Problem installing kubuntu 20.10

[Qwerty]

Hi
I installed Windows 10 in legacy boot mode. And I installed all distributions, including kubuntu 20.04, dualboot without any problems. But now that I want to install the new version, it tells me that I need to create an EFI partition, but I booted the system in legacy mode.

[shag00]

Assuming you have a relatively recent board there is a BIOS control that lets you choose BIOS, UEFI or both.

[Qwerty]

Yes I choose from bios, legacy or bios. In terminal i also checked with command dmesg | grep "EFI v" and my system booted in bios mode

[oshunluvr]

I posted (rant included) about this already. The 20.04 and above releases of *buntus AFAIK are not install-able in legacy mode, or at least not in a way I could get to work. You can either install and older version like 18.04 and then "do-release-upgrade" to 20.04, or you can do what I did and install Ubuntu Server (it has a legacy version) then install Kubuntu Desktop on it. That worked fine for me.

Obviously, you could also just look for another distro not controlled by Canonical, although I know there are other distros that have gone down this dark path as well.

[mr_raider]

I have successfully installed Ubuntu 20.04 in legacy mode in a virtual machine. You must boot the USB in legacy mode.

It will however create a useless efi partition.

More details here:

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...t32-partitions

[Qwerty]

@oshunluvr Thanks for info

@mr_raider I was also able to install successfully in version 20.04. But Ubuntu and kubuntu have problems in 20.10.

Anyway, I downgrade to the previous version. Thankful

[johnspack]

For legacy mode, install using the 20.04 iso, not the 20.04.1 iso. That will do a clean legacy install. Run updates on it. Then install update-manager. Then run update-manager -c. Upgrade to 20.10.
Boot in legacy mode to 20.10. Profit! I did have to uninstall the old kernel and then make it boot with the 5.8 kernel, took a couple attempts, but successful.

[claydoh]

The ability of a usb installer to boot legacy mode can depend a lot on the tool used to make it. The iso is a hybrid, designed to boot to either method, but some tools seem to break this. Etcher seems to be fine with this, as is using dd on the commandline. Rufus in windows shoud work, tho I can't recall if you need to use its DD mode.

[johnspack]

You can use iso mode in rufus, or just use Startup Disk Creator. Remember, to use pure legacy mode, you must use the 20.04 iso, not the 20.04.1 iso where they seemed to add the uefi requirment.
And yes, as mentioned above, make sure to select the legacy boot mode of your flash drive in the boot menu, not the uefi version.

[oshunluvr]

Good to know there's a way around EFI moving forward. I was wondering if there's a way to convert back to legacy mode after EFI installation. Like, make a sacrificial EFI partition then delete it after install and reinstall GRUB. It seems like I can do a legacy with a VM so maybe my computer BIOS is somehow signalling that it has EFI and then the installer tries to force it.

[drphysic]

I just installed 20.10 on my 2005 desktop hardware system, or rather I found a way to do so. I was unaware of the change in boot procedures, maybe that is why the the installs kept crashing part way. I found that if I just waited for the bug report desktop appeared, and then did a software update, the system finished installation and appears to run properly. It does create the boot fat32 partition, but then so does fossapup linux when you install it. I've been using ubuntu distributions on this hardware since 2005, but given the issue with the new boot requirements, I may have to revert to Puppy Linux, fossapup or bionicpup for future use. It will be interesting to see how the next system upgrade goes next summer.

I have wanted to stay with 20.04 LTS, but my system network access fails after the final post-install software update, a problem for multiple 20.04LTS users, so was pleased to see that 20.10 does not cause that problem.