[Bug 1800558] Re: Ubuntu 18.04.1 installer crashes after "Could not install grub-efi-amd64-signed to /target/" (sic)

[TEN]

So this ideapad Z510 came with FreeDOS, ran nicely since and under
Ubuntu 12.04 (up to .5) LTS and never had Windows 7-10 on it.

Rebooting to USB and mounting the root partition:

mount /dev/sda6 /media/ubuntu/GUID
mount /dev/sda5 /media/ubuntu/GUID/boot
mount /dev/sda7 /media/ubuntu/GUID/usr
mount --bind /dev dev
mount --bind /dev/pts dev/pts
mount --bind /proc proc
mount --bind /sys sys
chroot /media/ubuntu/GUID
grub-install /dev/sda
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.

At least /boot/grub at this point got populated with the modules that
were missing before.

No partition has the ESP flag and/or file system type EF.
The 18.04.1 installer seems to neither expect this (which it should check upfront rather than near the end of a lengthy install) nor try and create one, or a way for non-EFI (legacy) boot.

Anything into grub-install /dev/sda --efi-directory=/boot/efi(/EFI(/ubuntu)) yields
grub-install: error: /boot/efi(/EFI(/ubuntu)) doesn't look like an EFI partition.
...but these directories wouldn't meet the specifications https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFI_system_partition#MBR_partitioned_disks of a dedicated(?) primary(?) 100-256MB FAT32 anyway.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1800558

Title:
  Ubuntu 18.04.1 installer crashes after "Could not install grub-efi-
  amd64-signed to /target/" (sic)

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  i5-4200M (2.5GHz*4) 64-bit Lenovo ideapad, 500GB HDD

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1497033
  requests "If your install crashes, allow the installer to file your
  own bug report with your own log files" i.e. not a duplicate

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
  Package: ubiquity 18.04.14.6 [modified: lib/partman/automatically_partition/question]
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-29.31-generic 4.15.18
  Uname: Linux 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: wl
  ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.394
  Date: Mon Oct 29 22:53:21 2018
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash ---
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
  SourcePackage: grub-installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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