Unable to install Mint 13 due to grub-efi issue

[Enuffrope]

I'm attempting (and failing miserably!) to install Linux Mint 13 (64 bit) to a new computer from a USB drive. It boots happily, just doesn't want to install.

I initially let it attempt to install itself and was told "the 'grub-efi' package failed to install into /target/".

I was given the advice to manually partition the drive (an SSD), ensure that the partition table was GPT and that I created an EFI partition. My first bungling attempt gave me the message that "the attempt to mount a file system with type vfat in SCSI1 (0,0,0) partition #1 (sda) at /boot/efi failed."

I haven't been able to find clear (for a newbie) partitioning advice on the net, especially in regards to GPT and EFI. It is not helped by the system not recognising that it is plugged into a router (problem for another time...), so having to swap hardware between my old system and the new one.

I've generally been partitioning in gparted the following way:

10MiB boot_grub (I've tried mounting to "/boot" and not mounting it)
256MiB - 512MiB EFI partition (either creating as fat32 partition or designating as EFI boot partition during install) flagged as boot
15GiB root partition (mounted to "/")
16GiB swap partition (the system has 16GB RAM, which is probably over the top)
Remainder of the SSD as home partiton (mounted to "/home")

Generally I'll keep getting the first message, but occasionally the second.

Is there something really, stupidly obvious I'm missing here?

[saikee]

Enuffrope,

Welcome to Justlinux!


Not so sure why you want GPT and EFI.

Is this a Mac computer?

As far as I know EFI is Microsoft's idea of deviating from the conventional Bios system in the hardware. Some motherboards are shipped with this firmware. Whether this will catch on reamins to be seen. I haven't bought a motherboard with it but AFAIK the system is supposed to be switchable back to the conventional Bios. From my understanding of it the system is supposed to prevent users changing the booting procedure so if it works the way it was conceived by M$ you should have nothing but trouble to intall your own boot loader and operating system other than those M$ want to sell you.

The use of GPT is no good to any 32-bit Microsoft OS as none of them can use it. Only the 64-bit Windows with efi firmware is capable of recognising a hard disk partitioned with gpt partition table.

Linux has been supporting GPT disks donkey years ago.

I suspect you might need a efi-capable motherboard to use the efi partition.

Grub2 is an *****ious boot loader and might have been already supporting efi-capable firmware which has its own reserved area for the boot loader in a hard disk. In a conventional Bios motherboard the first sector of 512 bytes are read by the Bios on power up and the boot load location is hard-coded into it. After the Bios has done the hardware check it then hands over the control to the boot loader identifiable from the first 512 bytes commonly referred to as the MBR. I believe the efi-capable system has a different arrangement. The boot loader is rigidly confined inside the same area with the Bios hardware detection activities not meant to changed freely.

So if you install Grub with efi and gpt then you have to make the rest of the system compatible. The error message would suggest Grub2 didn't found your hardware compatible.

A SSD is just a hard disk to any operating system. It works perfectly with conventional MSDOS partition table.

If a hard disk is partitioned with a GPT partition table it still has the first 512 bytes arraned conventionally so that it can fit into any conventional motherboard. May be this is what you need.

I wouldn't have used the GPT in your case unless you have a specific application like having 128 partitions or with a disk larger than 3TB which is clearly not an area for a SSD. Remeber if you get into trouble and need to recover/repair the disk you will need to run an operating system that can recognise a GPT disk and the majority of the MS systems don't. I believe Mac OSes use GPT disks but not sure if they run on efi capable firmware or not with Grub2.

It is possible that the majority of the current GPT and efi systems are booted by proprietary boot loaders. Grub2 is really a general purpose boot loader with an add-on/extension to run such a combination. You may not find many Linux or Grub2 users going into that area.

[Enuffrope]

Thanks for the response, saikee.

I don't specifically want GPT or EFI, and no, its not a Mac! On my initial attempt to install Mint I did nothing special - I had the iso on a USB and clicked "Install" after booting from the USB. I chose for it to install as it saw fit and I got "the 'grub-efi' package failed to install into /target/" as a response half way through installing.

The recommendation to create the partition table as GPT and to partition with an EFI section came from another forum. I've been googling, but haven't seen any solid advice in regards to this problem (that is, the message above).

I'm getting a touch frustrated because this is my first attempt with Linux and have no idea how to troubleshoot this.

[Enuffrope]

The motherboard is an Asrock Z77 Extreme4, FYI!

[saikee]

Linux has got the best partitioning tools.

What you need is the run a Linux Live CD (using it instead of installing it). The best tools are in a terminal.

Once you click a terminal become a super user (=Admin in Windows) by typing

sudo su

For Live CD no password is needed in most cases.

You then ask the kernel to report all partitions and all hard disks by command

fdisk -l

If the SSD is your internal hard disk then it should be call /dev/sda as it will the first one detected.

I recommend you use cfdisk to delete and re-partition the disk again using the conventional partitions.

If you install just one Linux I would partition sda1 for 50Gb for Linux and 1Gb for swap. Every partition you create in Linux is type 83 and you need to alter it for 82 if it is a swap say for sda2. There is no need to make a big swap because a Linux seldom need to use it and the traffic is usually confined to 0.5Gb in practice. You don't have to use up all your hard disk space now as it is quite easy to resize partitions in Linux.

Once you got the two partitions set up you can click the installer to install Mint into the big partition. The general idea is to use the big partition for mounting /. /boot, /home and all other folders are just its subdirectories. No need to format the partitions as it is the installer's duty to format them according to the filing system you specified.

I do not recommend multi partitions installation of one Linux as this arrangement serves better for a servers. For most desktops application one large partition is a lot easier to maintain.

In installing every operating system I recommend having the partitions created first and the installer will sink its teeth into them to get you a trouble free installation.

[Enuffrope]

Okay, I created the partitions you recommended - I used gparted (only because I don't trust myself writing down lists of terminal commands yet) - with the larger partition flagged as 'boot' and the other as a 'swap'. I went through install and chose "try something else" so that the installer didn't just erase the partitions created. I mounted the larger partition on / and hit install.

Still getting "the 'grub-efi' package failed to install into /target/".

Just as a side note, the system isn't connected to the internet - at the moment because I haven't plugged it in, but previously it didn't recognise the connection, despite /sbin/ifconfig -a showing both "UP" and "RUNNING".

[Enuffrope]

Thought it might be an issue with my Live Usb, so redid it though UNetbootin. Same problem.

Decided to try another distro - Pinguy - which installed with no problem on the 2 partitions you suggested.

Guess I'll be going with Pinguy!

Thanks for your help, saikee!

[CALLEIGH]

Boot-Repair is a tool to fix Windows/Ubuntu problems either after installing Ubuntu or Windows. I'm trying to restore Grub to boot Linux Mint 13 and Windows 7.