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I am trying to install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on my Dell G3 3579, with an Intel core i7 processor. I have 1 SSD (256GB), 1 HDD (1TB), and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 TI GPU.

I have a an Ubuntu live image on a USB drive. Initially I was able to boot Ubuntu from the USB. Everything was functioning well. I used the installation tool from within the “Try Ubuntu” desktop environment. I chose to overwrite the drive containing with the Windows OS, so this is not a dual boot setup. Everything looked good up until the end of the install process.

I got an error message saying the bootloader could not be installed, and “this is a fatal error.” The installation process ended, at which point it said I needed to reboot. So I did reboot.

I don’t know if that was a mistake or not. I’m pretty sure the Windows Boot Manager is gone, and GRUB was not installed.

I’ve read about trying to use Boot-Repair, which requires me to boot up an Ubuntu live image, but that isn’t going so well...

When I try to boot from the USB drive, I am able to boot through the legacy bios system (not UEFI, dispute the Ubuntu image supporting UEFI). However, on selecting “Try Ubuntu,” the system appears to freeze. My mouse cursor disappears and the system doesn’t respond to any touchpad/mouse/keyboard inputs. And my only way out seems to be a hard reset.

I’m open to any suggestions. Is it possible to recover my machine?

Current structure of my drives and partitions (after install failure)

Error message from second attempt (identical error)

UPDATE:

I was able to properly boot into the USB live image and access the desktop environment without freezing by pressing Alt-Shift-F1 during the Ubuntu live boot process. I will attempt to repair the bootloader and update soon with the results.

Austin Davis
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    Dell G3 is billed as a "gaming laptop". You don't mention you have a GPU though? if you do have a GPU, type e on the option to "try Ubuntu" to edit boot parameters. Scroll to line that says "quiet splash" and change it to "quiet splash nomodeset". Then press Ctrl+X. If this solves the problem here is some further reading for later: https://askubuntu.com/questions/38780/how-do-i-set-nomodeset-after-ive-already-installed-ubuntu – WinEunuuchs2Unix May 18 '19 at 14:35
  • Also update your question with the number of Hard Drives and SSD's. If you do successfully get "try Ubuntu" working download and run boot-repair right away to see if that quick fix works. – WinEunuuchs2Unix May 18 '19 at 14:39
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix I just updated the hardware info. Also, I was able to boot into the live image on the USB by pressing Alt-Shift-F1. Any advice from there would be great! – Austin Davis May 18 '19 at 14:51
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    It looks like you are trying to install in UEFI boot mode, and even though it says installing to sdb, it really wants to install to sda's ESP. Best to have gpt partitioning & ESP - efi system partition (FAT32 with boot flag) as first partition on every drive. I found a work around to install grub to ESP on sdb. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1396379 If you have ESP, Boot-Repair may be able to install in advanced mode to correct ESP. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair – oldfred May 18 '19 at 15:28
  • So after some research, it looks like I managed to wipe out my EFI partition on my SSD (there isn't one for the HDD). I'm not sure if I did that myself or if the Ubuntu installer did it. But in the installer, I chose the selection to wipe the disk and install Ubuntu. – Austin Davis May 19 '19 at 20:04

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