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Hi.
I installed Windows 7, Ubuntu 12.10 and Arch Linux (in that order) on a WD 1TB HDD using UEFI (Gigabyte Z77 motherboard) and GPT for the HDD. Everything worked fine.
Now ... when I use the Samsung SSD 840 PRO Serie (lastest firmware DXM04B0Q is on) and start installing Windows 7, the installer shows already that Windows 7 can't be installed on that disk because no MBR ... (can't remember the exact phrasing). But then, when I continue the installation, all works fine. EFI partition (100 MB), msftres partition (128 MB) and the Windows 7 partition is installed. Later on I proceed with Ubuntu and Arch Linux ... all works just fine!
GParted shows that the device uses GPT ... so all good!
But ... when I reboot the system, the UEFI Boot Manager doesn't show the SSD to be able to start using UEFI. It only shows the BIOS type entry.
The actually shown UEFI Boot Manager BIOS start entry is: "P0: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series"
The UEFI Boot Manager UEFI start entry should be: "UEFI: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series"
The second one, I don't see.
For the previously, for testing purpose used HDD, I saw:
The shown UEFI Boot Manager BIOS start entry is: "P2: WDC WD1000FYPS-01ZKB"
The shown UEFI Boot Manager UEFI start entry is: "UEFI: WDC WD1000FYPS-01ZKB"
That's the way it should be and also what I expected for the SSD to see.
Honestly, I have no clue where to start to look for the error.
Is it the motherboard UEFI firmware which doesn't support Samsung SSD UEFI start?
Is it the Samsung firmware?
Is it something I forgot / didn't know to do prior installing the OSs?
Any ideas?
Many thanks!
Last edited by geohei (2013-01-20 19:11:58)
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Have you marked the boot partition as bootable?
Last edited by oniichan (2013-01-20 19:48:10)
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Have you marked the boot partition as bootable?
On a GPT disk, you should mark only the EFI System Partition (ESP) as "bootable" in GParted; the libparted "boot flag" corresponds to the type code for the ESP. Chances are the ESP is already properly flagged, since Windows is installed -- the Windows installer would have done this.
Geohi, I recommend you download the Boot Info Script and run it. This will produce a file called RESULTS.txt. Post it here in code tags or post a link to it. This file will contain information on your partitions and boot loaders that may be helpful in diagnosing the source of your problem. Also, please post the output of the command "efibootmgr -v" when typed from an EFI-mode boot. Many emergency discs lack an EFI boot mode. Try using System Rescue CD or an Ubuntu disc in its "live CD" mode. For the latter, you'll need to install efibootmgr ("sudo apt-get install efibootmgr") and you'll need to precede the efibootmgr command with sudo ("sudo efibootmgr -v").
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AFAIK, you only need a boot partition while starting up in BIOS using GPT partition.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gru … _Partition
The EFI partition has the boot flag set.
The initial test installation on the HDD was done exactly the same way as for the SSD, but for some reason, the SSD doesn't show up as UEFI device in the Boot Manager.
I forgot to mention that the W7 as well as the Ubuntu installation (both installed in UEFI mode) went fine! I could start W7 using the "Windows Boot Manager" resp. the "ubuntu" entry from the UEFI Boot Manger. However the UEFI Boot Manager entry for SSD is missing.
Could it be some kind of BIOS setting which behaves differently when it comes to SSD as opposed to HDDs?
Here the requested data:
root@xxx:/home/geohei# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0008,0004,0007,0000,0009
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* ubuntu
Boot0004* Hard Drive
Boot0007* CD/DVD Drive
Boot0008* UEFI: ATAPI iHBS312 2
Boot0009* UEFI: USB USB Hard Drive
root@xxx:/home/geohei# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0008,0004,0007,0000,0009
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,800,32000,21ede089-890d-472c-b0d3-37535e350f6b)File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS...
Boot0001* ubuntu HD(1,800,32000,21ede089-890d-472c-b0d3-37535e350f6b)File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)
Boot0004* Hard Drive BIOS(2,0,00)AMGOAMNO....
Boot0007* CD/DVD Drive BIOS(3,0,00)AMGOAMNO......
Boot0008* UEFI: ATAPI iHBS312 2 ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(1f,2)03120a000400ffff0000CD-ROM(0,170,b40)AMBO
Boot0009* UEFI: USB USB Hard Drive ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(1a,0)USB(1,0)USB(2,0)HD(1,3f,1d1816c,0001c607)AMBOAnd gdisk (not requested, but possibly useful):
root@xxx:/home/geohei# gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5
Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 500118192 sectors, 238.5 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 7B0E6510-D248-42E6-BB41-8F1545A740BB
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 500118158
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 38279789 sectors (18.3 GiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 206847 100.0 MiB EF00 EFI system partition
2 206848 468991 128.0 MiB 0C01 Microsoft reserved part
3 468992 210184191 100.0 GiB 0700 Basic data partition
4 210184192 315041791 50.0 GiB 0700
5 315041792 419899391 50.0 GiB 0700
6 419899392 461840383 20.0 GiB 8200
Command (? for help): Boot Info Script will follow if still desired.
Thanks,
Last edited by geohei (2013-01-20 22:50:42)
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Unfortunately, some Gigabyte boards come with EFI boot managers that are so limited that they're useless. Ordinarily, an EFI's built-in boot manager will show you the boot loaders that are registered with the firmware's NVRAM. Your efibootmgr output reveals that you have two EFI boot loaders registered, one for Windows and one for Ubuntu. Since you're not seeing them, my suspicion is that your boot manager is one of these very limited ones. You could try installing a boot loader as EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi on your ESP; that might make the boot loader at that location show up, but I can't make any promises. If nothing else, installing a boot loader there should make it launch by default, it nothing else launches because of NVRAM entries.
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Update ...
I ran one more test and installed Windows 7 again, and the error message that Windows 7 can't be installed on that SSD didn't reappear. No clue why!
But then, I kept on testing. I noticed that "UEFI: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series" showed after Windows 7 was installed AND the BIOS was reflashed (same firmware version, F14). When I selected "UEFI: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series", Windows 7 started properly. However when rebooting, I noticed that the "UEFI: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series" entry in UEFI Boot Manager was replaced by "Windows Boot Manager".
So in fact, what I described in the previous article seems to be normal.
I don't have deep knowledge about the UEFI Boot Manager mechanisms, but the replacement of the SSD UEFI entry seems to be done on purpose by the Windows 7 boot loader.
Hence, I believe I can safely use the system as it is now, without any worries about UEFI/GPT incompatibilities.
Thanks for your help!
Last edited by geohei (2013-01-21 14:28:18)
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