[SOLVED]Debian 10 Installation issues grub-install failed

[markjacob]

Hi, I had Linux mint 19.1 last week, but it became too heavy so I tried to switch to some other lightweight but good looking distro. A user on reddit told me to use Debian because its most stable in all linux distros plus its the grand father to them all.

I am trying to install Debian 10 for 3 days in a row, but unable to install.
but first of all answer this question
"Does debian installs with secure boot mode on?? because there is no way I can disable secure boot mode or change UEFI to Legacy, my bios is locked. Please dont divert this conversation to "unlock bios" or "disable secure boot mode" I had tried it too many times and failed. so If the answer of above question is "NO" then I think I cannot run debian
BUT see following steps I have done
1) I already have 2 other OSes, Windows and PrimeOS,(prime os also use grub2 and this is the reason I am still able to boot in windows)
2) I am using debian10_amd64_gnome live USB(created through rufus)
3) tried to install using sda2, sda8 and sda9 for /boot/efi /(root) and /swap respectively. but it failed on "configuring bootmgr"
4) tried to install using sda2, sda8 and sda9 for /boot /(root) and /swap respectively. but it failed on "configuring bootmgr"(same error)
4) tried to install using sda8, sda9 and sda11 for /boot/efi /(root) and /swap respectively. but it failed on "configuring bootmgr"(same error)
5) tried to install using sda2, sda8, sda9 for /boot ,/root and /swap respectively. but it installed but before installation it said "/boot/efi partition is not selected" maybe because I selected "/boot" instead of "/boot/efi"

Since it installed in step 5, so It should run, but I was not able to run it because GRUB was not configured
since then I am following 10 to 15 different links from stackexchange, askubuntu, linuxmint forum , arch linux forum, manjaro forum to install/reinstall/reconfigure grub2. following is the summary what i did for that

1) - mounted sda8 and sda2 (on /mnt and /mnt/boot/efi)
- tried updtae grub
- then grub-install -v --efi-directory=/boot/efi --target=xxx (and different ways to use grub-install)
- all are ending up at "cannot set EFI variable Boot003"

2) - mounted root and boot
- tried grub-install --target=x86_64-efi (without providing directory)
- failed at "cannot find EFI directory"

I am so tired up doing all these stuff. if anyone can help me please tell me what to do. or atleast tell me what will be the alternative(more than 1 so I can switch between them) to debian(gnome)??

Note: I have used different distros on my machine ( linux mint, react os, primeOS, ubuntu, fedora, opensuse, korora, elementary, deepin )

[ruwolf]

following is the summary what i did for that

1) - mounted sda8 and sda2 (on /mnt and /mnt/boot/efi)
- tried updtae grub
- then grub-install -v --efi-directory=/boot/efi --target=xxx (and different ways to use grub-install)
- all are ending up at "cannot set EFI variable Boot003"

I think, that when you mount sda2 on /mnt/boot/efi, you should use

Code: Select all

grub-install -v --efi-directory=/mnt/boot/efi --target=xxx

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Does debian installs with secure boot mode on?

Yes:

Code: Select all

E485:~$ cat /etc/debian_version                                                           
10.0
E485:~$ mokutil --sb-state                
SecureBoot enabled
E485:~$ bootctl | grep Secure             
systemd-boot not installed in ESP.
  Secure Boot: enabled
E485:~$

Make sure that the installer is booted in UEFI mode, switch to a console screen and check for /sys/firmware/efi to confirm this.

[markjacob]

Hi I finally managed to install debian 10. I had to install ubuntu which showed same error during installation so I used "boot-repair" for ubuntu.. I ran ubuntu for 2 days then tried agiain to install debian. it installed without errors but still was not booting up. instead throwing error "cannet se EFI variable" and grub screen appeared. So I created Ubuntu live usb and tried to "boot-repair" again (since it is ubuntu's package and was not installing on debian) but it didnot worked. so I mounted EFI partitiion and deleted all entries except microsoft(windows bootloader), android(prime OS grub bootloader), and Debian. and finally I managed to boot into debian. it still shows error "cannot set EFI variable" just some milliseconds before debian's grub boot menu.