Help Me Enjoy [Install] Kubuntu Please

[Qqmike]

Disable Fast Startup in BOTH Windows (inside Windows) and in your computer's UEFI firmware. Disable Secure Boot in the firmware. Make sure in your firmware settings that you are booting in UEFI mode (NOT in BIOS mode, NOT in CSM mode) -- there are boot menus in your computer's firmware setup that contains all this stuff. Every computer is different.

Ok. To answer the efi boot question. I am now at the Boot Option Menu. What I select says "USB Hard Drive (UEFI) - SanDisk"

That's the right choice.

I don't know how to do this: check out the ESP existing

Boot into Windows and use whatever Windows disk management utility is to see the HDD and the partitions (or volumes or whatever Windows call them). Look for that small ESP partition as detailed above.

use rEFInd to boot into Kubuntu (if you can! we hope)

Use the link to my how-to to make a rEFInd bootable CD (or make one any way you can in Windows). Then boot your computer with it, first entering the firmware to select that CD in UEFI mode to boot from. Then see if Kubuntu is on the rEFInd boot menu shown on the screen.

re-install grub from within Kubuntu (easy, quick and done, we hope)

See above for instructions on this.

[logan01]

I don't know how to do this: check out the ESP existing
change settings in UEFI firmware and in Windows
use rEFInd to boot into Kubuntu (if you can! we hope)
re-install grub from within Kubuntu (easy, quick and done, we hope)

and this: Plan B, RodJ: re-install Kubuntu AFTER adjusting settings in Windows and firmware and making sure that the one Windows-provided ESP is present

In particular, I would definitely disable Secure Boot and Fast Startup (in both Windows and the firmware). I unchecked fast startup and I can't find Secure Boot.

[logan01]

Ok. To answer the efi boot question. I am now at the Boot Option Menu. What I select says "USB Hard Drive (UEFI) - SanDisk"

The 2 other options are:
Boot from EFI File
OS boot Manager (UEFI) - Windows Boot Manager (ST500LT012-1DG142)

and then it shows i can press f10 for BIOS Setup Option or hit esc to exit.

[logan01]

Ok, I read it. Now what do you want me to do?

[logan01]

btw, no need to get into this, it is not necessary, but you CAN have as many ESPs as you wish; in my how-to's, I created 3 ESPs on one HDD, no problems, but there are some tricks to make this work, tricks you will find in my how-to:
UEFI for Kubuntu -- simplified (and some dual-booting tips for Kubuntu)
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post373198

BUT, let's not go there for this simple setup -- one ESP -- the one created by Windows -- will do fine for what you need. Stick to the plan:
check out the ESP existing
change settings in UEFI firmware and in Windows
use rEFInd to boot into Kubuntu (if you can! we hope)
re-install grub from within Kubuntu (easy, quick and done, we hope)
if not, Plan B, RodJ: re-install Kubuntu AFTER adjusting settings in Windows and firmware and making sure that the one Windows-provided ESP is present

good morning. Now let me read your post.

[logan01]

Thanks. I reviewed the Riley info and .......... One thing I was able to do, had already done, was to uncheck fast startup. I'm finding conflicting suggestions, solutions, this applies to this version of Windows but not this version. Crazy.

[Qqmike]

btw, no need to get into this, it is not necessary, but you CAN have as many ESPs as you wish; in my how-to's, I created 3 ESPs on one HDD, no problems, but there are some tricks to make this work, tricks you will find in my how-to:
UEFI for Kubuntu -- simplified (and some dual-booting tips for Kubuntu)
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post373198

BUT, let's not go there for this simple setup -- one ESP -- the one created by Windows -- will do fine for what you need. Stick to the plan:
check out the ESP existing
change settings in UEFI firmware and in Windows
use rEFInd to boot into Kubuntu (if you can! we hope)
re-install grub from within Kubuntu (easy, quick and done, we hope)
if not, Plan B, RodJ: re-install Kubuntu AFTER adjusting settings in Windows and firmware and making sure that the one Windows-provided ESP is present

[Qqmike]

Catching up here, Thanks RodJ for jumping in; myschedule this morning/afternoon are uncertain but some real work-work is in the plan ...

Reading through the recent posts:

logan01, #81: just got a message. 'the 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/. Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot. Crapola! It has an ok to click but I haven't done it.

RodJ, #82: Did you create an ESP (EFI Partition)? It's needed by newer systems like yours (UEFI) to store the boot information for various OS's. It doesn't need to be big (150Mb would be plenty).

Not a good sign that this failed, but it happens. Windows should already have set up an ESP on that HDD, maybe called System information or System partition or some-such name, small, maybe 100-200 MB, FAT32--it should show up in Windows Disk Management utility. You should be able to see the ESP in the listing (in Windows Disk Mgt whatever, in GParted or in the installer's partition list).

And, the Kubuntu installer, with GRUB2-EFI, should see that ESP and use it, too. All OSs on that HDD can share that same ESP.

So, why "grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install"?

KEY Here:
When you booted the PC with the Kubuntu USB, you booted it in UEFI mode, right? like we talked about above somewhere, I quoted some material telling how.

RodJ #90: When I installed Kubuntu on this system here it was the only OS (no WIndows). But your system should already have an EFI Partition created by Windows I think. So, you probably don't need to create another EFI partition in your case. The installer should put Grub (the Linux boot loader) into that partition. I'm not sure what went wrong with the Kubuntu install you did then.

Exactly right.


This link:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/48500...ll-into-target
Pay attention to the answer by Rod Smith, he's THE UEFI expert.


In particular, I would definitely disable Secure Boot and Fast Startup (in both Windows and the firmware).


Do as he says and see if your Kubuntu will boot OK using rEFInd.
My how-to on making a rEFInd CD:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post376838


And as he says, if you can boot into Kubuntu, simply re-install GRUB from there:
Open Konsole.
Type
sudo grub-install
Press Enter
Type
sudo update-grub
Press Enter


and that will re-install GRUB, easy, quick (we hope!). All the UEFI boot files (for yor Kubuntu) can be found in /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu (probably 4 of them, including the important grubx64.efi).

Finally, after all that (which is easy to do, with rEFInd), if it all fails, then go to plan B, as RodJ says: do a re-install AFTER checking the ESP and AFTER making those adjustments in the settings (Secure Boot off, Fast Startup off--off in both Windows (as Rod Smith says) and off in the UEFI firmware settings).

But do make certain you are booting the USB Kubuntu installer USB in UEFI mode! or all else is moot ...

[Rod J]

I think you need to start again with this install. There are some procedures in Windows that need to be done prior to installing Kubuntu.

I found a very good 'how to' page on this forum written by one of the most knowledgeable people here (Steve Riley): https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post349660

Qqmike has also written a lot of good stuff here regarding dual-booting and UEFI. A search on this forum will yield much info.

[logan01]

I must sleep now. I have lost all clear thought processes. To be continued. If need be, It won't take much self-prodding to dump windows from this laptop and make it a Linux exclusive machine.

[logan01]

I'm wondering if the grub thing could have just been an error, etc within the install I was doing. If I click download on the 14,04 does it download and then I begin the install directly or is it one of those deales where it must be on a removeable medium? Does it also include the partitioning steps as was included in the 14.04 Live version I have on flash drive?

[logan01]

FYI. Earlier when I booted windows after having suffered through the catastrophic failure of my failure of the grub deal not installing, I noticed something peculiar. In the windows folder This PC, it shows the various drives and how much space they have etc. In that folder were 2 new items listed under Network. One was the windows logo w/ a name which is my pc account name. The other was the same logo with the name I used during the attempted install. I don't know if kubuntu resided in ther because I was denied entry to it by the new name. I came back to them later to access the one with my pc account name, which was probably my windows name indicating I now had 2 OSs. Anyway I came back to them and they had disappeared. I checked my C: drive and it was back to the size prior to me having created the 3 partitions during the install process. What really pisses me off is the efi thing. I want to create an efi partition but I find numerous sources that really harp about having only one per disk.

[logan01]

More good info. Thanks.

[Rod J]

This Ubuntu documentation might be helpful: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

[logan01]

Does the following page seem similar to your problem: http://askubuntu.com/questions/48500...ll-into-target

I got the same error message he did but I still have Windows and likely it's efi.