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I am having problems with 24.04. I have the disk partitioned so that Ubuntu can be overwritten without disturbing the user data in /home. I think I have filled in the information correctly, but the Next button remains grayed out.

partitioning

This is a continuation, after on my laptop I agreed to an upgrade from 23.10 to 24.04. The upgrade succeeded but I now prefer a clean 24.04 so I tried to reinstall using the disk on key. In BIOS I can choose the EFI device as well as the mounting priorities. It turns out that the EFI order dominates. If I choose the EFI device to be the disk on key, and leave the original mounting order of the hard disk as top priority, it will boot to the disk on key. The problem is that it fails to find the grub loaded on the disk on key. I noticed a message which came up saying that it couldn't find the grub loader. It was VERY slow going from one stage to the next in progressing through the disk on key software. After trying to load extra programs for the Internet and multimedia software, it finally came up with an error saying something had gone wrong, but it didn't know what it was. My guess is that it is connected to the previous error of not finding a grub loader. This could make some sense if you look at the GParted in the previous answer, which on that machine had a special partition for the grub loader, and that machine didn't have the "Sorry something went wrong", message.

To try and make some progress, in BIOS I disabled EFI. Now it was only a single list of priorities for the boot choice, and I chose the disk on key. The initial screen was now much faster, but the progress from one step to another was not improved. Here again finally came up the error message that something went wrong and we don't know what it is.

I would be grateful for other peoples' experience so I could finally get back control over my disk content. I would like a clean install of 24.04 which leaves my /home partition untouched. This what I have been doing for many years.

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  • You might also have to set up and format the Swap partition. If you checked the Format box, does it allow you to click "Next"? Another possibility is that Ubuntu 24.04 is stll sort of new and maybe it could be a bug with the installer. Indeed, everything else you've done looks fine.
    – Ray
    Commented May 6 at 9:21
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    Interestingly it checked the /boot part on its own. I didn't even have to check format on the ubuntu partition, which surprised me. (I obviously WANTED to check it there!) I tried to check it on the swap, but it wouldn't allow it. (It didn't bother me because the swap is constantly being overwritten. I am wondering if maybe I should try changing /boot to /boot/efi? (if it allows me to do so)
    – Ilan
    Commented May 6 at 9:32
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    Do not confuse a /boot partition that must be Linux formatted with an ESP - efi system partition which is for UEFI boot and must be FAT32. ESP normally has esp,boot flags. A /boot is often used with servers and LVM volumes or full drive encryption. Normally /boot partition not required otherwise. The boot flag used to be for BIOS boot with Windows or syslinux on MBR drives. But some older systems want to see a boot flag.
    – oldfred
    Commented May 6 at 13:22

1 Answer 1

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I finally found my answer. Let me start by saying the initial upgrade to 23.10 was a nightmare. I desperately wanted to return to 23.04 and to do so I had to add another partition which had nothing but a tiny grub loader in it.

I decided to experiment on the machine where I had all my troubles going back to 23.04. In order to make it go the "magic" was when choosing /boot from sda1, I changed /boot to /boot/efi. Then it agreed to progress by making the Next button available. Not only that, but it also automatically set the format check mark for both /boot/efi and /.

24.04 cleaned up the mess from 23.10 but you do need to manually add the /efi tag. I have still to progress to the end of the upgrade but I am happy with what I see.

Some time has passed and there is an update to the boot loader which you must use. After that it will work. Just a crucial note: you MUST have the live USB connected directly to the computer. Going through a USB extender will start to work correctly, but much slower, and will eventually end with "Sorry something went wrong".

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