[chbot] Just a Little Linux Install Question...

[Henry Ford]

I want to wean myself off Windows, if possible. So I bought a low end laptop last week, I plugged in a Linux Lime Live USB stick and everything worked, even the sound and GPU, all something of a surprise after numerous failures over the past 20+ years of random attempts. Filled with enthusiasm and hope, I proceeded to install it on the laptop. I did not select the dual boot option, and Secure Boot was turned off in the BIOS. The installation failed telling me "Unable to install GRUB in /dev/nvme0n1"

For the record, the laptop is an Acer Aspire Core Ultra 5 125H.

I tried using another USB ISO maker package thing (Balena Etcher first, then Rufus...) because a couple of forums told others this might help, and then I tried changing various things in the BIOS again based on some forum suggestions to others with similar sounding problems. I also tried partitioning and reformatting the SSD (512GB...which I think is actually an NVMe card, but does it matter?) but nothing helped. I got the same error message. 

The installer seems to get a long way through the process before that message comes up. It also asked me on the next try if it should replace the existing Linux Lime installation so it appears to be able to see the SSD. It just can't quite finish the job.

So then I tried another distro (Fedora Workstation) which once again worked beautifully in the Live USB version. But, when installing it, I got what I think is a similar error message: "Failed to remove old efi boot entry. This is most likely a kernel or firmware bug"

Huh.

At this point, I'm dazed and confused. My BIOS setup screens are now somewhat different from their original config, I've dug around the usual forum sites and tried a number of things, and I am wondering what to do/try next. For example, this issue may be related to:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=292045 (I tried some ideas from here but I've stopped short of their idea of doing a manual install of GRUB in.... well, where ever it says is a good idea...), or/and
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/724675/

Well, to conclude, given everything works so nicely with the live versions, I feel like I'm really close to success but the last little bit of the solution is just eluding me. Or that Linux is just an evil temptress urging me on with "You're almost there, buddy" while edging me closer to the precipice of Utter Doom and Despair.

Suggestions, please? (Apart from "Give up", "Get an Apple", and "Stick with Windows")

Cheers
Andrew W