[SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

grine · 2011-07-10 08:30:50

EDIT: SOLVED!
Needed to upgrade my BIOS, which wasn't as easy as it sounded either.
Download .iso from lenovo, extract a .img from the iso and dd that onto a usb-drive.
Worked flawlessly.

Hey, I just got a Lenovo x220 with 2 drives in it, one mSATA SSD and one regular HDD.

My plan was to install /boot to he SSD for speed reasons.
I'm using the latest archboot iso as install media.

I've tried installing GRUB2, but there seem to be some issues with this:

UEFI on the x220 needs a kernel patch which is coming in 3.0, so this was ruled out for the time being.
GRUB2-BIOS did not start at all even when I installed it on only the HDD. Tried with bost msdos and gpt partition tables.

GRUB-LEGACY works if I keep the /boot partition on the HDD (/dev/sda), but if I put /boot on the SSD it doesn't find it.

The worst part is that I get no output when booting, it just stays black for a while and then continues on to USB-boot or tries to PXE before giving a useless boot-menu (none of the options work).

I can boot the Arch install from wherever if I use System Rescue CD and choose recover, so the install is fine, but something in GRUB or the BIOS is probably to blame.

Anyone else experienced something similar or know anything I could try?

Last edited by grine (2011-07-10 11:16:45)

olaf.the.lost.viking · 2011-07-19 12:43:26

Hi,

do you have more details about the needed patches for UEFI? Are they available for 2.6-kernels? What won't work without them?

And on the other hand: what do I gain with UEFI boot? Will it really be faster?

Thank you

dreamcwli · 2011-08-13 01:26:07

How do you extract img file from the iso file?
I have extract a img file from it and dd to usb disk but not bootable.

JamieKitson · 2011-10-11 21:57:15

Grine,

I seem to have the same problem as you, I have an X220 and I just cannot get it to boot from my (non-mSata) SSD. I've tried both UEFI (I have kernel 3.0) and BIOS and Grub2 and SysLinux, but no joy. Like you, I don't get any sort of error message, it just tries alternative media. Trouble is, I already have the latest BIOS, v1.21. Did Lenovo give you a special BIOS or did you just download the standard? Do you have any idea if my problem could be the same, or was your problem purely an mSata problem?

Thanks, Jamie

tanders12 · 2011-10-15 22:43:18

I have the same problem as Jamie. Also running 3.0 with BIOS v1.21. I've read everything the wiki has to say about GPT, SSD, GRUB2 and still no luck. If I use Super Grub2 Disk I can boot into my installation but the BIOS does not seem to be able to boot from a GPT partition. I installed Bodhi on a separate GPT partition on the same SSD and it has the same problem: no booting from BIOS or UEFI. So I think this is a x220 problem more than an Arch problem, but any ideas would be appreciated.

JamieKitson · 2011-10-16 06:21:19

I managed to get UEFI to boot by copying the grub.efi file to EFI_PARITION/efi/boot/bootx64.efi as described here:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/UEFI_Firmware

Once you've booted using UEFI you can then install it properly using efibootmgr. I do think there is a problem though, I cannot now boot my machine with Windows USB media, no matter what I do despite the fact I can boot using the same media on other systems.

tanders12 · 2011-10-17 05:53:33

EDIT2: youre officially my hero jamie. Turns out i rebooted and forgot to remount my efi partition to /boot/efi so when i created the bootx64.efi it wasn't working. Once i put it on the dorrect partition i was able to get to grub finally. Thanks a lot and i hope you get your windows usb booting.

EDIT: Still isn't working for me. Do I need to recompile the kernel with EFI options enabled or are they by default? All it does when I change it to EFI only mode is keep coming back to the EFI menu showing me my boot options. If I select my SSD it just immediately reloads that screen.

Is your windows USB set up for MBR or UEFI booting? If it's set for MBR and you changed the x220 to UEFI only that could be your problem. The link below explains how to set up a windows usb drive with UEFI support. I can't vouch for it since I'm not using windows. I'm sure you've already seen all this but just in case maybe it will help.

http://jake.io/b/2011/installing-window … -from-usb/

Last edited by tanders12 (2011-10-17 08:20:26)

JamieKitson · 2011-10-17 09:01:11

Glad to help. I am still investigating but I think at least part of my problem was that there's a BIOS setting to disable USB UEFI booting, which was set, but I have now managed to install windows I used these instructions, which are similar to the ones you linked to, but you do end up with a much more useful USB stick

https://gitorious.org/tianocore_uefi_du … I_boot_USB

EDIT: My findings:

i) the X220 cannot/will not boot GPT disks using Legacy BIOS. I would
call this a bug.
ii) the X220 will not boot /efi/*/*.efi unless "signed"(?) into BIOS,
you have to copy it to /efi/boot/bootx64.efi. I guess this is a
security feature, but I'm not sure how secure it is if you can bypass
it so easily.
iii) disabling the BIOS setting "USB UEFI BIOS Support" disables *all*
USB booting, ie, both UEFI and legacy BIOS. If this isn't a bug then
a) it at least needs relabelling, b) could be moved/linked to the boot
menu and c) is redundant as you can disable USB booting using the Boot
menu.

Last edited by JamieKitson (2011-10-17 19:39:08)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-10 08:30:50

[SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

#2 2011-07-19 12:43:26

Re: [SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

#3 2011-08-13 01:26:07

Re: [SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

#4 2011-10-11 21:57:15

Re: [SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

#5 2011-10-15 22:43:18

Re: [SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

#6 2011-10-16 06:21:19

Re: [SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

#7 2011-10-17 05:53:33

Re: [SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

#8 2011-10-17 09:01:11

Re: [SOLVED] Lenovo x220 won't start GRUB.

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