I'm a total Linux newbie and a very stupid one, apparently. This will be a bit long, sorry about that. Two weeks ago I installed KDE 18.3 (I know it's not developed anymore, but this is the one I like the most, so why not give it try) from USB drive without any problems on a brand new laptop with no OS, no dual boot, just Mint. it was running okay, though it crashed frequently (that's probably my own fault) and after a while I kept losing several software's settings, for example Firefox kept resetting itself to the basic settings, which was very frustrating. I wanted to try Cinnamon as a clean install with only keeping my custom /data partition. I really shouldn't have touched anything. Thing is, I've already tried installing Cinnamon and KDE 3 or 4 times, formatting all the other partitions but /data, since there wasn't anything really important on those, being a new system and everything, I wouldn't have minded setting up those few softwares again. Every single time the process runs fine, then at the very end I get that evil "grub-efi-amd64-signed package failed to install into /target" message, then the installer crashes. In Cinnamon I couldn't even close the error message window, KDE can at least close it, not that it would matter.
I tried the following commands in the past days in Live mode with no success:
sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/dev/sda (gave the "failed to get canonical path" message and there was a "grub-install.real: error: install device isn't specified" somewhere too)
There was also a longer set of commands ending with a "chroot" command, but I can't find which site i read it right now... this is getting way too confusing.
At this point I can only use Live mode (both Cinnamon and KDE only work in live), but only when the USB drive is first in the boot order, and CSM (Legacy) mode is on. If the HDD is set as first and Legacy is off, it gives me a boot failed message. The partitions are created perfectly, they're seen and accessible in live mode, only the boot is f***ed up. (When everything was working properly, USB was the first in the boot order because I didn't change it after the successful install, and there was nothing wrong with it.) Secure Boot is off, third party softwares are always unchecked during installation. It's getting hard to follow which settings i've modfified so far at all. I've run out of ideas, I hardly even have any experience in installing OSs. I suppose a total formatting of the hard drive could maybe be a quick workaround, but right now I can't do that because i've yet to buy an external drive for backup. What else could I try? I swear, if anything is able to make this damn thing work, I'll never, ever touch the system again.
Specs from terminal:
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mint@mint ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: mint Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.8.8 (Qt 5.6.1)
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: FUJITSU product: LIFEBOOK A357
Mobo: FUJITSU model: FJNBB5C v: 752828-01R8101755
Bios: FUJITSU // Insyde v: Version 2.02 date: 12/28/2017
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i3-6006U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7968
clock speeds: max: 2000 MHz 1: 500 MHz 2: 500 MHz 3: 500 MHz
4: 500 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Sky Lake Integrated Graphics bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.02hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.7 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network: Card-1: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 3000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1004.3GB (0.8% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MQ01ABD1 size: 1000.2GB temp: 29C
ID-2: /dev/sdb model: Name n/a size: 4.1GB temp: 0C
ID-1: swap-1 size: 8.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 172 Uptime: 34 min Memory: 892.4/3846.2MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35
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mint@mint ~ $ sudo parted --list
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ABD1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 499MB 498MB ext4
2 499MB 8498MB 7999MB linux-swap(v1)
3 8498MB 18.5GB 9999MB ext4
4 18.5GB 53.5GB 35.0GB ext4
8 53.5GB 1000GB 947GB ext4
Warning: The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2048 bytes, but
Linux says it is 512 bytes.
Ignore/Cancel?
sda3 is /
sda4 is /home
sda8 is /data (numbered 8 because the first installation had more, pretty much unnecessary partitions and I decided to merge those with /home, but it didn't change a thing about the main problem)]
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mint@mint ~ $ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 2001,0001,2002,0004,2003
Boot0000* Generic USB Storage PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)RC
Boot0001* TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x17,0x0)/Sata(0,0,0)RC
Boot0002* HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GUD0N PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x17,0x0)/Sata(1,0,0)RC
Boot0004* Realtek PXE B03 D00 BBS(128,Realtek PXE B03 D00,0x0).......................................................................
Boot2001* EFI USB Device RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC
Boot2003* EFI Network RC
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mint@mint ~ $ sudo os-prober
/dev/sda3:Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia (18.3):LinuxMint:linux
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdb1. Check your device.map.
