[lug] Ubuntu 16-04 grub loader install problem

[farahakhtar_24c at yahoo.com]

I have worked with Ubuntu and other Linux systems in the past but not recently. I need to install Ubuntu to use a tool that is available only for Linux systems but the install is creating a problem that I brought here. I did google the problem and tried everything that is suggested but it didn’t work for me and I’m out of cues to the next step. The details are below. I hope you can help. Thanks in advance.

I have a Dell XPS-13 that runs windows 10 preinstalled in it. I wished to have ubuntu 16-04 installed for parallel boot. So, I went ahead and 

1. shrank my C drive using disk management in windows 10,
2. created a live-usb using Rufus for the iso to install 64-bit version of ubuntu16-04. 
3. Turned off the "secure boot" in the BIOS setup. 
4. Set boot of Windows in "UEFI" mode (not legacy). 
5. Used the "bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal" command and 
6. turned the SATA configuration from RAID to AHCI 
7. and then ran " bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot" command to boot windows normally. 
8. Changed the boot order to boot from the live usb.
9. I went on to "Try ubuntu" on the boot menu to boot from the usb into a live session. I was able to see my hard drive loaded and everything seemed ok.
10. Started installing ubuntu from within the live session. 
11. It went on fine until it installs the entire ubuntu but gives an error message in the end that says, "Executing grub-install /dev/nvme0n1 failed. This is a fatal error."  This happens both with the options of “Install parallel to windows” or “Something else” in the installer. I have about 20GB space for Ubuntu install and about 5 GB of swap space.
12. I tried various ways to point to the EFI partition on my hard drive nvme0n1 but nothing works. 
13. Tried chroot into the installed ubuntu from within the live sessions and updated the grub. It gives a message that says it did add the boot configuration entry to the already found EFI partition. However, booting from UEFI SATA disk or the windows boot manager doesn’t load into Ubuntu or a boot loader for Ubuntu.
14. Tried to reinstall grub but that is not allowed because an error message says the EFI partition is locked and read-only.
15. Tried boot-repair from the live session and it worked and made an entry in the boot device sequence but starting from that just boots into live usb if it's connected or into windows if usb is not connected. I believe that’s obvious because I made the entry from the live session. However, I am not able to boot-repair from the installed session of Ubuntu after chroot-ing into it because (as I understand) boot-repair is a GUI based tool and the installed session is acting as a remote login from the live session and has no GUI. 

Finally, I do know that the ubuntu has been parallel installed to windows (since chroot into it succeeds and I am able to mount its partitions) but that there is no right bootloader to show how to boot into it and the windows EFI partition does not make use of any entry if it was made into it at all. I hope it will be a quick fix for experts like you. 

Thanks for your help.

Farah

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