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I was trying to install Ubuntu 16.04 on my laptop(Asus) but NOT with windows as I erased the full drive to be just for linux. I had the problem of GRUB which is: Unable to install GRUB in /dev/sda Executing grub-install /dev/sda failed. This is a fatal error.

I tried to use boot-repair but it didn't work. so next I tried to remove all the partitions and create new ones and in the boot loader installation I added the exact location where the Ubuntu should be installed eg:/sdb1

problem now is that it finish the installation, tells me to restart the device but when I do, it boots from the USB and its like no operating system is there from the first place to boot from.

I checked my BIOS and if I remove the bootable USB it says NO BOOTABLE DEVICES and when I do put it back it can only see the USB.

If anyone knows please try to elaborate your solution in the best way as I am a bit new to these fixes

Thank you

Amr Mahmoud
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    I've had experiences with some laptops/netbooks that were a pain to get the bios/uefi settings right to enable write; but the quirks were in the [rom-bios/]uefi and not Ubuntu system (try it with secure boot on, off etc) then I would next try a more modern version (eg. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS from 2018 which is two years newer) – guiverc Jul 01 '19 at 11:33
  • Ok I will try, but can you tell me what other things that can be done ? – Amr Mahmoud Jul 01 '19 at 11:40
  • If you're creating partitions yourself, and installing in UEFI mode, don't forget to create the EFI partition. –  Jul 01 '19 at 11:56
  • Can you elaborate more Gabriela ? I created the root partition with a mount point of "/" and then there was the swap which is about 4GB. How do I add the EFI partition – Amr Mahmoud Jul 01 '19 at 12:04
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    UEFI/gpt partitioning in Advance, new versions do not need swap partition: http://askubuntu.com/questions/743095/how-to-prepare-a-disk-on-an-efi-based-pc-for-ubuntu & https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DiskSpace Be sure then to boot installer in UEFI mode as that will be how it installs. Shows installer with screen shots. Both BIOS purple accessibility screen & UEFI black grub menu screen https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI & https://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-windows-10-with-uefi – oldfred Jul 01 '19 at 14:32

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You probably installed with legacy mode and your computer doesn't know about legacy, it tries to boot in UEFI mode and searches for a UEFI/EFI partition. If it doesn't find a UEFI partition then it wouldn't boot like in your case. When partitioning a disk for Ubuntu , if you want it to be UEFI then you should create a partition for UEFI. For example i have a 300mb fat32 UEFI partition and i flagged it when partitioning.

An example UEFI partitioning:

  • 200-500MB FAT32 UEFI (This must be flagged)

  • --As much as you like--GB Ubuntu OS

  • --Usually twice as RAM--GB swap

In your case, you should boot from live cd/usb and partition your disk with GParted. In GParted, partition your disk with the example provided above and make sure you flagged your UEFI partition to boot and you are good to go. After partitioning turn off the live session and start the installation , if you did everything correct, you should not be selecting a mount point for bootloader. You can get more information from here. UEFI-Community

Ugur Akgul
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  • Uger Akgul , thank you really your answer worked for me. But still during the installation I had to select mount point for bootloader but eventually it worked – Amr Mahmoud Jul 02 '19 at 16:13
  • I'm glad it worked for you. You should probably mark the answer as a solution though. Also i'm curious about why did it need you to select a mount point for bootloader. – Ugur Akgul Jul 03 '19 at 05:24
  • @AmrMahmoud Please don't thank the poster! ;-) If this answer did help, just click the little grey ☑ at the left of this text right now turning it into beautiful green. If you do not like the answer, click on the little grey down-arrow below the number, and if you really like the answer, click on the little grey ☑ and the little up-arrow... If you have any further questions, just ask another one! ;-) – Fabby Jul 06 '19 at 09:22
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In my case - my problem was WHICH USB Flash drive boot entry I would choose. My ASRock UEFI boot selection had 2 entries:

USB - Flash drive

UEFI - USB Flash drive partition 1

Whenever I chose the first one (I guess this is what everyone is calling "LEGACY"), it would install, but then on boot, I was presented with a grub PROMPT, not even a menu of choices. So there really wasn't anything that I could do. However, if I choose the UEFI - USB Flash drive and then install, then everything works as expected.

Rand
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