Something went wrong during Ubuntu 25.10 installation

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Ubuntu Version: Ubuntu Desktop 25.10

Problem Description:
On Windows 10 I downloaded the Ubuntu Desktop 25.10 ISO, verified the checksum, and flashed the installation media using balenaEtcher. Testing the live USB worked fine and I made my way through the installer, setting my passwords (including LUKS encryption) and choosing what software to install just fine. I wasn’t looking to dual boot but rather overwrite my Windows 10 installation protected with BitLocker.

At some point during the installation process I’m hit with an error saying something went wrong. I’m now limited to using Tails as I can’t seem to get any Linux distribution (see What I’ve Tried) installed.

Relevant System Information:
I’m using an ASUS ExpertBook B9 with an i7-1165G7. Some relevant context (see What I’ve Tried) is that I installed either version 40 or 41 of Fedora Workstation using Ventoy in the past. I think I first tried dual booting with Windows and botched the partitioning or something. I don’t recall details but for some reason when reinstalling Windows, it would only let me use some limited portion of my SSD storage and community Windows support couldn’t figure it out. Luckily I was able to send it back to the seller who restored my PC with a proper Windows installation and I stayed with Windows 10 until now where I’m attempting to fully switch to Linux.

Since the botched dual boot, whenever I’d run a live Linux USB I noticed there has been a “Fedora” boot option in the boot menu but I just ignored it. That option seems to be gone now after I recently failed to install Ubuntu, then Fedora (see What I’ve Tried), and then Ubuntu again afterwards (to grab logs for this post).

Screenshots or Error Messages:

Something went wrong

We’re sorry, but we’re not sure what the error is. You can try restarting your computer and start the installation process again. You can also report the issue.

Link to logs: https://privatebin.net/?31ffc51911e0dc37#HWfxV6RBJMUd9qywh4RE9gq2RtpecMWPEUigkwZ6sDWT

Enter password to view logs:

"b0}?h#I#0.Fm22C\UY\

(Unsure if logs contain sensitive info so I prefer to share it over PrivateBin where it won’t be saved by web archivers and AI crawlers.)

What I’ve Tried:
Someone suggested that Balena Etcher may cause problems so I recreated the installation media by using GNOME Disks on Tails, but that didn’t help. I believe I have secure boot enabled and would prefer to keep it enabled for security reasons if possible.

After repeatedly failing with Ubuntu I tried installing Fedora Workstation 42 but again was hit with an error during installation which I suspect is the same issue:

The installer cannot continue due to a critical error: Installation of the system failed: Installing boot loader.

Error details
org.fedoraproject.Anaconda.BootloaderInstallationError: Failed to remove old efi boot entry. This is most likely a kernal or firmware bug.

See update:

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I can see that grub failed to install on Ubuntu or Kubuntu you can definitely keeps secure boot on and tpm on with no problem.

Now for your Ubuntu install and fedora install did you use the same usb key?

Because something similar happen to me few years back one of my usb key was defective and the other one was not well formatted.So if possible try another usb key and if you are on windows use rufus or ventoy

If you are on Linux i would recommend something like mintstick or ventoy or fedora image writer
https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html
Fedora image writter is available as flatpak https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.fedoraproject.MediaWriter

the nice thing with mintstick is you can use there formatter to reformat the drive properly and the use the image writter to create the usb key.

I forgot if you are on Linux to create your usb stick and want to use ventoy just download the Linux version and then go in your download folder extract ventoy and then go in the extracted folder right click in open space menu will open and it will say open in terminal and just copy this in the terminal and press enter and the choose your drive click install once it’s finish in the file manager you should see ventoy just click on it and copy your iso to the drive.

sudo ./VentoyGUI.x86_64

Hope this helps

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Did you use windows Disk Management tool to create free/unallocated space on which to install Ubuntu? Are you installing Ubuntu on the same physical drive as windows? Did you try turning bitlocker off in windows for the install. You can turn it back on later. The link below to the Mint forums discusses potential problems with bitlocker.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=418063

If you overwrote your windows install while installing Ubuntu I would not expect this to be a problem. Is that what you did?

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There is also documentation here in the forum:

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There is many information we are missing like is bitlocker on, is fast boot enabled in windows and the bios as fast boot can often create problems,are you trying to dual boot on the same drive or seperate drives?

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I tried installing Zorin OS 18 using a different USB (which I had previously flashed with balenaEtcher when I had Windows) and ran into a similar error:

Unable to install GRUB in /dev/nvme0n1
Executing ‘grub-install /dev/nvme0n1’ failed.

This is a fatal error.

Update: It didn’t occur to me till then to just restart the PC and see what happens. It appears Zorin OS installed but didn’t remember setup details (such as user credentials) I provided during installation, but after the first reboot it seemed fine. So I re-installed Ubuntu 25.10 again with more or less the same outcome. It only remembered my LUKS password but I had to repeat much of the same setup process by selecting a time zone, creating an account, etc.

Data seems to have persisted since then so I’m not sure if this GRUB issue is causing any other underlying problems, but for now it’s sort of working? Except that I am having issues with checking for updates and updating firmware, but I assume I should create a separate thread for that.

Just checked and UEFI Fast Boot is enabled and Ubuntu is the first and only boot option. I’m not sure if I should bother disabling it now that Ubuntu seems to be installed (though I’m having firmware update issues) but I’m open to suggestions if you think it’s relevant to my current situation.

I mentioned the other details in the OP but to reiterate: I was looking to overwrite my Windows 10 installation which was encrypted with BitLocker. I’m not looking to dual boot now but I attempted it in the past with Fedora + W10 and it went terribly wrong. I only mentioned that history as it seems like that must’ve been the initial cause of this UEFI/bootloader issue I’m having.

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Yes i would recommend to disable fast boot as it often creates issues.

As for you drive before installing Ubuntu open gnome-disk or gparted and delete everything on your drive and leave it with no partition just select the partition and right click and select delete do this on every partition on the drive you want to install Ubuntu on and don’t forget to apply changes by clicking on the check mark in gparted and then try installing Ubuntu again.

Im thinking maybe your drive partitions are all messed up.

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I run Boot-Repair just to document what is where on my system. Best to know.
Please copy & paste the pastebin link to the BootInfo summary report ( do not post report), do not run the auto fix till reviewed. Use ppa (2nd) with live installer or update Boot-Repair ISO when booted.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair &
https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/

UEFI remembers old installs, and ESP -system partition often has folders for old installs. Best to houseclean those.from liveDVD or flash booted in UEFI mode and use efibootmgr
sudo efibootmgr -v
The “-v” option displays all the entries so you can confirm you’re deleting the right one, and then you use the combination of “-b ####” (to specify the entry) and “-B” (to delete it). Examples #5 is delete:, with Ubuntu you need sudo, others must be at root. some need all 4 hex chars, others only need significant digits
sudo efibootmgr -b XXXX -B
man efibootmgr

I normally use grub2’s loopmount to boot an ISO directly from my second drive, or an external drive. I used to use flash drive with either just grub or larger ones with a full install. Now use external SSD as much faster. No extraction of ISO required.
I do now have an external drive with Ventoy and think for most users that is an easier option. Also no extraction of ISO required. Just copy to Ventoy folder.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/beyond-grub-usb-stick-with-refind/67747/2

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/emergency-repair-disk/67791

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Sorry I’m a bit confused, if I don’t post my report here who should review it before I run the auto fix?

Ahh I sort of understand. Do you think it’s worth playing with now that I got Ubuntu installed? (Albeit with some issues.)

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You post the link to the report rather than the report itself.
Interested parties will follow the link

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On every system I have had, I always update BIOS/UEFI and SSD firmware. In many cases it is required to prevent virus attacks.
You just want to be sure not to interrupt update. If laptop make sure plugged into power, not just battery. And not during thunderstorm.

Windows and my Dell typically automate the firmware update. You often do not know it takes place as part of other updates. My desktops with motherboads from several brands over the years have all required manual update, usually downloading a file into a FAT32 partition or drive.

I also like to houseclean, so remove old UEFI entries and old folders in ESP.
And I run full Boot-Repair occasionally, but most of its underlying bootinfo code that still can be run from script (Boot-Repair requires gui), so I run that script as part of every backup.

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Sorry for the late reply, some unfortunate life stuff came up but I hope you’re still free to help!

I booted into an Ubuntu 25.10 live USB and followed these instructions to create a Boot-Info Summary. I received the following message when starting the program:

Boot Repair

You may want to retry after mounting your encrypted partitions so that the tool can verify their contents. (cryptsetup open)

It allowed me to continue but the wiki suggested I can use my installed Ubuntu session so I figured I’d run it there as my computer should be decrypted, but I still received the same message so I just continued. Here’s what I got from running it on my installed Ubuntu session:

Link: https://privatebin.net/?3fe039f85ccc72bb#CghEP2yHMLfPwkdddJb5AbTy8XEgBn5A1S283jaCJzVQ

Password to decrypt pastebin:
za%NyQIA0S&iBV37U&xU

The rest of this reply is a bit too technical for me so I’ll await a response for any suggestions on what I should do. Just be sure to let me know if any suggested action could harm my current Ubuntu installation as I’d need to make new backups and prepare to re-install Ubuntu.

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If that is your password, you need to remove it.
Decrypt partition before running Boot-Repair & post that link.

You show UEFI Secure Boot on.
And have several old installs Windows & Fedora in UEFI boot.
You see those with efibootmgr from terminal and can use efibootmgr to remove them by hex number.
man efibootmgr
efibootmgr
sudo efibootmgr -v XXXX -B

You show generic kernels, but with Secure boot on, you need the signed kernels. za%NyQIA0S&iBV37U&xU
You can turn UEFI Secure Boot off in UEFI setting or reinstall with signed kernels.

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Sorry for any confusion, za%NyQIA0S&iBV37U&xU is just the password to decrypt the PrivateBin link I shared and nothing else.

I thought by starting Ubuntu and decrypting LUKS (and then logging into my account to run Boot Repair) it’d be decrypted. I’m not sure what else I should be doing?

I skimmed the manual for efibootmgr but I’m quite new to Linux and it’s a bit overwhelming so I’ll ask for clarification to be sure. efibootmgr provides the following output:

BootCurrent: 0005
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0005,0002,0000,0003,0004,0006,0007,0008
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager VenHw(99e275e7-75a0-4b37-a2e6-c5385e6c00cb)57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d00000000000100000010000000040000007fff0400
Boot0002* Fedora VenHw(99e275e7-75a0-4b37-a2e6-c5385e6c00cb)
Boot0003* Fedora VenHw(99e275e7-75a0-4b37-a2e6-c5385e6c00cb)
Boot0004* Fedora VenHw(99e275e7-75a0-4b37-a2e6-c5385e6c00cb)
Boot0005* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,42724252-9be0-45cd-b615-1fc13e7b999e,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi) File(.)
Boot0006* UEFI:CD/DVD Drive BBS(129,0x0)
Boot0007* UEFI:Removable Device BBS(130,0x0)
Boot0008* UEFI:Network Device BBS(131,0x0)

So if I understand correctly, you’re suggesting I remove the Windows and Fedora entries which would look like this?

 sudo efibootmgr -v 0000 -B
 sudo efibootmgr -v 0002 -B
 sudo efibootmgr -v 0003 -B
 sudo efibootmgr -v 0004 -B

And I’m assuming this shouldn’t affect my ability to use my current Ubuntu installation? Also not sure if I should be touching 0006, 0007, or 0008 so I left them out.

I heard it’s best to try to use secure boot for security reasons so I’ll try any avenue which allows me to use it. But I’m not sure how else I should re-install Ubuntu in a way which gets me “the signed kernels”? I just downloaded and installed Ubuntu 25.10 from the ISO provided on the website which (aside from this GRUB issue) seems to have installed fine with secure boot enabled.

It might be worth mentioning that I am having a firmware update issue which I’ll link to here once posted, just in case that could be related?

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You really would not want to be in a position where a helpful volunteer’s suggestion caused an unintended consequence.
The priority for any PC user is to always have restorable backups.

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Not quite

sudo efibootmgr -b 000X -B  # (X = Boot Number)

Example below

sudo efibootmgr -b 0002 -B
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Sorry typo in delete command it is
sudo efibootmgr -b XXXX -B as shown in man page. and by tea-for-one.

The efibootmgr output also shows 0005 as default or first boot and it is the ubuntu entry,
That also shows a very long partuuid 427242… which is the ESP - efi system partition where it will look for shimx64.efi. The ESP probably still has a Microsoft & Fedora/grub folder for those boot files. You can houseclean those if desired.
You can also see partuuid with

lsblk -e 7 -o name,mountpoint,label,size,fstype,uuid,partuuid

or with a bit more info

lsblk -e 7 -o name,fstype,size,fsused,label,partlabel,mountpoint,uuid,partuuid

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