Linux Mint 19.1 stops installing when it gets to Grub2 installation

[jgn2112]

I've tried installing without connecting to wifi and it still loops the endless invalid report data id error.
I'm not certain I'm booting in EFI mode though...I suspect I am.
I had legacy boot mode on in the bios but I've since changed it back to UEFI since it didn't seem to make any difference.
I'll hold off on installing without grub2 for now given your observation that its rough going and I'd need someone to hold my hand step by step.

[JeremyB]

It still does that with the sudo modprobe -r elan-i2c

[jgn2112]

I just did it with that command line and it still got hung up on the grub2 package installation.

I didn't connect to wifi, but I did connect directly to my router with an ethernet cable.

Would that interfere?

[JeremyB]

If it can get updates while installing, there are likely to be issues, grub-efi-amd64 cannot install to /target is common

[jgn2112]

I tried again, turned off wireless, typed in the command you suggested, did not elect 3rd party software, did the update, and it still hing up on installing the grub2 package.
I'm not willing to quit, but I'm incredibly demoralized.
Any idea what's causing this?
Any further suggestions to fix will be eagerly received.

[JeremyB]

Are you choosing erase disk and install Mint? I can't remember the grub2 install hanging but I remember the install error to /target from back in July

[jgn2112]

Yes, I select erase everything and install. I'm actually considering making a video and posting it to YouTube so people can see exactly what happens but this is so irritating that now it's like, I have to find out why it's doing this. Millions of others install it with zero hassle and I get the one mystery giltch.

[jgn2112]

I filmed a video of me attempting an install. While you can watch the whole thing just to check if you'd like, the error occurs at 11:26 into the vid.

https://youtu.be/VQvaDRm9sIk

[JeremyB]

Boot the live USB and do

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sudo modprobe -r elan_i2c

Post results for

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sudo parted -l

[jgn2112]

I'm about to run your first command line, but as a warning, I've done it before with no luck (it looks like a familiar command string so I think I have, but I'll try it again after I turn wifi off and then I'll edit this post).

Here are the results of your second command string:

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Model: ATA WDC WD10SPZX-24Z (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  538MB   537MB   fat32        EFI System Partition  boot, esp
 2      538MB   1000GB  1000GB  ext4


Model: VendorCo ProductCode (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 4027MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  4027MB  4025MB  primary  fat32        boot, lba

[JeremyB]

So far that looks good, now to try manual grub install

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sudo mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
sudo chroot /mnt
apt-get update
apt-get install ubuntu-system-adjustments
apt install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64-signed grub-efi-amd64 
os-prober
update-grub
exit

[jgn2112]

Ok, I have a standard install going on right now with your previous command line disabling the touchpad. Should I start over and enter in the above code into the command line before beginning another install?
Thank you!

[JeremyB]

Wait until the install fails, reboot into Live USB and then disable touchpad, allow internet connection and run the commands from the post above

If it happens to install fine this time, just reboot and see if the install works

[jgn2112]

You're never going to believe this, but it stopped installing at 85% progress. All the commands went fine, except there was one or two minor errors...something about an invalid signature with an amd file and it said "dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem" so I did an all seemed fine.
I went to run the reinstall command and it all went fine, the progress bar kept progressing until 85%, then it just sits.
I tried typing the next command...os-prober... just to see but nothing happened.

[JeremyB]

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cat /var/log/syslog | tail -40

Open another terminal window if needed

[jgn2112]

Here is the results of the log command:

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Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.477911] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.488071] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.497858] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.507447] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.517551] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.527516] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.537546] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.547622] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.557867] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.567711] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.577375] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.587355] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.597299] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.607454] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.617447] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.627656] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.637447] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.647140] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.657164] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.667328] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.677350] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.687622] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.697434] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.707035] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.716917] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.727173] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.736920] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.747064] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.756930] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.767432] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.777187] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.786695] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.797004] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.806802] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.816871] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.826794] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.837266] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.847090] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.856583] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)
Feb 10 15:55:05 mint kernel: [  639.866972] elan_i2c i2c-ELAN0609:00: invalid report id data (ff)

I actually tried running another install because I don't know how to open up another terminal window without the touchpad. So the second attempt I left the touchpad on. When I ran the "apt-get install ubuntu-system-adjustments" it gave me an error that states "dpkg was inturrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem. So I did. Now I'm hung up again. Here is all the code...

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mint@mint:~$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mint@mint:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mint@mint:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
mint@mint:~$ for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
mint@mint:~$ sudo chroot /mnt
root@mint:/# apt-get update
Ign:1 cdrom://Linux Mint 19.1 _Tessa_ - Release amd64 20181217 bionic InRelease
Err:2 cdrom://Linux Mint 19.1 _Tessa_ - Release amd64 20181217 bionic Release
  Please use apt-cdrom to make this CD-ROM recognized by APT. apt-get update cannot be used to add new CD-ROMs
Ign:3 http://packages.linuxmint.com tessa InRelease                            
Hit:4 http://packages.linuxmint.com tessa Release                              
Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                        
Hit:6 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                     
Get:7 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [88.7 kB]
Get:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease [88.7 kB]      
Ign:9 http://live.linuxmint.com tessa InRelease                                
Hit:10 http://live.linuxmint.com tessa Release                                 
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease [74.6 kB]   
Reading package lists... Done                                 
E: The repository 'cdrom://Linux Mint 19.1 _Tessa_ - Release amd64 20181217 bionic Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
root@mint:/# apt-get install ubuntu-system-adjustments
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem. 
root@mint:/# sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up grub-efi-amd64 (2.02-2ubuntu8.12) ...
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: error: efibootmgr failed to register the boot entry: Unknown error -1.
Failed: grub-install --target=x86_64-efi  
WARNING: Bootloader is not properly installed, system may not be bootable
Setting up grub-efi-amd64-signed (1.93.13+2.02-2ubuntu8.12) ...
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.

[jgn2112]

So before I make this next post, I wanted to first say THANK YOU. I realize this is something you probably do in your free time, so I appreciate every bit of help.

I tried the series of commands you gave above to manually install grub2 and here is where it all goes south...

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root@mint:/# apt-get install ubuntu-system-adjustments
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem. 
root@mint:/# sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up grub-efi-amd64-signed (1.93.13+2.02-2ubuntu8.12) ...
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: error: efibootmgr failed to register the boot entry: Unknown error -1.
dpkg: error processing package grub-efi-amd64-signed (--configure):
 installed grub-efi-amd64-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 grub-efi-amd64-signed

I tried moving to the next step in your commands after attempting "apt-get install ubuntu-system-adjustments" without typing "sudo dpkg --configure -a" but I get the same error of "dpkg was interrupted..." So as you can see, when I run the "sudo dpkg --configure -a" command, there's a grub install error, and subsequent commands do not run as intended.

[JeremyB]

Use Ctrl + Alt + T to open new terminal window. You may want to get a USB mouse so that you can keep that elan_i2c blacklisted
Try a reboot into the hard drive and see if it worked

[jgn2112]

No dice...I can't copy-paste the two terminals since the touchpad is disabled, so here are pictures.





As you can see from the top image, there's an error:

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efibootmgr failed to register the boot entry: Unknown error -1

And a couple others after that that look damning.

The second image has a log that looks much different from the one I posted in a previous post, but they seem to be centered around the kernel.

The following command "apt install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64-signed grub-efi-amd64" also (not surprisingly) encounters an error:

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E: Internal Error, No file name for grub-efi-amd64-signed:amd64

[JeremyB]

If you are still on Live with the chroot, terminal should have a # prompt, do

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ls /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu

I think you should try a new download of the Mint ISO and put that on USB, do it from the Live environment if needed with a second USB drive