Installation freeze at GRUB2 on Acer TravelMate Spin B1 B118-RN-P7XQ

Question

When installing Ubuntu on my Acer TravelMate Spin B1 B118-RN-P7XQ the installation stops/freezes when installing GRUB2. When I then reboot the notebook (so the installation is not complete) I get to the GRUB2-command-line, where I can boot Ubuntu manually. However, every attempt to fix GRUB freezes the notebook.

This is the case with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with and without getting updates at installation time and Ubuntu 17.04 without getting updates.
Only when installing Ubuntu 17.04 WITH updates during installation time, the installation still freezes, but I can then boot right into Ubuntu. (However I doubt the installation is very usable/stable because of the incomplete installation...)

One possible workaround is to first install Ubuntu 17.04 with updates, then installing another Ubuntu with ubiquity -b (no bootloader), in which case the installation successfully completes.

Things I have tried:

• using another distribution: Ubuntu GNOME, Linux Mint, Antergos (with GRUB2); always the same
• calling Acer customer support: they switched the motherboard (?) and basically told me that they don't support Ubuntu, Ubuntu is not compatible (yet), and I should switch to Windows 10
• installing Antergos with systemd-boot instead of GRUB2, installing Windows 10; both work fine

This notebook comes with Endless OS, a strange Linux distribution, preinstalled (I can also successfully reinstall it). It also uses GRUB2 (Acer apparently has made it work on that distro).

Did I make any mistake?
If not, can I help somewhere to fix this problem, e.g. by providing (hardware-)information and/or testing? I'm not using the notebook actively, there is no data on it, so it might come handy.

Update 1: sudo parted -l after installing Ubuntu 17.04 with updates:

Model: ATA Micron_110_MTFD (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End    Size   File system  Name                  Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB  537MB  fat32        EFI System Partition  boot, esp
 2      538MB   256GB  256GB  ext4

Update 2: https://paste2.org/9175MVMI
Also, boot-repair get's stuck at reinstalling GRUB...

Update 3:
diff, left is Ubuntum right is EndlessOS: https://www.diffchecker.com/d1QXLt5a

Update 4:
Error still occurs with Ubuntu 17.10.1 (though workaround exists).

Answer 1

Almost 4 years later, I checked if Acer had released a BIOS-update. That was the case (I had 1.05 which was the latest at that time, the current version is 1.28 from 2018). With the updated BIOS no more errors occur.

The workaround by LiveWireBT did its job in the meantime though.

Small note in case anyone has the same problem: since I'm using Ubuntu I don't have Windows installed on that machine, but the BIOS update is an .exe file. It was sufficient to create a bootable install USB-stick for Windows 10, copy the .exe file onto it, boot from it, go to repair options, commandline, and execute the .exe file. Make sure that you have a drive installed and the power plugged in, otherwise the program will refuse to update the BIOS. I guess that is a simpler/ approach than trying something with WINE.

Answer 2

If just installing the grub package proves to be the issue and you can remove the drive to put it in another computer, then do just that and install Ubuntu there. Make yourself familiar with working around missing UEFI NVRAM entries, there are several ways to approach this, and you should have a bootable system when you mount the drive again. If the storage is just one (or more) soldered chips to the mainboard then you would need another drive to install on another computer, boot up a live disk on the target computer configure the partition table, copy all the contents of root and the EFI system partition with sudo rsync -av and configure /etc/fstab for the correct UUIDs. Some people would prefer some disk dump/clone but I prefer this one. With UEFI you wouldn't even need to call grub for modifications to the MBR if the proves to be the part where it crashes.

That would solve your problem by thinking outside the box. ;) Investigating the problem further would be a good idea. Endless OS is based on Debian if I recall correctly, it's not strange, it's actually very nice and has some advantages (no bad or stuck updates, steam via flatpak). It's worth a second look, don't write it off just because it's made for non-tech savvy people.