[Bug 1571230] Re: Installer crashes with UEFI, can't install grub to /target/

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre]

Right. I think here we're catching a case we can't do much about -- your
system boots fine without the boot flag set on the ESP (/dev/sda1); and
we don't automatically change things on the ESP so as not to break
things.

However, grub depends on a few hints to find out where the ESP is, namely that the passed device contains an EFI directory, and a vendor directory below it, hence the message you get:
Apr 16 17:49:31 ubuntu ubiquity: grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.

I suppose the best to do here is to validate that manual partitioning
allows setting grub's destination to /dev/sda1 too; I suspect maybe
ubiquity doesn't have that logic.

Did you notice that option in the drop-down when you did the install?

** Package changed: grub-installer (Ubuntu) => ubiquity (Ubuntu)

** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
       Status: Invalid => Incomplete

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Title:
  Installer crashes with UEFI, can't install grub to /target/

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  I try to install Ubuntu 16.04, daily build from yesterday (2016-04-15) on a Dell XPS 13 (2015).
  The Dell has a preinstalled Ubuntu 14.04 (installed by Dell).
  I did this:
  Installer on USB Stick
  Power on
  Bios-Setting are keept as they were: UEFI on, secure boot off.
  Boot from USB Stick in UEFI-Mode.
  Try Ubuntu ...
  Then started the installer.
  Installed with this layout:
  / to /dev/sda5 (just a free partion)
  grub to /dev/sda
  The installer run a few minutes, the I get two messages:
  first, something with ' can' t install grub to /target/ ...' 
  Then " the installer crashed'  , and some apport reporting dialog opens, which redirects me to this web page.

  I tried serveral times, the result is every time the same.

  When I Install in Legacy mode, I can Install, but am not able to boot
  the installed system (which is another issue, and might be due to
  missing knowledge of myself, anyway any hint is welcome).

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: ubiquity 2.21.57 [modified: lib/partman/automatically_partition/question]
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-18.34-generic 4.4.6
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-18-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.372
  Date: Sat Apr 16 19:52:56 2016
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity quiet splash ---
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Beta amd64 (20160415)
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: grub-installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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