[SOLVED]Question about UEFI

wycero · 2022-07-11 18:09:34

EDIT:
1. Lenovo BIOS error 2100 IS a hardware error.

The same error has also reported by Windows users.

The ThinkPad system may experience a bluescreen that may only appear for a very short time, followed by a reboot. During POST, the system will display a POST 2100 error code indicating the drive cannot be initialized.

When this error occurs, the drive is(or at least appears to be) physically detached. It's not that it's unbootable or anything.

The only difference is that as we're in a live environment, local disk failure won't take the system down immediately, but it will only break the installer. Most likely the error wasn't caused by installation but happened on installation by coincidence.

2.There's no officially recognized 'GUI installer'.
I wrongly assumed that there was one. My apologies.

3. For questions about EFI, see replies. Community answers are helpful.

As for my own computer, I installed it with Manjaro and it's functioning well. Maybe I'll switch back to Arch when I'm more familiar with EFI. Marked as solved.

ORIGINAL POST:

I just bought a new computer(and sold my old one) but I've heard a lot about the bad news with EFI and Microsoft. It's said that:
- Secure boot stops users from installing Linux. (it can be turned off on that model)
- Windows keeps overriding EFI, forcing it to load Windows' own bootloader.
- all sorts of news like this

The computer I bought was Lenovo Thinkpad P15V.

I tried to install Linux on it, it went like this:

First I tried to install Debian, it went well, except for some firmware problems.
Then I tried Arch(for its uptodate kernel and the nonfree firmware I might need), it worked perfectly well.
Then I tried to install Arch again(to configure whole-partition encryption), and this was when the disaster happened. I used a GUI installer. The 'formatting disk' stage went pretty well. The 'extracting packages' stage hung up forever. When I tried to close the installer and start it over, the installer reported that there was no local disk to install. I thought it was an installer bug, so I rebooted the computer but I was proved wrong. The BIOS reported that it could not find any disk(error code 2100) and no matter how hard I tried(and the customer service tried) it just wouldn't work.

I took my device to the customer service, but they could not fix the problem with any software interaction and they believed that it was most likely a hardware problem. They promised me to change it for another one of the same model, which will arrive tommorrow. So I have no access to the device for now.

My question is:
Is this a pure hardware problem?
Or does it have anything to do with EFI configurarion?
Or what about some Microsoft conspiracy?

Please forgive me if my question sounds silly, but seriously I do not know anything about EFI. Also I'm a paranoid kind of person.

Another extra question: if I run legacy BIOS-based operating systems with UEFI+CSM, will there still need to be an EFI partition on the disk?

Last edited by wycero (2022-07-12 09:52:27)

Slithery · 2022-07-11 18:16:27

Arch doesn't have a GUI installer.

d_fajardo · 2022-07-11 18:18:27

I used a GUI installer.

Which GUI installer did you use?

ewaller · 2022-07-11 18:26:34

wycero wrote:

Is this a pure hardware problem?

Probably not a hardware problem at all.

Or does it have anything to do with EFI configuration?

Perhaps, in part.

Or what about some Microsoft conspiracy?

No.

if I run legacy BIOS-based operating systems with UEFI+CSM, will there still need to be an EFI partition on the disk?

Not sure I understand. If you run in legacy mode to boot an MBR system, no. But I don't recommend it.

As to uEFI paranoia, when it first appeared, there was legitimate concern that secure boot would/could be used to prevent "non-approved" operating systems. That has not materialized.
What does happen is some manufacturers create inexcusably poor implementations of uEFI whose sole virtue is that they can convince Microsoft Windows to start.

As for your problem, now you see why "Some GUI installers" are not supported by Arch Linux.
Read this : https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide

Build your install media and boot from it. Then, check your system with lsblk and see what disk drives are found by Linux. and get back to us.

Edit: By the way, my guess is that the drive was repartitioned as an MBR drive and the BIOS is looking for a drive with a GPT partion table and an EFI partition to build its boot options. It is not that there is no disk, there is no disk it knows how to read because some brain dead unsupported installer made a terrible assumption.

Last edited by ewaller (2022-07-11 18:37:33)

wycero · 2022-07-11 18:37:21

From here:
https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/os … linux-gui/

I did install Arch Linux with command line before on virtual machines, but I don't dare do it on a physical computer.

I thought it was official, since it's listed on mirror sites. I didn't expect it.

Sorry but I cannot run lsblk. The computer is in customer service's hands.

(They tried to reset EFI settings. No luck.)

ewaller · 2022-07-11 18:38:24

I was editing while you were posting. See my edit above

wycero · 2022-07-11 18:40:37

I didn't recreate partition table.

ewaller · 2022-07-11 18:44:34

wycero wrote:

I didn't recreate partition table.

Are you sure? Not questioning you as much as I question the installer program. Did you perhaps remove the EFI partition?

wycero · 2022-07-11 18:50:26

The fact is that neither boot menu nor installation media could detect it. I didn't run lsblk but I did run fdisk -l. No sign of the disk. It all appeared that the disk doesn't exist at all.

d_fajardo · 2022-07-11 18:53:10

No sign of the disk. It all appeared that the disk doesn't exist at all.

Have you tried checking if the disk is at least registering in the BIOS?

ewaller · 2022-07-11 18:56:50

Very well. No harm in trying it again on a new system. What could possibly go wrong? [Note, as English is not assumed to be a first language, let me point out that is dripping with sarcasm. Please do not try it again with that installer]

My belief is that the drive on the old system is fine and would show up in the install environment. I would think that was worth a try.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-07-11 18:09:34

[SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#2 2022-07-11 18:16:27

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#3 2022-07-11 18:18:27

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#4 2022-07-11 18:26:34

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#5 2022-07-11 18:37:21

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#6 2022-07-11 18:38:24

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#7 2022-07-11 18:40:37

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#8 2022-07-11 18:44:34

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#9 2022-07-11 18:50:26

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#10 2022-07-11 18:53:10

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

#11 2022-07-11 18:56:50

Re: [SOLVED]Question about UEFI

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