OS uninstallable

[Bret Busby]

On 25/3/23 07:18, Bret Busby wrote:
> On 25/3/23 06:07, Colin Law wrote:
>> On Fri, 24 Mar 2023 at 21:31, Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello.
>>>
>>> I have just spent about five hours unsuccessfully trying to install each
>>> of Linux Mint Mate 21.1, Linux Mint Mate 21, and UbuntuMate 22.04 .
>>>
>>> It goes through the installation process, then terminates with the
>>> unintelligible error
>>>
>>> "Unable to install GRUB (as superuser)
>>> Executing 'grubinstall failed.
>>> This is a fatal error"
>>
>> Are you sure you are telling it to install on the correct drive?
>> Remember the allocations may be different to your usual setup when
>> booting off a USB stick.
>>
>> Colin
>>
> The Ventoy drive (the USB thumb drive that contains the ISO images) 
> shows as sdb<n> .
> 
> I have been trying to install to a partition on sda; the system SSD 
> internal drive (the SSD functioning as the system HDD). I have 
> previously installed to internal SSD's, functioning as primary HDD's, on 
> other computers, without this problem (or, any other significant problem).
> 
> On sda, are two partitions for MS Windows; NTFS partitions, and I had 
> created a partition for /, a partition for /swap, a partition for /home 
> , and two data partitions
> 
> ..
> Bret Busby
> Armadale
> West Australia
> (UTC+0800)
> ..............
> 
With, in my original post in this thread, the error message

 >>> "Unable to install GRUB (as superuser)
 >>> Executing 'grubinstall failed.
 >>> This is a fatal error"

I have jut done a reboot on the computer involved, to obtain details of 
the BIOS version (and, if I could find how to retrieve the information, 
in MS Windows 10, the hardware details of the computer; model, etc), 
and, when it displays the screen with, at the bottom,

"N81 (or, it could be NB1 ?) Ver. 01.37 01/03/2019
Press the ESC key for Startup Menu"

which I had intended to do, to enter the BIOS, to find the BIOS details 
- brand, version number, etc

at the top of the screen, across the top of the screen, is

"
GNU GRUB version 2.06
Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word. TAB 
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists possible 
device or file completions.

grub> _
"

(It has the logo of the computer manufacturer, in the middle of the 
screen, in addition to what is displayed above and below the logo, as 
described above)

Now, to me, that indicates that, whilst the fatal error message 
indicates that the installation process was unable to install grub, at 
least some part of, if not all of, grub, has been installed.

So, what do I enter at that grub prompt, to try to get the installed 
Linux OS to boot (and, thence, to be able to consistently boot into the 
installed Linux, free of problems), or, otherwise, to create or setup or 
access, a grub menu?

I note that, possibly because I had pressed the <ESC> key, before I saw 
the text relating to grub,on the screen, the computer became 
unresponsive, and, I could not either enter any characters (to be 
displayed at the grub prompt), or get a response from pressing either he 
<TAB> key or the <ESC> key.

In doing a cold boot of the computer, it first displayed the text at the 
bottom of the screen, as described above, so I then pressed the <ESC 
key, to stop it booting into MS Windows, and to access the BIOS, and, 
then, after pressing the <ESC> key, it displayed the text relating to 
grub, at the top of the screen, and, again, became unresponsive.

In again doing a cold boot of the computer, I get the same response, 
this time, without my having pressed the <ESC> key; the computer 
displays first, the text at the bottom of the screen, referring to 
pressing the <ESC> key, then, the text at the top of the screen, 
referring to grub, and, the computer is unresponsive.

However...

It just occurred tome, to try something slightly different.

I have an external keyboard connected to the computer (a "laptop" 
computer), and, in pressing a character (the 'a' character), it was 
displayed on the screen, so, I assume that, at the state of the 
computer, input from external devices, such as the external keyboard, is 
disabled.

So, I am, apparently, able to enter a command at the grub command line 
prompt.

So, what do I do, now?

Do I need to take this query, now, with that text displayed on the 
screen, to the grub users mailing list, or, can it be answered here?

Thank you in anticipation.

..
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............