Failure installing Ubuntu 24.04 on an USB stick

[Volker Wysk]

Am Freitag, dem 16.08.2024 um 18:27 +0200 schrieb Ralf Mardorf via ubuntu-
users:
> Hi Volker,
> 
> are you using a file system that isn't supported by either GRUB or EFI?

No, it's fat32 for the EFI System Partition and ext4 otherwise.

> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB
> 
> FWIW I have a separated fat32 partition for the EFI stuff and ext4 /boot
> partitions for the Alpine, Xubuntu and Arch kernels.
> 
> I migrated from syslinux to GRUB, since the GPU of my 13th Gen Intel
> Core doesn't allow legacy boot.

I don't think it's a GRUB problem. The thing is that the grub and the kernel
don't get installed at all. /boot is mostly empty (except for memtest86).
And the ESP doesn't get constructed at all.

> For legacy boot machines I would still use syslinux. However, GRUB still
> works with legacy boot, too.

I want to be able to use the new USB-stick on my desktop machine as well as
the laptop. Like I've told, I've done this before with Ubuntu 22.04 and it
(still) works, on both systems. I haven't done anything weird to accomplish
this, I've just used the 22.04 installer. It's just 24.04 that makes
problems.

My Ubuntu 22.04 USB stick, which I use on both systems, does have an ESP and
a dedicated boot partition (needed because the root partition is encrypted).

> Btw. on my enforced EFI boot machine, I have at least secure boot
> disabled.

I've disabled secure boot as well, on the desktop machine.

> Back to GRUB and legacy boot, resp. MBR and legacy boot:
> 
> "# grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sdX"
> 
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Master_Boot_Record_(MBR)_specific_instructions
> 
> "i386-pc" is also for 64 bit machines.

Again, there must be broken more, it doesn't make provisions for booting at
all, when I run the Ubuntu installer on my old laptop. The kernel and grub
as well as the ESP are *missing*.

I'm a little hesitant to try it on my desktop system, because I (the
installer) had nuked my system once, when using 22.04.

Cheers,
Volker