Install issues with Zorin 16.2

[strob]

I am having issues installing Zorin. I have a 2 disk machine and I am installing Zorin on one partition on the second disk which is dedicated to my Linux partitions.

The install process goes fine with no errors. However, upon the reboot, all of the Zorin installed grub menu entries, I receive the following console error:

Loading Linux 5.15.0-58-generic ...
error: symbol 'grub_efi_allocate_pages_max' not found.
Loading initial ramdisk ...
error: you need to load the kernel first.

There seems to be conflicting install instructions. Before my install I read the install instructions on the official referenced help site here:

Manually Partition the Drive to Install Zorin OS

On that page, under #7 it states:

"Do not select a specific partition in the drop-down menu (with a drive identifier ending in a number, like “/dev/sda3**”)."**

So naturally I selected the device /dev/sda. But this results in the error results mentioned above. Note: the install partition is, in this case /dev/sda8 is marked with ext4 with mount point /. Another is partition is swap and of course, /dev/sda1, the /boot/efi which is recognized by the installer when double-clicked.

I've rechecked the process a few times now but still getting errors.

Now I see there is another guide referenced here from the forum:

[HOW TO] Partition & Install Zorin 16

This step-by-step guide will allow you to partition your hard drive (HDD, SSD, NVMe) so that installation goes a little more smoothly. This will work for a multi-boot system as well, but you will have to resize your Windows partition first and you will be using the Windows Boot Manager EFI partition instead of creating one. Otherwise, partitioning is pretty much the same. Please be sure to perform the steps in Before You Install prior to attempting any of these changes. Mistakes and rushing …

About half way down it states to use the device /dev/sda1 where presumably the /boot/efi is installed. This is not the partition the official guide
indicates to use as the boot loader device.

The question remains who is correct about the boot loader device?

[337harvey]

There have been issues with the automatic creation (essential what is happening) of the grub efi partition. It will attempt to add to an existing efi partition, but may require you to create and choose that partition for it to work properly. You should be able to utilize one efi partition for grub. I did this by overwriting the existing windows boot manager (similar to grub). If you do this, it will overwrite any existing data in the boot partition, but grub will search for and list all available OSs.

If you place the boot partition on disk 2 it will only be accessed when you boot from that disk. If you add it to disk one, you will get a list of all OSs that are bootable.

I understand the confusion, they are both correct. The difference being allowing the installer to modify or create the efi boot partition automatically. If one method doesn't work, attempt the other. There is always more than one way to accomplish things in a computer.

[strob]

Thanks for that. Selecting boot device as /dev/sdaX didn't work either. The menu created by Zorin is again completely hosed - useless.

But I got in by opening my Fedora install and reinstalling grub. It picked up the Zorin partition, listed it, and now I can boot Zorin via that menu. I must say that I am not impressed, so far. There is something definitely wrong with the way Z's installer is installing grub on bare metal. I don't think there is anything complicated about my setup. I can imagine people getting annoyed with it and moving on.

I shall continue to assess it and if I want to keep using it. My cautious flags are up, though.

Thanks.

[swarfendor437]

@strob Please bear in mind not everyone will be running multiple GNU/Linux installations. For me personally I stick with one GNU/Linux (for me it is Devuan 3.1.1) and any other OS I use Virt Manager within Devuan as for me it gives the best appearance of a bare metal install.