Grub install error cannot open directory

1. Grub Installation Failed: «‘/boot/grub/i386-pc’ : No such file or directory» Error
   

   Hello, I have recently completed a Lubuntu 17.10 install, alongside Windows 10 on my Acer Aspire Switch 10E.

   In order to get anything Linux-related to boot past the initial bootloader off of a LiveUSB, I have to add the «nomodeset» command every time.
   The Lubuntu installation itself was successfull, with the exception of an error stating that Grub could not be installed. Re-installing yielded the same results.

   The automated BootRepair function in the «BootRepair live USB» did not sort the problem, as I do not have wireless drivers or an ethernet port.
   The proprietary linux drivers I do have access to need to be compiled before being used. (unless tar.gz can be magically «double-clicked» by the virtue of some amazing, live-USB-compatible software?)

   I have attempted to do a manual grub installation according to these sets of instructions:
   http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-repair…ubuntu-live-cd
   https://askubuntu.com/questions/1265…ll-boot-loader
   These attempts always resulted in:
   «cannot open directory ‘/boot/grub/i386-pc’ : No such file or directory» error.
   (I did remember to use /dev/mmcblk0 or /dev/mmcblk0p5 instead of /dev/sda or /dev/sdaX)
   Could this be related to the «nomodeset» command, and the fact my CPU is actually a x64 Atom Z8300?

   Finally, there was one instance where I managed to connect to WiFi upon being informed that connections were available — this was after issuing 10 different variations of the grub-install /directory command, and forgetting to unmount the previously mounted directories (this also resulted in a permanently-blank terminal window and caused me to re-install the whole BootRepair… and subsequently lose internet access, either to re-booting or reinstalling haha).

   Any help would be greatly appreciated. Windows 10 is ridiculously slow, and I am not settling for sub-par slaveware.

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2. Re: Grub Installation Failed: «‘/boot/grub/i386-pc’ : No such file or directory» Erro
   

   Do not use any tar.gz unless nothing in repository works.

   Is this one the those that uses 32 bit UEFI, but is a 64 bit chip?
   Did you install in UEFI boot mode? But you have to add grubia32.efi which is not part of standard Ubuntu.

   https://gist.github.com/franga2000/2154d09f864894b8fe84
   https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2234219

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3. Re: Grub Installation Failed: «‘/boot/grub/i386-pc’ : No such file or directory» Erro
   

   Thanks for the quick reply!

   Not sure whether the UEFI itself is 32 or 64 bit.
   I am using a newer SW3-016 (2016) model, and I’m pretty sure it’s incompatible with Legacy boot. The installations of both x64Win10Home and Lubuntu were completed with Secure Boot «ON» and a whitelisted boot64.efi (can’t remember if the Windows file had the same name, but was definitely x64).

   I will try the solutions in the threads you have linked (ommitting the repeated Ubuntu installation — unless you think that’s a bad idea) and see if that works!

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4. Re: Grub Installation Failed: «‘/boot/grub/i386-pc’ : No such file or directory» Erro
   

   Do not know then if you have 32 bit or 64 bit UEFI.

   Re-install is a last resort. But can be done, just only use Something Else and choose same / (root) and /home if you created that also.

   UEFI only boots from external drives from an ESP or FAT32 partition with boot flag and /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi, if 64 bit or bootia32.efi, if 32 bit UEFI (even if system is 64 bit). With Window that would have been a copy or version of Windows .efi boot file.
   With Ubuntu it is a copy of grub, but not the full install configuration of grub. It just has parts needed to boot live installer in UEFI mode with either Secure boot on or off. Ubuntu live installer also has BIOS boot but uses syslinux for that to avoid issues.

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5. Re: Grub Installation Failed: «‘/boot/grub/i386-pc’ : No such file or directory» Erro
   

   Not sure if this would apply. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s…x/+bug/1734147 It apparently is affecting some Acer products.

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6. Re: Grub Installation Failed: «‘/boot/grub/i386-pc’ : No such file or directory» Erro
   

   Thanks again, I will update on how I get on with the 32bit Grub installation.

   Fortunately I don’t think this is the «Corrupting BIOS» bug. My UEFI Firmware seems as functional and poorly though-out as ever

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7. Re: Grub Installation Failed: «‘/boot/grub/i386-pc’ : No such file or directory» Erro
   

   Thank you all for your help, it was a rather silly mistake on my part.

   The root of the issue was most likely me attempting to boot from the wrong file. After trying multiple linux distros and looking closer at a few tutorials, I tried the boot-repair again with a wireless USB dongle. The final message after a successful grub repair mentioned that I should select the «shimx64.efi» file. Previously I was attempting to boot from «grubx64.efi» and «bootx64.efi» (once grub was correctly installed with lubuntu 16.04).

   My Acer Aspire Switch 10 E (2016) SW3-016 did not appear to suffer from the 17.10 Ubuntu BIOS corruption error.

   //For now I switched to Xubuntu due to Lubuntu’s networking issues with the USB dongle

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This article documents issues that might arise when trying to use or install GRUB2.

Installation errors

Installing GRUB2 from within a chroot

When a separate /boot partition exists, be sure to mount the target root partition before chrooting, but do not mount the /boot partition until after chrooting to the new environment. This is required because grub-mkconfig will not detect /boot as a separate partition and will assume the /boot directory and the root (/) directory are on the same partition.

Reinstalling the GRUB2 EFI boot manager entry

In case the boot manager entries need to be restored, they can be re-added without invoking grub-install. Load the efivars kernel module and install sys-boot/efibootmgr:

Next add a boot menu entry:

grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.

Note
The following examples presumes a 64-bit EFI GRUB2 install, adjust accordingly for 32-bit EFI.

grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.

Properly setting the GRUB_PLATFORMS variable in /etc/portage/make.conf (the first time!) as listed above should resolve this error. Set the GRUB_PLATFORMS variable then re-emerge GRUB2 using the following command:

In the case this error persists try forcing the install to the EFI directory by issuing the grub-install command with correct parameters for the --target and --efi-directory options:

grub-install: Attempting to install GRUB2 to a disk or partition

Attempting to install GRUB to a partition disk or to a partition.  This is a BAD idea.
Embedding is not possible.  GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. 
However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged.

There could be many reasons for this error to come up.

No mounted /boot

A /boot partition is not mounted.

No BIOS boot partition while using BIOS-GPT setup

This could mean there is not a EF02 or bios_boot partition to embed the core.img file in.

Creating a little partition of a few hundreds kilobytes may be enough, although it is good practice to align this partition to 2048 sectors to avoid a performance penalty with the disk. A 1 MiB partition should work well.

Attempting to install GRUB2 in a partition

When attempting to install GRUB2 in a partition e.g. /dev/sda5 (for instance because the boot loader will be chainloaded by a different boot loader), simply add --force option switch to force install.

Missing target detection

If grub-install does not print any errors message or if the error message is about scanning disk files and several platforms are enabled in /etc/portage/make.conf while nothing is installed on the disk, then edit the /sbin/grub-install script with a text editor of choice.

Change the platform variable to the appropriate platform for the current use case. The platform must be rightly set when emerging sys-boot/grub, else it will be incorrectly configured in the /sbin/grub-install script.

For example, to set the platform for «PC», change platform=qemu to platform=pc.

Note
This is true for GRUB version 1.99x only… for GRUB2 the correct file to investigate can be found at /etc/grub.d/00_header; change transform="s,grub,grub-qemu," to transform="s,grub,grub2," for instance to install rightly with grub-$platform-install.

grub-setup: no post-MBR gap

grub-setup: warn: This msdos-style partition label has no post-MBR gap; embedding won't be possible!
grub-bios-setup: warn: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists.
            However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and its use is discouraged.
grub-bios-setup: error: If you really want blocklists, use --force.

This error means that GRUB2 could not find the usual gap between the MBR and first partition of a disk. It is possible that the gap does not exist. Some tools (e.g. LiveUSB disk installer) format disks so that the first partition starts at sector 1 instead of 2048.

Repartitioning might be necessary to resolve the issue.

grub-install: embedding area is unusually small

grub-install: warn: Your embedding area is unusually
small. core.img won't fit in it.
grub-install: warn: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can
only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However,
blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged.
grub-install: error: will not proceed with blocklists.

There is not enough room at the beginning of the disk before the first partition.

In general this is a bit of trouble to fix. One or more partitions need to be resized in order to leave some free space at the beginning of the drive. The GParted LiveCD or SystemRescueCD are excellent tools to make this job less difficult.

If the swap partition is the first partition on the disk (e.g. /dev/sda1) it is possible to simply remove the existing swap space partition and re-partition the space. This resolution would avoid the need for booting into a live medium in order to resize a root (/) partition.