installation prbl, can't install grub, 64bit thinkpad X121e

[Goh Lip]

On 01/09/11 00:51, Uwe Brauer wrote:
> Hello
>
> This is a very bizarre problem.
>
>      -  I installed on a brand new X121e (without an OS)
>         Kubuntu 10.04.
>
>      -  I inserted an additional 4 giga RAM.
>
>      -  I installed windows 7, which made a strange partition
>         of the hard disk:
>         /dev/sda1 fat32 small
>         /dev/sda2 fat32 small
>         /dev/sda3 ntfs big windows 7 installation and of
>         course deleted me previous linux installation. Most
>         likely Bios was then in efi mode.
>
>      - I tried to install Kubuntu 11.04 (either 64 or 32 bit)
>        in all cases everything went smooth. Grub however was
>        to be installed per default not in the MBR but in
>        /dev/sda
>        and exactly at the end of the installation I obtained
>        the error message
>        grub cannot be installed in /dev/sda this is a serious
>        error.
>
>      -  so I repeated the installation selecting /dev/sda4
>         where linux is going to live as a target but I
>         obtained at the end of the installation process the
>         same error message.
>
> I never encountered anything like this.
> Does anybody have an advice?
>
> thanks
>
> Uwe Brauer
>
>
>
Uwe, if your computer is UEFI, then you need to install "grub-efi". By 
right, you will need a separate /boot partition and flag it as "boot" 
and install "/" to a separate partition. Leave the first partition 
"sda1" as "bios-grub" and the second was used by Windows as the "boot".
Suggest you create another partition as /boot and flag this instead as 
"boot".

After installation, the installation may still be "buggy" and you may 
need then to install "grub-efi". I also suggest that after installation 
(and before update/upgrade) and before rebooting, you do a "grub-install" by
sudo apt-get install grub-efi
sudo grub-install /dev/sda

If however, you still have problems, see comment #15 of
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/166162

But I suggest you try to do this first (ie., if you still have problem)....
Boot live cd..
Purge grub-pc
install grub-efi
mount /dev/sdax to /mnt   [# sdax is your /boot partition]
grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

All above as root.
Reboot without livecd
Then update/upgrade and update-grub.

Regards - Goh Lip


-- 
True words are not beautiful
Beautiful words are not true.
                            - -  I Ching