I have a Dell Inspiron 14R. It does not support uEFI...can I install Ubuntu 18.04 on this machine? If so, what steps are necessary? If 18.04 is unsupported on this laptop, can you tell me which version is?
I've created a "liveCD" from the .iso and it will boot. The install routine starts and at the end i get this error:
Many thanks.
It's Dell. It has UEFI, but the firmware doesn't allow the user access. I'll venture a guess that you're not using a "Guided" option during the partitioning stage, or if you are Ubuntu is not seeing the UEFI requirement.
In either case, try making a 100MB EFI/GPT/FAT32 partition at the very beginning of the drive. Ubuntu gives this option in the for of "Do Something Else..." Then continue the installation.
You can boot either in BIOS mode or UEFI mode. As it's more modern there's loads more benefits to UEFI booting where it is an option but as in your case where you can't you can do without.
When I've had that error before it's usually been due to corrupted install media. I'd suggest you re-create your install media following the Ubuntu instructions here.
You don't need to do anything special for Ubuntu to be installed in BIOS mode instead of UEFI mode, just progress through the installer as instructed and everything should work!
