Major issues installing Linux Mint.

[Jennadi]

Ok. I first should say that this system has Secure Boot as a function.
Also, if this is in the wrong section please tell me and I'll move it to where it should be.

I'm trying to put Linux Mint (But Windows 10 if Mint won't work) on this laptop. It is an ASUS X555LA Model.
It originally had Windows 8.
First, before doing anything, I made a drive image in case things went awry.
Then I formatted the drive.
I burned Linux Mint 18 to a DVD and proceeded to install it.
It seemed to go well until I used "sudo apt-get upgrade" It gave me a notification saying "Secure Boot is not enabled" after it finished.
Upon restarting the computer I was taken straight to the UEFI screen.
The UEFI didn't recognize the hard drive anymor.
I took the hard drive out to verify that it was still working, and it was.

The next day, I used Rufus to burn Mint to a USB drive and try again.
Same thing.
I tried again but didn't upgrade it. Same thing.
Now, at this point, I deleted the secure boot variables and disabled it to try and get it to work.
No success.
I then re-enabled Secure Boot, but it wouldn't recognize the hard drive.
I tried turning it off and trying a different version of Mint (18.3). Didn't work.
Then for whatever reason, with secure boot on it recognized the hard drive and let me install Mint.
And on a restart, I went straight back to the UEFI screen. Every. Single. Time.
I've tried different Secure Boot settings, I've even tried building my own Boot keys using a guide made by the Linux Mint community.
(https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2360)
That made things even worse.
Also, thinking it could be a hard drive issue, I swapped hard drives.
No Dice. Same troubles.

So, having temporarily given up on Mint I try Windows 10...
Every time I try to install it, it either freezes, takes forever, or gives an error...Here's some of the errors:
0x80300002
0x80070057
I don't need help troubleshooting these errors, as much as I need help with this whole mess.
I've tried formatting the drives every which way to Sunday, tried different partition tables, tried different flash drives
I even tried burning Windows to a DVD, which failed before the installer even came up.
I also tried the same stuff with Windows as I did with Mint. MEssing with Secure Boot variables, turning it on and off...

And I'm nowhere, except at my wit's end with this.
If there's something I need to include please tell me, I have no idea what to do, besides chucking the Pc out the window.

I'm out of ideas, so any advice/tips would be fantastic.

 

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

Can the HDD be recognized on other PCs?

[Jennadi]

Yep. Both drives I'm using can.

 

[paddy-stone]

OK, try set to defaults, F11 (<- ignore this I mis-remembered, lol) I believe, set secure boot OFF, and try again... make sure the USB is set to use UEFI and GPT partition scheme, I use rufus for this BTW usually. Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

[Jennadi]

12 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

OK, try set to defaults, F11 (<- ignore this I mis-remembered, lol) I believe, set secure boot OFF, and try again... make sure the USB is set to use UEFI and GPT partition scheme, I use rufus for this BTW usually. Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Hard drive isn't recognized by GParted using this method... I got it to work, by modifying a few BIOS settings and was able to install Mint..But on reboot it took me straight back to the UEFI setup screen.

 

[Jennadi]

12 hours ago, bob51zhang said:

Can the HDD be recognized on other PCs?

Yep both drives are recognized on other PCs. I realized I should have quoted, instead of replying on the post.. My bad.

[paddy-stone]

43 minutes ago, Jennadi said:

Hard drive isn't recognized by GParted using this method... I got it to work, by modifying a few BIOS settings and was able to install Mint..But on reboot it took me straight back to the UEFI setup screen.

 

That sounds to me like you don't have the laptop in UEFI mode, or that the install wasn't done in UEFI.. so it results in the UEFI setup screen coming on as it can't find the boot partition. Did you use rufus and make sure it says UEFI/GPT partition scheme?

You can install mint without UEFI, but I believe the troubles you are having stem from the secure boot not being disabled before trying to install that first time.. but I could be wrong.

[Jennadi]

1 hour ago, paddy-stone said:

That sounds to me like you don't have the laptop in UEFI mode, or that the install wasn't done in UEFI.. so it results in the UEFI setup screen coming on as it can't find the boot partition. Did you use rufus and make sure it says UEFI/GPT partition scheme?

You can install mint without UEFI, but I believe the troubles you are having stem from the secure boot not being disabled before trying to install that first time.. but I could be wrong.

I tried installing it without the UEFI option, and I got the same exact result. I've taken the hard drive out and checked it on Windows multiple times, and it shows the partitions are there and they have Data in them, but I can't boot into Mint.  I've tried this with Secure Boot on and off. I've tried about every combination of Secure Boot Variables, Menu options, I even tried an OEM Mint install. Nothing seems to work... Wait.. Just though of this now. When I'm installing Mint, and I choose "Install Third-Party software" When I choose that, this mess happens, but when I don't choose it, I can (sometimes) boot into Mint. Then when I start installing software, and restart this mess happens again...

 

Ok..New development. I took out the hard drive and plugged it into my old laptop to see if Mint installed properly. It booted straight into Mint without any errors, so I know it installed properly. So what gives?

[paddy-stone]

It's almost definitely your UEFI settings IMO. Check to see if there's an option to ONLY have UEFI instaed of UEFI+CSM... also you should be able to F11 and choose the HDD with mint. Also check your boot options.

[Jennadi]

3 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

It's almost definitely your UEFI settings IMO. Check to see if there's an option to ONLY have UEFI instaed of UEFI+CSM... also you should be able to F11 and choose the HDD with mint. Also check your boot options.

I've recreated my entire BIOS in a text document, because there would be way too many images to look at, so given what options I have, what should I do?

BIOS Text Recreation.txt

[martward]

It's been a while since I have installed it, but I vaguely remember that it did matter whether your USB was booted in Legacy mode or UEFI mode when installing ( if I open the boot menu the USB is shown twice). So maybe you could have a look at the USB mode in the bios (it says legacy mode supported now I believe). 

Also try disabling fast boot. That used to cause troubles with Linux, not sure if it still does but good to get out of the way for troubleshooting.

[paddy-stone]

8 hours ago, Jennadi said:

I've recreated my entire BIOS in a text document, because there would be way too many images to look at, so given what options I have, what should I do?

BIOS Text Recreation.txt

Turn off secure boot again

 

Did you put the installer USB how I said before?  UEFI/GPT?

 

[Jennadi]

9 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Turn off secure boot again

 

Did you put the installer USB how I said before?  UEFI/GPT?

 

I turned Secure Boot off by deleting the PK BIOS Variable, then I used Rufus to write to the USB drive, with UEFI/GPT in both NTFS and FAT32. NTFS went to a minimal grub loader, FAT32 got to the install screen. I again selected to install 3rd party software (It reboots fine when I don't do this, but when I go to install software it breaks.) The hard drive is also using GPT, but I cleaned and converted it using DiskPart in command prompt. So I installed Mint without a problem, but on reboot I was again taken back to the UEFI screen. (I also tried to reimage the drive using the initial image, and boot into that, it didn't work.) So this computer is a brick if I can't get something to work. I should probably mention that this is a friend's spare laptop they asked me to put Linux on it, they preferred Mint. I also tried a Debian based Linux, Parrot 3.11 Home, but GRUB wouldn't install properly. And a Windows 10 install errors about not being able to create a partition.  

[paddy-stone]

3 hours ago, Jennadi said:

I turned Secure Boot off by deleting the PK BIOS Variable, then I used Rufus to write to the USB drive, with UEFI/GPT in both NTFS and FAT32. NTFS went to a minimal grub loader, FAT32 got to the install screen. I again selected to install 3rd party software (It reboots fine when I don't do this, but when I go to install software it breaks.) The hard drive is also using GPT, but I cleaned and converted it using DiskPart in command prompt. So I installed Mint without a problem, but on reboot I was again taken back to the UEFI screen. (I also tried to reimage the drive using the initial image, and boot into that, it didn't work.) So this computer is a brick if I can't get something to work. I should probably mention that this is a friend's spare laptop they asked me to put Linux on it, they preferred Mint. I also tried a Debian based Linux, Parrot 3.11 Home, but GRUB wouldn't install properly. And a Windows 10 install errors about not being able to create a partition.  

Ahh I see... I only mentioned the secure boot again, as in the bios text you posted it still said secure boot was on.

This is very weird. Just for testing, try a Ubuntu distro will you, want to see if it's only doing this with mint.

[Jennadi]

5 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Ahh I see... I only mentioned the secure boot again, as in the bios text you posted it still said secure boot was on.

This is very weird. Just for testing, try a Ubuntu distro will you, want to see if it's only doing this with mint.

I tried Ubuntu Mate, and I got the same result.. Now, I'm going to try something crazy. I'm going to install Mint with secure boot disabled, not install third party software then on reboot(hopefully) I'll make my own system keys.

 

Edit: Nevermind. It failed to reboot into the installed OS.