GRUB Dummy Failed

[robpom]

Surface Pro 3

I am trying out how different distros work. I installed Fedora 27 - no issues. I installed Ubuntu 17.10 - no issues.

I then tried Debian and got the error stating that Grub is unable to install in dummy.

Now......any version of Linux (Fedora, Kali, Ubuntu, Debian) is giving me the same error.

Help! What happened? How can I fix it so I can start over - install Debian 9 and it will work.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

OK, wild guess: you tried to install a non-UEFI system to a disk with an GUID partition table.

GRUB needs a BIOS boot partition for that, you can post the output of `parted --list` (from any distribution or live environment) so we can see for sure

EDIT: I got confused

[robpom]

Thanks. Will investigate more when I get home.

I am still curious why it worked a few times.....then stopped working.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Did you boot in UEFI mode when you ran the installer?

[robpom]

Didn't change anything in the BIOS between installs.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Well can you confirm for sure whether or not "Legacy" mode (also known as "CSM") was enabled?

Firmware can be flaky, mine changes settings all the time without so much as a by-your-leave

[robpom]

I will check.....but on the Surface Pro 3......I don't recall that as being a setting. There are not many settings you can change.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=865417

[p.H]

Did you boot in UEFI mode when you ran the installer?

Of course. "dummy" means that the installer tries to install GRUB in EFI mode.

It could be a efibootmgr or UEFI firmware bug : after a number of successful writes into the NVRAM which contains the EFI boot variables, subsequent writes fail. I have observed this on a couple of machines. Resetting the firmware may solve the issue.

If there is no other system (no multiboot), I would suggest to give up with EFI boot entries and install GRUB into the removable device path.

Code: Select all

grub-install --removable