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I'm trying to install Ubuntu onto a PNY 128GB USB 3.0 Flash drive that will be running on an ACER Cloudbook. I have Ubuntu ISO on a separate 16GB flash drive and can boot. The mouse doesn't have drives in the install ISO so I'm stuck managing through the install menu using a keyboard. I managed to install Ubuntu, but get to the end where it trys to install grub and fails and freezes. It trys to install grub onto a eMMC, which fails as the eMMC is encrypted and write access is not allowed, but I go to install on sda and it just fails. I then choose not to install, and the pop-up doesn't close.

I tried to throw supergrub on the flash drive from a Windows PC, but it doesn't boot. Is there a way to throw a boot manager onto the USB via a windows PC without formatting the USB?

GTAWWEKID
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  • Short answer: No. –  Dec 28 '16 at 17:50
  • How do you install grub then? – GTAWWEKID Dec 28 '16 at 17:53
  • Did you partition in advance? If UEFI grub only installs to drive seen as sda. So if sda does not have a writeable ESP, then grub will not install. You can from live installer manually install grub, but it will not be the standard full install. You will have to manually maintain it and create your own grub.cfg. Please add your configuration to this bug. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1366546. Some alternative installs: http://askubuntu.com/questions/395879/how-to-create-uefi-only-bootable-usb-live-media – oldfred Dec 29 '16 at 04:39

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You can clone a portable installed Ubuntu system, that boots in UEFI and BIOS mode. I suggest that you select a simple system and install desktop environment and application programs afterwards. This way you will get 'everything' including grub via a simple installation from a compressed image file. (It is similar to how systems are installed into mobile phones and small devices like Raspberry Pi.)

See this link: help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/UEFI-and-BIOS

sudodus
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  • Yeah, that's a possibility, however this system doesn't have Ethernet, and most simple systems don't come with wifi drivers. I installed Ubuntu server, but it doesn't come with a wifi driver, so I need to get the drivers on a USB which is a headache in itself. Then I can patch and lightdm some. The fun part was getting bad isos. MD5 hashes are not correct on 32-bit server 14.04 archives. So I'm retrying installs on separate drives then will clone to my USB. – GTAWWEKID Dec 29 '16 at 03:15
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Fix:

  • Select Download Updates
  • Install with VLM on the drive.

Downloading updates fixes the default write error to eMMC that happened. Not 100% sure, but it worked.

All steps:

  1. Changed USB to prioritized boot in bios.
  2. Cleaned USB.
  3. Installed Ubuntu Server to test if grub works.
  4. Booted Ubuntu Desktop Install.
  5. Connected Wifi and checked Updates.
  6. Erase USB and used VLM.

Installation took longer, but GRUB installed successfully.

Eliah Kagan
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GTAWWEKID
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