new entry here called "linux lite" or maybe just "ubuntu"

[naive rain]

Okk

Wait

I think it worked let me check it

[lofty cobalt]

ubuntu WD

[naive rain]

Yes

[lofty cobalt]

loading Lite?

[naive rain]

What's the issue than ?

[lofty cobalt]

did it load?

[naive rain]

It finally worked 🤩🤩💯🎉🎉🎉🎉

I named it stunner

I will never forget you

Thanks bro 👍

You are the angel sent by God 🙏🏻

@lofty cobalt

[lofty cobalt]

heh

do df -h and show plz

or lsblk -f

it should NOT show any live loop device

@naive rain and also do cat /proc/swaps

[lofty cobalt]

good, it's installed where it should be.. both sda1 for booting stuff, and sda2 for main OS. now show the swap thing i mentioned plz

[lofty cobalt]

ah you currently have no swap.

but it's easy to make a swap FILE

[naive rain]

Yeah like we didn't make

[lofty cobalt]

I really did believe it would auto-make a swap FILE

but I'll send u a simple vid on how to make one

and u only need 2 GiB (2048 MiB)

[naive rain]

Resize will work ?

[lofty cobalt]

absolutely not

[naive rain]

Why

[lofty cobalt]

dont mess with running system. follow this guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXhcnoVPpHQ&pp=ygUgam9lIGNvbGxpbnMgY3JlYXRpbmcgYSBzd2FwIGZpbGU%3D

[naive rain]

Ok tell me what was the main issue ?

[naive rain]

Pls

[lofty cobalt]

i think main issue was u didnt remove the nvme physically from the PC, and the dumb installer kept getting screwed because of the existing EFI there

as Lot said earlier that particular installer which Mint and Lite use, called "Ubiquity" has some bugs these days

[lofty cobalt]

follow this accurately, he is very easy to understand

[naive rain]

Ok once again thanks man you help me alot 💯

[lofty cobalt]

you're welcome.

[naive rain]

What is nvme here ?

The bootloader ?

[lofty cobalt]

@jade vigil SOLVED using new GPT on external HDD, and the linux mint BOOT REPAIR APP from live mode to fix stubborn bootloader and force it to go on

[naive rain]

Because now I can install
Mint
Zorin os easily

[lofty cobalt]

lsblk -f will show u

[naive rain]

Ok

[lofty cobalt]

it's ur other efi

[naive rain]

Ok ok

[lofty cobalt]

ur ssd

[naive rain]

The ubuntu one ?

[lofty cobalt]

idk

ahhh

that's probably what happened. the dumb ubiquity installer tried to put it onto nvme DESPITE our manual install instruction to put it on sda1

[naive rain]

Ohh ok ok

[lofty cobalt]

next time, open PC back cover, unscrew nvme drive, and take out.

[naive rain]

Wait you all are managing the linux lite here

You work as a linux lite maintanence

[naive rain]

Ook

The way explain and knowledge like you are the developer

[lofty cobalt]

.

[naive rain]

Is it important to make swap ?

[lofty cobalt]

i've just become used to helpin on here with many boot issues.

yes put some. 1 or 2 gigs

helps system not overflow main RAM and then crash, especialy if gaming or something heavy in apps

[naive rain]

You should make your own OS now

I think you achieve the level to build your own OS

And I believe it will be the most stable and easy to install os

Honestly you deserve man 🫡

[naive rain]

Ok ok

[lofty cobalt]

SOLVED using new GPT on external HDD, and the linux mint BOOT REPAIR APP from live mode to fix stubborn bootloader and force it to go on ESP of HDD

[naive rain]

👍👍

[naive rain]

@lofty cobalt it worked I think the setup is completed now

[lofty cobalt]

make sure u put it into fstab file so it works each time u boot linux lite

in nano, he doesnt really show in video, but ctrl-o is to save, plus the enter key.