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I’ve had this issue for about a week, and all the basics have been tried. The core of the issue may be Acer having messed up (according to the boards I’ve read) on the BIOS.

I’m in UEFI and there is no option to switch that. And I have tried.

I have gone through a ton of steps and here is where I am at now.

On a completely wiped hard drive i can liveUSB to an install that is eventually complete and does work except for grub2.

I can get it to boot to GRUB if I use the LiveUSB and escape out. But if I don’t use the USB key, I get “no bootable device.”

So.... using the thumbdrive, and the escape key, it “GRUBs”

Then, if I type the following (which came from here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Troubleshooting), it will boot. 

set pager=1
set prefix=(hd1,2)/boot/grub
set root=(hd1,1)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-16-generic root=/dev/sda1
initrd /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic
boot

From there I have a working system. But I am out of luck it seems if I want to make that permanent (meaning, if not, then I always have to type that stuff at GRUB).

From there, I am looking at making things permanent.

Steps I have tried: I can “update-grub” but on “grub-install /dev/sda” it freezes.

I can add the ppa and install and run boot-repair but again, on grub-install (which it always suggests as part of its steps) it freezes.

I can sudo pcmanfm into the etc/ files for grub and I can edit them....

So I am thinking if I can just maybe add the above lines (that I now manually type into grub)—perhaps into grub.cfg itself—then I can skip having to manually type those lines in each time.

Though I was worried that it resets itself on kernel update anyway.

Any thoughts? Please.

Sage
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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – Thomas Ward Mar 12 '18 at 13:36
  • Close voters: Crafted answer. – Elder Geek Mar 19 '18 at 18:13
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    What model Acer? The 17.10 BIOS/UEFI issue primarily on Lenovo also applied to some Acer. Make sure you have 17.10.1. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1734147 And Acer needs "trust" setting in UEFI. https://askubuntu.com/questions/862946/unable-to-install-ubuntu-on-acer-aspire-es1-533 – oldfred Mar 21 '18 at 03:39
  • Oh this is New!!! Great idea. I’ll check it out and get back to you. – Sage Mar 22 '18 at 00:39
  • This is EXACTLY MY PROBLEM!! Exactly. Thank you! – Sage Mar 22 '18 at 17:48
  • not working yet.. I got closer by adding the --nvram but I still don't have a grub cfg file. Can someone maybe pastebin one that I can use to get me going? – Sage Mar 23 '18 at 00:23

1 Answers1

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Given the information provided in your question and the discussion in chat it appears that there is damage to the boot sector at the beginning of your storage device or perhaps the ESP which is interfering with your ability to write to it and hence update it. It would likely be wise to check the SMART status of the offending device as while if it passes it doesn't guarantee the drive isn't failing, if it fails it's an excellent indication that the drive should be replaced.

Personally I would replace any drive that failed a SMART status check. If the drive is under warranty the manufacturer will typically replace it at little or no cost to you.

Elder Geek
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