grub-efi-amd64-signed failed to install into /target/. (SOLVED)

[Swaphead]

Hi, folks

I was trying to install R10 on an Acer X3990 desktop PC ("use entire disk"),and kept getting this message.
I spent several hours reading about UEFI and trying to switch to legacy BIOS - but no such options exist on this machine.
Out of desperation (Lubuntu 14.10 had been on it) I tried installing a small distro that was conveniently
handy(ANTIX 15) then tried a dual-boot install and this time it worked!???

Can someone explain this to me (I'm clueless).
I can only assume that Antix loaded grub, so Ubuntu didn't have to?

Also can someone tell me what software I can download to look at the partitioning, as gparted isn't available?.

I'm happy with the bodge for now - I just want to know what is going on (apart from M$ trying to make life difficult if you don't buy their products)

[blaze]

Hi Swaphead. Wish I could help you with this but unfortunately it is not so. This (or a similar problem) were discussed recently in another thread. Please read and feel free to add further information here. I have yet to read up on UEFI business, so please ignore my comments in that thread.

http://planetwatt.com/newforum/index.php?topic=954.0

[Swaphead]

Thanks, blaze.

I did read that thread.
The problem is, I'm guessing, a generic problem for any distro based on Ubuntu 16.04 that uses the Ubiquity installer, but only on some UEFI machines.
My second-hand Acer shipped with Windows 7 on it and there appears to be no bios option to disable EFI boot/enable legacy BIOS.
Yet on the Acer website they show you how to enable legacy BIOS on their Windows 8 machines - it is
very, very easy even for a technophobe.

I also think that, if I'd opted for a dual-boot, the install would have worked first time.

[blaze]

Ok, I reread your first post, and you say that gparted isn`t available, how so? Anyway, here are some alternatives, I do not know which is the "best", guess it is a matter of taste.

http://alternativeto.net/software/gparted/?platform=linux

[Swaphead]

Ok, I reread your first post, and you say that gparted isn`t available, how so? Anyway, here are some alternatives, I do not know which is the "best", guess it is a matter of taste.

http://alternativeto.net/software/gparted/?platform=linux

You're right - it is available. (DOH!)

Running it, I see that I have a legacy BIOS (i.e. non-UEFI) system, after all.
Anway, it turns out that on this PC - when I put in the Wattos R10 CD and press PF12 to show Boot Options -
it shows 2 entries for the CD: one has the suffix L and the other EFI. Selecting "L" gives me a legacy (BIOS) install,
no errors. 
What I normally do is chuck in the CD and let the PC run run through the boot order list, so EFI must have been
the default that I ended up with, and which gave me the original error.
Problem solved (after a fashion..)

[blaze]

Many thanks for sharing that vital poece of information with us Swaphead. Might come in handy if someone else stumbles right into this EFI mess. And the problem is solved too!