UEFI boot - how to make it right

PauseUser · 2014-07-09 13:00:15

I want to start using arch linux on my new laptop, however I am having problems with UEFI part.
I have 2 questions:

1. How to boot UEFI correctly?
I start installation using bootable USB, try to run:

efivar -l

But get no valid result.
Moreover, there is no directory efi in /sys/firmware.
I tried to solve this by selecting different boot mode (default is legacy, tried UEFI hybrid (with csm) and native (without csm)), but using those options I couldn't boot from the USB key.
I am aware that there are UEFI requirements listed in wiki, but don't know how to edit them (e.g., Kernel processor bitness/arch and EFI processor bitness/arch should match).

2. Most of the installation guides on the internet don't mention anything about UEFI System partition. They just create root,home,swap. But wiki suggests to create another partition for UEFI. Is this "a must"? If so, is UEFI partition created the same way as root,swap partitions?

Note: there is only DOS on my laptop and I am going to run only arch linux.

xero · 2014-07-09 13:42:24

boot into the bios and make sure the "secure boot" is enabled.

along with the wiki guides, i used these two articles to help me install arch on my uefi laptop:
http://rodyaj.github.io/2014/01/31/comp … gummiboot/
http://www.jorisvandijk.com/2014/01/18/ … pt-system/

i used #1 more, but there's good info the #2 as well.

mrunion · 2014-07-09 13:53:24

@xero: Did you actually mean

xero wrote:

boot into the bios and make sure the "secure boot" is enabled.

or did you mean disabled. I always thought it should be disabled.

surfatwork · 2014-07-09 17:39:22

0. Go into your UEFI and ensure that UEFI boot mode is set, and secure boot is disabled.
1. Download gparted and burn it to a usb disk. Insert into laptop and boot it up
2. Delete any existing partitions on your harddisk. Create a new partition table of type gpt, then a FAT32 partition, 512MB. Name it "EFI" (since this is the first partition, it will be /dev/sda1). Set the boot flag for this partition.
3. At this point, you could also create your root and home partitions of type ext4 (/dev/sda2 as root and /dev/sda3 as home).
4. Download arch iso, burn to usb disk and follow the arch installation guide. If you did (3), then you wont need to partition again using the command line and can just specify /dev/sda2 as root and sda3 as home.

Edit: if you dont have an SSD, or you want to hibernate, then you may want to also create a swap partition when creating your root and home partitions

Last edited by surfatwork (2014-07-09 17:40:28)

xero · 2014-07-17 20:31:26

yeah, i did mean disabled. sorry, but upon reading some more, you can do it w/ or w/o secure boot now. when the error occurs the arch iso will load the hash tool and go from there:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … ecure_Boot

Arch Linux

#1 2014-07-09 13:00:15

UEFI boot - how to make it right

#2 2014-07-09 13:42:24

Re: UEFI boot - how to make it right

#3 2014-07-09 13:53:24

Re: UEFI boot - how to make it right

#4 2014-07-09 17:39:22

Re: UEFI boot - how to make it right

#5 2014-07-17 20:31:26

Re: UEFI boot - how to make it right

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