I was able to fix this issue the following way. Apparently, my motherboard (ASUS M5A97 EVO R2.0) can boot a USB drive in two ways:
1) using UEFI 2) using the standard way (BIOS?) I originally booted the Ubuntu 14.04 USB installation drive using UEFI (I didn't realize there would be a difference), and this caused the installation of GRUB to fail at the end of the installation step, and being met with a GRUB prompt when booting the system after installation. Mind you, I'm not using UEFI to boot the installed system (as far as I can tell). Perhaps this is the reason it didn't work. After realizing this, I booted the Ubuntu 14.04 installation USB stick using the regular BIOS (not UEFI), and everything proceeded without problems, and I'm writing this from my newly installed Ubuntu 14.04 system. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1305116 Title: Installation fails when installing GRUB to disk To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1305116/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
