[Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

yossarianuk · 2012-06-22 16:10:03

Hi

I am really struggling getting Arch to install in UEFI mode.

I have read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Interface - however I still don;t know what i'm doing....

I have Fedora17 installed in UEFI mode already, my partition layout is

/dev/sda1 /boot/EFI
/dev/sda2 /boot
/dev/sda3 Swap
/dev/sda4 /

What steps do I have top do to get UEFI to work for Arch?

- Do I have to extract and re-master the arch iso to include EFI/UEFI?
- Do I have to create another EFI partition (as I already have one for Fedora17?

- I tried to install the install disk and it could see 2 of every partition (which suggests it wasn't working..)

Any help will be welcomed

Cheers

Last edited by yossarianuk (2012-06-25 13:19:54)

Šaran · 2012-06-22 19:18:11

Official iso won't work, you need iso from here.
No remastering is necessary, just extract iso to fat32 usb drive or burn it to cd.
You don't need another efi partition, dual boot with uefi is much simpler than what you're used to. Arch install will add new entry in boot menu, next to fedora. Also make sure to set mount point for efi part at /boot/efi.

DSpider · 2012-06-22 19:42:49

Exactly. You don't need two /boot partitions.

And with 2 GB+ RAM you don't need a swap partition either. For hibernation you can use a swapfile.

Use either Archboot or one of the "daily" snapshots from the Download page.

cfr · 2012-06-22 22:50:43

If your machine can boot in BIOS legacy mode, you *can* use the regular iso if you wish. But I'm not sure why you would wish to. (I used the regular iso and use UEFI mode but I didn't know about ArchBoot.)

yossarianuk · 2012-06-23 08:18:29

Thanks for the responses - Very helpful !

I though archboot was a reference to the standard install .iso (so thats one confusion solved).

> If your machine can boot in BIOS legacy mode, you *can* use the regular iso if you wish

- Can I do that on a disk that already has UEFI? I know if I wipe the disk and use DOS partitioning the standard cd would work - will it work if I already have a UEFI/GPT disk ? How would i boot?
- i.e can a disk boot from mbr (standard) and UEFI at the same time ?

If I had posted this question at any other forum i'm sure the answers would not have been as useful.

Thank you to everybody !

Šaran · 2012-06-23 20:52:26

Just stick to uefi. Using bios doesn't make any sense although you could boot from gpt disk.
You would need new 1 MB unformated partition for grub2 image.
Booting from both bios and uefi is not possible.

yossarianuk · 2012-06-25 07:43:18

Now i am confused....

First time i tried to install I managed to break the existing Fedora UEFI install - I was left with an unbootable system....

I then reinstall FC17 (in UEFI) then managed to get Arch install in non UEFI mode - i just installed using Archboot - did not install a bootloader - then after install chrooted, installed grub2 and did grub-install /dev/sda

Now I could choose between UEFI (at boot time - its 100% in UEFI mode..) and booting from disk (mbr???) - I also install ubuntu in non UEFI mode and could boot that - so i could choose between uefi and normal grub (assuming mbr)

Seeing as I already had UEFI installed via Fedora17 what SHOULD I have done to install arch via UEFI ?

i.e should i NOT have installed a boot loadeder?

Any steps/help would be welcomed - on the brink of just giving up with UEFI

Šaran · 2012-06-25 08:17:17

First time you broke fedora because you was using standard iso without uefi support.
Second time with arch you installed bootloader to mbr - most certainly this wasn't uefi install.
After this I have no idea what you have done

Now let's start fresh - how to install arch in uefi mode:
Make sure your disk has gpt partition table - if you went back to mbr, it very easy to format to gpt and create partitions with gparted
live cd. Efi partition should have boot flag active.
Download tpowas's archboot iso and just extract it to usb - using dd won't work for uefi.
When you boot, run "ls -1 /sys/firmware/efi/vars/ls -1". If there is output, uefi boot was successful.
At mountpoints setup step, mount efi partition at /boot/EFI.
Everything is same as in bios mode until the install bootloader step. Make sure you choose uefi bootloader
and x64 grub2 if you want to go with grub (for other options read wiki). Installing bootloader might fail - if it does
exit setup and chroot (don't forget mounting efi part). Install grub2 following these instructions.
And this shuld do it!

yossarianuk · 2012-06-25 13:18:25

Thanks Saran..

Inspired by your post I wiped and re-installed - this time Arch(boot) first - I now have Arch in UEFI mode!!

There were a few odd issues with the installer - It couldn't find any packages (at all) unless I used a network mirror - i.e non on the usb stick... and /etc/fstab was blank - I had to add all drives manually (usually installer does that) - but it worked fine.

I then installed Fedora 17 - I set it to auto install (blank space) - it created another EFI partition - but this also works (in UEFI mode).

Now - I just have to work out how to get Ubuntu to install in UEFI....

Cheers

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-22 16:10:03

[Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

#2 2012-06-22 19:18:11

Re: [Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

#3 2012-06-22 19:42:49

Re: [Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

#4 2012-06-22 22:50:43

Re: [Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

#5 2012-06-23 08:18:29

Re: [Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

#6 2012-06-23 20:52:26

Re: [Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

#7 2012-06-25 07:43:18

Re: [Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

#8 2012-06-25 08:17:17

Re: [Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

#9 2012-06-25 13:18:25

Re: [Solved] UEFI - Do I have to remake the arch .iso?

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