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A little background before I go into the main problem - I have windows installed in a 256GB nvme ssd that came with the laptop. Then I added a 2.5" SSD manually (Samsung Evo 860) for additional space and installing Ubuntu 16.04 in it. I need 16.04 for work so can't go for higher versions. The ssd is detected in windows and I was even able to store files in it.

So then I tried dual booting my system with windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04, while windows running in the nvme and linux in the 2.5" ssd. I made a bootable usb device with rufus, then shrunk the volume of the ssd which I wanted to install linux in by 100GB using Gparted. Then when I tried the install Ubuntu option I got the following error Force UEFI Installation? with following error message

This machine's firmware has started this installer in UEFI mode but it looks like there maybe existing operating systems already installed using BIOS compatibility mode, If you continue to install Debian in UEFI mode,it might be difficult to reboot into any BIOS-mode operating system.

But the BIOS mode of my laptop is UEFI and no other OS other than windows is installed. Windows 10 came with the laptop, so I assume they must have installed it UEFI mode, since as far as my understanding goes the newer laptops don't use legacy mode anymore. And also I confirmed this with the MSinfo32.

So coming back to the error, I clicked on the continue in UEFI mode , which lead me to the partitioning window, where I chose Something else (NOTE: during the previous times when I dual booted, I usually see an option called Install ubuntu along with windows, but I couldn't see it this time and I assumed it is because I am installing in a separate hard drive other than the one in which windows was installed). So I allocated 20 GB for root, 8 GB for swap and rest for home.( I did this with Use as ext4 and during my first time of installation I gave the type for the new parition as primary and when this failed I tried again with logical, but still no luck) So the partitioning went well then during half of the installation process I got the error GRUB installation failed and the following error message

The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/. Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot

And when I pressed ok, the installation process quit. I don't know what to do after this. Is this happening because of trying to dual boot in two seperate ssds? Could someone please help me with this?

HariP19
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    Was Windows ESP, corrupted or locked, so installer could not see that it was UEFI install? Make sure Windows fast start up is off. did you put another ESP on Ubuntu drive? May be be immediately used by Ubiquity, but you then can reinstall grub using that ESP. Please copy & paste link to the Boot-info summary report ( do not post report), the auto fix sometimes can create more issues. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair first part of report has not be updated to show all the details on NVMe drives. – oldfred Jan 04 '20 at 15:36

2 Answers2

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Dual boot into 2 SSD...

If you're sure that Linux OS installation is successful in the Samsung EVO SSD (except for the grub-install) then go ahead with this:

Hope this helps... Make the answer better by editing and adding more tips.

Jovial Joe Jayarson
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  • I added ESP to the Samsung Evo ssd and then tried installing ubuntu on it. It worked. But the problem is I could not get the grub bootloader screen which will allow to choose between ubuntu and windows. Now I have to go to the boot menu and change the boot order between ubuntu and windows for everytime I have to change OS. Is there a workaround for this – HariP19 Jan 06 '20 at 06:13
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    Of course you can... once you boot into Ubuntu run the command sudo grub-install /dev/sda this will install grub in the currently booted drive it will also search for other OS during the system and these will be added to your grub menu... (Now you need not to change the boot order from bios... every time) – Jovial Joe Jayarson Jan 06 '20 at 14:41
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    On a similar note... I had installed elementary os on an external HDD. I booted it up and got an major update, thus during it's install the grub also got updated... and next external drive boot showed: ElementaryOS & Win 7 (from the external HDD) & ElementaryOS & Win 10 (which happened to be installed on my internal HDD). Hope it helps... – Jovial Joe Jayarson Jan 06 '20 at 14:47
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When trying to install Ubuntu on a computer that had two SSDs I got an error message similar to:

The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/. 
Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot.

iirc it was the same error message exactly.

Follow these steps.

  1. Install Ubuntu in UEFI mode anyway because if the OSs are installed in different modes, dual booting Windows and Ubuntu often can't work. This way both Windows and Ubuntu will be installed in UEFI mode, and you should have less problems.

  2. Ignore the 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/ error message.

  3. Restart the computer at the end of the unsuccessful Ubuntu installation and boot from a Boot-Repair live USB. Select the Recommended repair option in Boot-Repair, run it, and restart the computer. The recommended repair will take a minute or two to finish.

  4. Boot from the Ubuntu live USB again. This time the Ubuntu installer will detect a dual boot system with Windows 10 alongside what it calls "generic Linux". This "generic Linux" is really Ubuntu with a different bootloader which was installed by Boot-Repair. Select the option at the Installation type screen to Erase generic Linux and install Ubuntu.

  5. Install Ubuntu on the entire disk. Make sure that you select the right disk, so you don't overwrite Windows. If you want you can make another data storage partition on the SSD, but Windows 10 already has 256GB on the NVMe SSD which is enough disk space for Windows.

  6. Let the Ubuntu installation run successfully until the end, including installing the grub bootloader.

  7. Boot the computer again and enter the UEFI setup utility. Change the boot order in the UEFI so that the SSD on which Ubuntu is installed boots first in the boot priority sequence. Usually the boot priority sequence is found under the Boot tab. If you skip this step, then the computer will boot using the existing Windows 10 bootloader which is still installed on the NVMe SSD instead of booting to the GRUB boot menu. The GRUB menu will allow you to choose either Windows 10 or Ubuntu when you boot the computer.

When you reboot the computer into Ubuntu for the first time, open the Disks application and check the partitioning of the SSD. There may be a 500MB FAT EFI System partition located at the beginning of the SSD, an ext4 partition and a swap partition. Ubuntu 16.04 is the last Ubuntu LTS release that creates a swap partition by default on new installations. New installations of Ubuntu 17.04 and later create a swap file by default instead of a swap partition.

karel
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  • I installed ubuntu on the 2.5" drive by manually adding ESP to it. But the problem here is now I don't get the GRUB menu if I boot from Ubuntu in the boot menu, it directly boots to Ubuntu. If I want to change the OS to windows now I have to put windows boot loader back to the top in the boot order. Is there a work around for this? – HariP19 Jan 06 '20 at 06:18
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    To add Windows to the GRUB boot menu try the answers to Unable to boot into Windows after installing Ubuntu, how to fix?. I'm happy to know that you got this far because this means that you still have the original Windows 10 bootloader, and you can at least use Ubuntu now and boot Windows 10 [with Windows Boot Manager iinm]. – karel Jan 06 '20 at 06:37