[SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

scossu · 2022-10-12 16:57:09

Hello,
I'm trying to revive a 2011 Lenovo ThinkPad laptop with an Arch installation, but the system I set up won't boot.

I have these facts:

- The BIOS is UEFI capable (2011), and is set to boot both UEFI and legacy, with priority given to UEFI.
- The main HD has a GPT label and is subdivided into a boot partition with "efi" and "boot" flags on it (parted) and formatted as fat32.
- I also have 3 other partitions (root, var, home) copied from another system via dd.
- I can successfully boot from an Arch live USB stick in EFI mode.
- Within the Arch live system, /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size shows a value of 64.
- Within the Arch live system I can mount the boot and other partitions on the HD. I installed GRUB via grub-install and configured it via grub-mkconfig. I also copied a recent kernel and microcode from another Arch system.
- When I am presented the BIOS boot device list, the main HD appears as an option (even if I set the BIOS to UEFI boot only). But selecting it gives me a black screen for a second or two, during which the disk is active, then it returns to the boot menu.
- I also tried to install a SSD with a complete Arch system that boots on a similarly old workstation, but that won't boot either.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for the help.
s

Last edited by scossu (2022-10-14 22:00:48)

Trilby · 2022-10-12 17:03:10

I feel like you're leaving out some details...

scossu wrote:

I installed GRUB via grub-install and configured it via grub-mkconfig. I also copied a recent kernel and microcode from another Arch system.

Why did you copy these rather than installing them properly? And I'd ask if you ran grub-mkconfig in the chroot, but I'm not sure you chrooted at all if you just copied a kernel and microcode without actually installing a base system.

scossu · 2022-10-12 17:21:10

I installed GRUB in a chroot.

To be sure, I also just reinstalled linux, linux-firmware and intel-ucode in chroot. Still same result.

Even if the kernel was wrong, wouldn't I at least get to the GRUB menu?

V1del · 2022-10-12 18:41:37

Post your exact grub-install command and the outputs of

mount
tree /boot

while in the environment you are running grub-install/grub-mkconfig in. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_o … n_services

scossu · 2022-10-12 19:02:44

Mounts: https://0x0.st/ovqq.txt
/boot tree: https://0x0.st/ovqb.txt
grub-install command:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB

V1del · 2022-10-12 19:21:32

Looks ok,

 efibootmgr -uv

? In doubt try rerunning that install command but add --removable to the end.

scossu · 2022-10-12 19:41:46

https://0x0.st/ovqU.txt

With --removable, the boot gets stuck on a black screen instead of returning to the BIOS boot menu.

I'm starting to suspect that something is wrong with the EFI support of the BIOS, but if it boots the flash drive I can't explain it.

Hardly a chance that it's the disk, since I can read the partitions and mount file systems.

I actually tried to set up the HD with MBR but that also fails.

I'd be sad to see a good old computer go to the trash and I'd salvage it if I could!

jonno2002 · 2022-10-13 02:50:46

this may help: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p2030843

cfr · 2022-10-14 01:57:58

Which UEFI firmware specifically? I had a hell of a job getting my 2011 ThinkPad to boot with the setup you're using.

How large is the EFI partition? Make sure it is at least 512M.

Last edited by cfr (2022-10-14 02:21:04)

scossu · 2022-10-14 21:59:42

It works now! Thanks!

cfr wrote:

Which UEFI firmware specifically? I had a hell of a job getting my 2011 ThinkPad to boot with the setup you're using.
How large is the EFI partition? Make sure it is at least 512M.

EFI is about 1Gb the UEFI version is 83ET63WW (1.33), 2011-07-29.

I think I understand your "hell of a job"... For some reason I had to redo several of the steps I did before. My BIOS doesn't boot up consistently (e.g. hitting F1 or F12 for BIOS / boot menus won't work after restarting, I have to pull the plug and battery and reboot).

So I rebooted on the Flash drive, reinstalled GRUB with the --removable option, rebooted, and this time I got a GRUB shell.

After booting the main system via the shell, I did a system update, grub-mkconfig, and it went back to normal.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-10-12 16:57:09

[SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#2 2022-10-12 17:03:10

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#3 2022-10-12 17:21:10

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#4 2022-10-12 18:41:37

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#5 2022-10-12 19:02:44

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#6 2022-10-12 19:21:32

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#7 2022-10-12 19:41:46

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#8 2022-10-13 02:50:46

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#9 2022-10-14 01:57:58

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

#10 2022-10-14 21:59:42

Re: [SOLVED] Booting older UEFI system

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