[Bug 1877090] [NEW] Help users who have started the installer in the wrong efi/bios mode

[Roger Light]

Public bug reported:

I recently tried to do a fresh install of Kubuntu 20.04 over the top of
an existing installation.

sda - Windows install
sdb - Windows spinning disk
sdc - Linux disk, partitioned into / and /home

Because I didn't want to trash /home, I had to choose manual
partitioning. I set sdc1 to be formatted ext4 and mounted at /, set sdc2
to be mounted as /home, and set the boot loader to be installed on sdc.
I'm not convinced the partitioning part is relevant.

After the installation finished and I rebooted, I was presented with a
grub terminal, nothing else.

I eventually realised that I had booted the usb stick into bios mode
(this was the first entry I found), and when I repeated the installation
with it booted into uefi mode everything worked.

I don't know anything about the details of bios/uefi, so this may be a
stupid question, but is there any way that the installer could have
figured out that I was doing something wrong and given me a hint before
I rebooted to a grub console? I haven't tested with automatic
partitioning, maybe that works better, but booting to a blank grub
console is a pretty harsh outcome for the installer.

** Affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1877090

Title:
  Help users who have started the installer in the wrong efi/bios mode

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I recently tried to do a fresh install of Kubuntu 20.04 over the top
  of an existing installation.

  sda - Windows install
  sdb - Windows spinning disk
  sdc - Linux disk, partitioned into / and /home

  Because I didn't want to trash /home, I had to choose manual
  partitioning. I set sdc1 to be formatted ext4 and mounted at /, set
  sdc2 to be mounted as /home, and set the boot loader to be installed
  on sdc. I'm not convinced the partitioning part is relevant.

  After the installation finished and I rebooted, I was presented with a
  grub terminal, nothing else.

  I eventually realised that I had booted the usb stick into bios mode
  (this was the first entry I found), and when I repeated the
  installation with it booted into uefi mode everything worked.

  I don't know anything about the details of bios/uefi, so this may be a
  stupid question, but is there any way that the installer could have
  figured out that I was doing something wrong and given me a hint
  before I rebooted to a grub console? I haven't tested with automatic
  partitioning, maybe that works better, but booting to a blank grub
  console is a pretty harsh outcome for the installer.

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