Well I ran into the grub install error during ubuntu install. Had to run around lot of hoops, installed boot repair etc. My learnings captured here for benefit of community.
1. Make sure secure boot is off in the bios. Sorry I do not know how to install with UEFI, I generally have only ubuntu and no dual boot.
2. Make sure the start of the disk has a 200MB Fat 32 partition with boot flag set.
3. Make sure there is a partition of 200 MB set with flag of boot_grub set.
All of these can be done using gparted prior to doing the install.
Hope this helps some poor soul out there like me to debug the issue.
