Installing Ubuntu on Acer Spin UEFI devices
For when efivards says no
Installing Ubuntu on the Acer Spin 1 has been proving to be quite the hassle to me. Fortunately; following these steps allows other to easily install Ubuntu on the Acer Spin 1 and possible many other Acer UEFI devices. Installing the bootloader will likely fail steps are provided to recover from this and perform bootloader repair.
Steps install without bootloader
- Boot from live USB (desktop iso only not server!)
- Press try ubuntu
- Open terminal
- Execute:
sudo -s - Execute:
ubiquity -b - Continue installation using your own requirements and desires
- Check the available discs and partitions with
sudo fdisk -l. The partitions are assumed to be on mmcblk0 but they could also be on mmcblk1. - Execute:
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mntwere_ mmcblk0p2_ is the root partition. - NOTE: root partition for lvm / cryptluks will be in /dev/mapper/ directory instead!
- Execute:
sudo mkdir /mnt/boot/efi - Execute:
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot/efimmcblk0p1 is the efi partition - Execute:
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done - Execute:
modprobe efivars - Execute:
efibootmgr --verbose - Execute:
apt-get install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64 - Execute:
grub-install —no-nvram —root-directory=/mnt - Execute:
chroot /mnt - Execute:
update-grub` - Installing grub-efi-amd64 might hang or fail do not worry if that’s the case continue with bootloader repair.
Steps bootloader repair
- Install rEFInd onto a usb and boot it
- Select the install from the menu
- Be patiented booting takes some time
- Login using username
- Open terminal
- Execute:
sudo -s - Execute:
apt update && apt upgrade - Execute:
update-grub - Execute:
apt install grub-efi-amd64 - Running grub-efi-amd64 will hang on post-installation
- Kill apt by executing
ps aux | grep aptand using the PID to call kill PID - Execute:
dpkg --purge --force-all grub-efi-amd64 - Execute:
update-grub - Note this will prevent any grub updates from being installed by aptitude