Installation on Laptop (Toshiba Satellite) fails

[berliner]

I have tried it now 4 times.
When it comes to the installation of Grub, the installer crashes and says "installation of Grub in target failed".

The Toshiba Satellite Laptop is Uefi and I have Sparky Linux and 2 Mint-Distros installed on it. They all use the same installer as wattOS and it worked fine.

I selected sda as place for the grub  -- it failed.
I selected sda1 as place for the grub, which is the Efi-boot-partition  -- it failed.
I selected sda5 as place for the grub, which is the partition where the root of whatOS R10 is installed  -- it failed.  ( In Ubuntu wiki about installation they say that it is possible to install the grub into the PBR of the partition where the distro is installed (where the mount point / is)  and the main distro which has it's grub in the Uefi-boot-partition must be updated , then the multi-boot-menu will let you select the new installed distro ).   This failed too.

Now I have no clue how to install whatOS on my laptop. Maybe you can help ?

[Dan]

berliner, I know nothing about UEFI, so I can't really help...sorry. I do wonder though...

Biff said that if a user puts checkmarks on "Install updates" and "Install 3rd party software" during the installation, it can cause the installer to crash. The 3rd party software is already installed, and it's recommended to install updates after the installation.

So...just in case you have checked those two options, you might try it without putting the checkmarks on them.

This is just a wild guess on my part though.

[berliner]

Dan, I will try it.

I always check these boxes because it is recommended everywhere. I didn't know it is not recommended with whatOS.

Edit: Tried it but failed.

In the end, the laptop did not boot anymore. Strange messages appeared instead of the boot-menu.
Even the boot-repair live-usb-stick did not boot. The laptop did not boot from the harddrive nor from usb-stick.
While experimenting with boot options in the Bios, suddenly the boot-repair-live-distro loaded.
What a luck.
After it did it's normal automatic boot-repair routine, the laptop booted.

It even offered to boot whatOS R10, which was never installed properly.
No wonder that the booting is different from normal because it starts with messages running over the screen. Line after line and mostly it checks the lines with an "Ok".
I think it is listing all it is doing at boot.
Finally the login screen of whatOS appeared and the login worked.

What can I say ?
The grub-menu looks different from normal.
It shows Linux Mint Mate now which wasn't there before this mess. And strange enough, it does boot. Before the mess I had Mint Xfce installed which worked fine, now it is gone and Mate is there.
I have no clue what happened, everything is screwed up now.

Somehow I have the feeling, that I will wipe the harddrive and install one of the distros which have worked before on the laptop.
Distros like LMDE2 or  MInt Xfce or Sparky.   
Then later on, when maybe there is a new version of whatOS which hopefully will install, trying it then again with whatOS.

Good thing: I saved all my personal files before all the mess started to happen.
Sorry to say, but right now I am frustrated. Hours of installing and then the fear that booting is not possible anymore.
I must get rest to recover from this.

[Dan]

berliner,

I'm so sorry. You have my utmost apology for what you've experienced. I can only imagine what frustration you're feeling.

I've learned a lesson from this; in that, I will no longer offer advice in an area in which I'm unsure. Please forgive me if what I suggested is the cause of your problems.

[berliner]

Dan,
although I am not an expert, it is obvious to me that your advice did not cause the mess.
Why ?

Because I tried about 5 or 6 times to install , then listened to your advice and tried it about 3 or 4 times with different Bios settings.
The installer crashed each time when trying to install the grub to the efi-boot-partition.
Has absolutely nothing to do with your advice.

From what I have read in forums and wiki's it has to do with my laptop, with the Bios, with settings there, with the hardware etc.
I read the relevant Ubuntu-wiki tutorials and explanations about Uefi-boot and installation of Ubuntu distros.
On some Laptops like Acer, the user has to set exactly the opposite Bios options than other Laptops.
And they warn about damaging the uefi-partition and the grub there. It happens not only to me, it has happened to many users.

I am not able to find the cause in my case, but your advice was never the cause, you can trust me in this.

[berliner]

A new day.

I downloaded Lubuntu 16.10 , the brand new distro.
Used the mint-stick app on my PC in whatOS to copy the iso to the USB-stick.

Installed Lubuntu 16.10 on my laptop from that USB-stick ...  no errors, no installer-crash.

I write this comment from my laptop Lubuntu 16.10 and am happy.

My guess:  something in the whatOS R10 iso is broken which causes the crash of the installer on my laptop.

[Dan]

Thank you for the kind words and understanding berliner.

Again, I'm sorry for all of the trouble, but I'm glad you're able to use the computer again. 

[cheiron]

Flagged for Biff to look at as Owner of WattOS re ISO (moderators  do not remove )

A new day.

I downloaded Lubuntu 16.10 , the brand new distro.
Used the mint-stick app on my PC in whatOS to copy the iso to the USB-stick.

Installed Lubuntu 16.10 on my laptop from that USB-stick ...  no errors, no installer-crash.

I write this comment from my laptop Lubuntu 16.10 and am happy.

My guess:  something in the whatOS R10 iso is broken which causes the crash of the installer on my laptop.

[berliner]

Thanks for flagging the thread.

Today I downloaded R10 anew, checked Md5 and put the iso on a live-usb-stick via multi-system.

The first installation on my laptop failed again.
This time I did not check the "download of third party software" and I didn't check the download of release something during installation.
I selected sda1 as target for the  grub.

Installation of GRUB failed
The package grub-efi-amd64-signed could not be installed in target. Without the GRUB-bootloader the installed system will not boot

(not exactly this text, I translated it from german)

Next try:
I did not select "Other" in the installer but  "install beside existing OS", so the installer has to find the efi-boot-partition by itself and install the grub2 there.

It failed again.
The error-message says:

Installation of GRUB failed
The package grub-efi-amd64-signed could not be installed in target. Without the GRUB-bootloader the installed system will not boot

After shutdown and removing of the live-usb-stick, the booting of the laptop brought the old grub-menu. I selected the Lubuntu 10.0 and there I put  "sudo update-grub" into the terminal.

After restarting the laptop the 2 wattOS appeared in the grub-menu screen.
I selected the first one and wattOS started to load but it gave many messages on the screen ... the whole procedure what it loads and then "OK" in green.
But after that show the login-screen of  wattOS appeared , of course the cursor did not work, so I had to unplug the usb-mouse and plug again, then the curser worked and I could login to wattOS.

Since wattOS R10 now is installed and there seems no solution for the problem, I would be interested in knowing how to stop the boot-show with all the messages on the screen.
I guess I have to tweak some settings somewhere in the root-files ?

[billwho]

# you can turn off the boot messages
# by editing the file /etc/default/grub
# make a copy BEFORE editing
# in terminal

cd /etc/default
less grub

# if there is a line that looks like:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

# you will need to be root to edit it
sudo -s
<enter password>

# make a copy of grub
cp grub grub.bak

# edit grub (I use vi)
vi grub

# add "quiet" to the setting as:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"

# save changes, exit vi, and update grub
update-grub

# then reboot
reboot

# did it work?

[berliner]

Thanks billwho.
In etc/default/grub the relevant line says:

Code: [Select]

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"I removed the blank and the word "splash", saved it , updated grub and rebooted, but the boot messages are still there.

[billwho]

In the grub boot list (not the /etc/default/grub file):
what is the default system boot?
Is it WattOS or Lubuntu?

If Lubuntu then start Lubuntu and check its /etc/default/grub file.
It is not necessary to remove 'splash', only to have 'quiet' in the string.
If 'quiet' is not in the Lubuntu /etc/default/grub file, add and reboot.

It is the default system boot grub file that controls 'quiet' or noisy.

[berliner]

I don't know where to find the "boot list".

Default OS booting is Lubuntu because wattOS failed to install or update the grub into the Uefi-boot-partition.

According to your advice I checked the etc/default/grub in Lubuntu. As expected , it has the "quiet splash" written there, otherwise Lubuntu would show the boot-messages too, but it never did.

I made "sudo update-grub" in the Lubuntu, then restarted the laptop and selected wattOS to boot and now the boot-messages are gone.

I don't know why, but the problem with the boot-messages is solved now.
Thanks, billwho, for your help.

[billwho]

Since default OS booting is Lubuntu
That is where you needed to do the update-grub
And since Lubuntu's /etc/default/grub file was quiet
You now successfully quieted WattOS

[blaze]

berliner, please edit your thread title. Add solved to it.