unable to install 18.04 BUG ?

[mbohets]

After install, I got the message "the grub-efi-amd64-signed package failed to install in / target/."
So I installed Neon 16.04 again.
During the neon install, I got a popup about using efi or not.
When I selected efi, I got the same result as with Kubuntu 18.04, when I chose not to use efi, all went well.
Problem: Kubuntu did not give me the choice of using efi or not, it just assumed an efi install.

The laptop had a dual boot W10 (upgraded from W7), and when I look at the output of fdisk, the disk
has the dos partitioning on it.

Am I correct that Kubuntu does not correctly detect the dos disk partitioning format, so this is a bug ?

Also can someone explain what these /dev/loop devices in the fdisk output ?

@m:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 236 MiB, 247422976 bytes, 483248 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop1: 87 MiB, 91160576 bytes, 178048 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/sda: 931,5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xd246975f

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 204800 100M 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 406730751 406523904 193,9G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 406732798 1908504575 1501771778 716,1G 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 1908504576 1953523711 45019136 21,5G 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda5 406732800 424128511 17395712 8,3G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 424130560 619440127 195309568 93,1G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 619442176 678033407 58591232 28G 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 678035456 1908504575 1230469120 586,8G 83 Linux

Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order.

[GreyGeek]

Partition 3 should have started on 406732800 boundary, a multiple of 4096. (Or, 406728704)

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1569...ector-boundary

[mbohets]

Would that be the reason why Kubuntu 18.04 does not detect that the disk has a dos partition format and not efi ?
But at least neon 16.04 gives me a choice between efi or not, would the kubuntu 18.04 problem also be present in Neon 18.04, as it is based on Kubuntu ?
--> should I report it as a bug ?

[Qqmike]

Would that be the reason why Kubuntu 18.04 does not detect that the disk has a dos partition format and not efi ?

No.

I think this all has to do with HOW you are booting your live Kubuntu 18.04 DVD or USB flash drive when you do the installation of 18.04. When you boot the computer with your Kubuntu installer medium, you enter your BIOS-Firmware, and there you should see two boot option entries for the Kubuntu installer medium: one says something about UEFI/EFI and the other doesn't. If you don't want a UEFI installation of 18.04, you select the latter boot option.

[oshunluvr]

When you boot to the USB it's supposed to offer you the two options, but I've seen it not do so and had the same problem. Not sure why or what the difference is.

Your partition table problem is another issue. I doubt it causes much except for making access imperceptibly slower. I'm sure that drive has been that way for a long time. I wouldn't worry about that.

[Qqmike]

When you boot to the USB it's supposed to offer you the two options, but I've seen it not do so and had the same problem. Not sure why or what the difference is.

Yes, right. And that is perhaps the major issue somewhat "against" UEFI (but it is an argument against legacy BIOS, too!): The implementation of UEFI is up to the computer-firmware maker. I use ASUS (ASUS mobo on my DIY desktop and ASUS laptop for the spousal unit), and ASUS makes it a piece of cake to understand and use its UEFI firmware menus and in those menus offers plenty of nice, useful menus (boot options, settings, graphical, etc.), AND your mouse (as well as keyboard keys) works in its UEFI menus. Not all computers are so nicely equipped in the UEFI-BIOS department, unfortunately, thus far to date.

[mbohets]

It did not offer any option, it just booted from the USB stick.

[mbohets]

It did not offer any option, it just booted from the USB stick.
I just checked the BIOS settings, and there is only one entry about uefi, and it says uefi support enabled,
but I suppose that is necessary when W10 is also installed on the laptop.

[Qqmike]

The option we are talking about would be shown in your BIOS boot menus somewhere.

For example,

Say you plug in your USB flash drive and re-boot the computer.
At the proper time (during POST), press your magic key that gets you into your BIOS-firmware (on my machine--an ASUS--that key is f2.
In those BIOS tabs and menus, look for Boot and specifically Boot Override (but sometimes it is only under Boot).
In that correct Boot [override] menu, you might see two entries for your live USB flash drive: one looks like a normal description of your flash drive; and one looks like a description of your flash drive AND it has UEFI/EFI in its description. The former would boot the flash drive in legacy mode; the latter would boot the flash drive in UEFI mode (and your Kubuntu installer would know the difference, too).

[jglen490]

You might want to consider turning "fast boot" off. The fast boot feature allows Windows 10 (perhaps 8.1, also) to appear to be shutdown, but in reality it isn't. That seems to wreak havoc on Linux when trying to install alongside Windows. In that case, once the firmware is configured and Linux is installed using GPT with an EFI partition, everything should be good.

I say "should be", because I don't dual boot, but I did just successfully install Kubuntu Bionic with UEFI enabled and Fast Boot turned off in the MB firmware - using GPT and EFI.

[mbohets]

I inserted my USB stick, started the PC, and went into the BIOS settings.
There is no entry for fast boot, and in the boot priority, I only see my USB stick listed once.
Then in the last tab, the exit tab, I found the boot override, with my USB stick listed twice (uefi or not) --> THX for the tip.

I'll try re-installing with that option next week, as for the rest of the week I need to use W10
because there is an application tomake electrical drawings, tailored to Belgian drawing standards, that does not run on linux,
and this week, I need to get an electrical installation certified, so not the moment to take risks with my W10 install.
I already had to re-install an older linux version and play with upgrade-grub to get my W10 to boot again, now there is no time for that, I need it to work, otherwise I will not pass the certification.

[Qqmike]

Then in the last tab, the exit tab, I found the boot override, with my USB stick listed twice (uefi or not) --> THX for the tip.

Yes, mbohets, I should have mentioned that and later thought to do so but it got late here and it slipped my mind. In my UEFI-firmware-BIOS, the Boot Override is also under the last tab labeled Save & Exit. That, to me, is not intuitive, but that is the way it goes. In a certain sense, it does make sense, though.