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I am receiving the following error during installation:

Unable to install GRUB in /dev/sda
Executing `grub-install /dev/sda` failed.
This is a fatal error.

I clicked "OK" and was prompted to do one of the following:

1. Chose a different device to install the bootloader on
2. Continue installation without a bootloader (When checked, a message says I must install a bootloader manually to launch Ubuntu.)
3. Cancel installation

I plan on only running Ubuntu 16.04. I do not plan on dual-booting with Windows or another OS. So do I still need a bootloader if Ubuntu is my only OS. And if so, how should I proceed to install the bootloader?

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  • UEFI or BIOS type install? Is system newer UEFI? Did you partition in advance or thru installer? May be best to see details: Post the link to the Create BootInfo summary report. Is part of Boot-Repair: help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info
    – oldfred
    Jul 14, 2016 at 15:51
  • My computer is newly built, with a newer UEFI. (I upgraded to 16.04 because 14.04 didn't recognize some of my hardware.) I did partition in advanced. I created 3 partitions, "/","/home" and "swap area"
    – GVS
    Jul 14, 2016 at 15:55
  • Choose option 2. Reboot back into your installation USB/DVD and choose "Try Ubuntu". Open a terminal and type sudo grub-install /dev/sda.
    – Delorean
    Jul 14, 2016 at 16:16
  • You need to review: help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI and: help.ubuntu.com/community/DiskSpace And: askubuntu.com/questions/743095/… But issue is directly addressed below by user311982
    – oldfred
    Jul 14, 2016 at 17:23

5 Answers 5

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Hi GVS and welcome to Askubuntu! I believe I see the problem: You haven't created an EFI partition! This partition is where the installer will place grub during installation on a UEFI system, but without that partition, grub can't be installed. To fix this, we will need to re-partition your drive. Please follow the steps below:

  1. Open a terminal and type gksudo gparted (ifgparted is not installed, then you must run sudo apt install gparted, first). Once gparted is open, right-click on each partition and click "Delete".
  2. Create a partition 300 Mib in size, formatted as FAT32.
  3. Create your other partitions as normal.
  4. Right-click your first partition (the one formatted as FAT32), choose "Manage Flags", and then click the check boxes for "boot" and "esp".
  5. Lastly, click the "Apply All Operations" icon near the top of the window.

After following these steps, you may run the installer as normal. Please let me know if you need any further assistance :)

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I had the same problem. Following the advice of @user311982 with a twist, I was able to install Ubuntu 16.04 from the installation media. Follow the normal installation procedure(s) until you are presented the options to install/overwrite/side-by-side/do-something-else the installation. Choose "Do something else". From there you can select the target installation, revert the partition table (remove partitions) and then create a partition with the "EFI Partition" option. My assumption is that this essentially does what @user311982 was saying about "boot" and "esp", but was simplified. Since you removed the existing partitions, you will want to use the remaining disk space for your normal "ext4" partitions.

Then just proceed as normal.

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After a few unsuccessful attempts, I finally installed boot-repair:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
sudo apt update
sudo apt install boot-repair
boot-repair

and was able to load into my Ubuntu 16.04.

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I had the same problem, and creating a FAT32 partition with "boot" and "esp" flags GRUB could be installed.

However, now Ubuntu 16.04 is not starting, GRUB gives a "unknown filesystem" error. Not even boot-repair could fix it.

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to make your laptop/PC dual boot windows 10 and ubuntu 21 follow following steps

  1. go to disk management and create at least 50GB free space. 1.make bootable usb/CD for ubuntu21 2.check BIOS mode it may be either legecy or UFI you can by typing " system information" in search.
  2. If it is in legecy mode choose boot option follow the link

https://youtu.be/-vZ-eoH2a4U

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  • While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review
    – ChanganAuto
    Nov 19, 2021 at 20:29

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