[EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

nTia89 · 2012-07-22 21:19:38

hi,

i have a serious problem:

latest (2012.07.15) archiso version, downloaded via torrent and burned on a CD doesn't work on my macbook
(2,1). a screen:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/28aeok0op0i3o … .49.31.jpg

i boot the CD (despite archiso should be EFI-ready) from the efi shell (pressing the ALT key) in BIOS-compatible mode (could be this the problem?) and after one or two seconds the above screen appears but the system stop respond. the only solution is hard-reboot the macbook through POWER button

any idea on how fix it ?

EDIT: macbook EFI is 32-bit
EDIT2: opened the bug: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/30804

Last edited by nTia89 (2012-07-23 16:57:53)

cfr · 2012-07-22 22:05:28

It might be nice to link to the bug you opened so people can find it.

I'm not sure about the BIOS-compatibility bit. Can your macbook boot that way? Do macs have a BIOS compatibility mode and, if so, is it enabled on your machine?

Note: I have zero experience with intel macs. On my PC, I can set the machine to boot UEFI only or BIOS only or both with UEFI first or both with BIOS first.

Pierre · 2012-07-22 22:07:52

I am not sure, but it's possible only 64Bit UEFI is actually supported.

nTia89 · 2012-07-23 09:08:46

Yes, the bug is here:

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/30804

unfortunatly Pierre, you are right

nTia89 · 2012-07-23 16:57:31

updated. could be the lack of EFI 32-bit the problem.

now i'm try to hack the archiso source for generating an iso with EFI 32-bit support. i'm not an advanced programmer so any help is welcome!

cfr · 2012-07-23 21:59:43

OK. I have no idea if this is doable or not but have you considered installing or booting another version of Linux and installing Arch from that following the instructions on the wiki for installing from an existing Linux installation? I ask because I notice in the bug report you mentioned other distros booted OK.

I find it a bit odd that it isn't considered a bug that it doesn't work on your hardware unless that hardware really is unsupported. (If the installer crashed when booted from a thinkpad but other distros worked fine, would you get the same response, I wonder?) More charitably, they might just mean that they don't have access to similar hardware for testing or reproducing the bug and so aren't in a position to troubleshoot unless you can give them the diagnostic information they'd need.

Wonder if pacman works in Darwin...

djgera · 2012-07-23 23:25:21

Archiso does a process of join differents parts of software. If some of these parts fails on a particular firmware/hardware is not an Archiso bug.
What you need to do, is to research what is going bad, what of these parts does not work on your system. You can use this forum to get help if you do not know how to do this

Be more specific about what "crash" is message? black screen? at what point? do you see syslinux screen? do you see if Linux loads? at initramfs stage? do you boot in verbose mode? do you see a kernel panic? etc, etc...

nTia89 · 2012-07-24 07:59:18

@cfr: this is a good idea, but i want to solve this issue; is a matter of principle!

@djgera: with crash i mean the computer doesn't respond to external input. in this case keyboard doesn't work.

i haven't tried the latest ISO in a working computer, despite it, ISO crash at the earliest stage (i think it is the first because i don't see anything other): i hear mechanical loading of the CD and as result i get the screen linked in the first post. so i don't think arch really boot......

EDIT:
i'm try to use archiso. because i'm on x86_64 and i want to build a i686 iso i need a 32-bit environment. follow your tips (found in an old post):

sudo pacman -S devtools --needed
sudo linux32 mkarchroot /home/mattia/AAA base
sudo linux32 mkarchroot -r bash /home/mattia/AAA

then i follow archiso wiki:

pacman -S make git libisoburn squashfs-tools dosfstools rsync patch --needed
cd ~
git clone git://projects.archlinux.org/archiso.git
make -C ~/archiso/archiso install
mkdir ~/archlive
cp -r /usr/share/archiso/configs/releng/ ~/archlive
/build.sh -v build single netinstall

without hack the build.sh, just to see if works, but....i get this error:

[mkarchiso] INFO: Configuration settings
[mkarchiso] INFO:                   Command:   prepare
[mkarchiso] INFO:              Architecture:   i686
[mkarchiso] INFO:         Working directory:   work/i686
[mkarchiso] INFO:    Installation directory:   arch

[mkarchiso] INFO: Cleaning up what we can on root-image...
[mkarchiso] INFO: Done!
[mkarchiso] INFO: Target 'work/i686/iso/arch/i686/root-image.fs.sfs' does not exist, making it from 'work/i686/root-image'
[mkarchiso] INFO: Creating ext4 image of 657 MiB...
mke2fs 1.42.4 (12-June-2012)
Discarding device blocks: done                            
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
42048 inodes, 168192 blocks
0 blocks (0.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=176160768
6 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
7008 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
	32768, 98304, 163840

Allocating group tables: done                            
Writing inode tables: done                            
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

[mkarchiso] INFO: Done!
[mkarchiso] INFO: Mounting 'work/i686/root-image.fs' on 'work/i686/mnt/root-image'
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
[mkarchiso] INFO: Total: 150153 MiB (100%) | Used: 130617 MiB (92%) | Avail: 12018 MiB (8%)
[mkarchiso] INFO: Unmounting 'work/i686/root-image.fs'
umount: work/i686/root-image.fs: not mounted

any tips ?

Last edited by nTia89 (2012-07-24 08:50:50)

djgera · 2012-07-24 13:35:15

If you do not see syslinux screen is too bad...

To build 32-bit archiso on 64-bit machine you only need to run

linux32 /usr/share/archiso/configs/releng/build.sh build single netinstall

thats all.

PS: last error is about loop module not loaded. (you dont see this when follow this method and your system is Linux >= 3.1)

Last edited by djgera (2012-07-24 13:36:46)

nTia89 · 2012-07-24 13:42:08

thanks, i've used

setarch i686

and seems ok.

then i hacked build.sh to build an i686 ISO with 32-bit EFI. build is fine.

if i boot on a PC-bios machine everything work.
in EFI-macbook, EFI shell starts and kernel load but screen goes black and macbook stop to respond.....a little step forward!

now i think problem is a bad or missing boot parameter of kernel.

how can i edit these maybe without rebuild entire ISO ?

EDIT: i try using the EFI-shell to boot the kernel with nomodeset parameter and i get this screen

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f09fk17q7i4ek … .01.43.jpg

Last edited by nTia89 (2012-07-24 15:32:44)

djgera · 2012-07-24 18:41:09

nice, so its boot now... ensure that you are passing right parameters (look at startup.sh) then add nomodeset

nTia89 · 2012-07-25 10:06:18

(not good) news:

first i've uploaded the patch to build an EFI archiso
NB: use this patch in combination with command on the above post
NB2: this patch "break" the archiso build. in fact you can you build an i686 ISO (with 32-bit EFI)
NB3: if you want to pass some kernel parameter you must add it in the efiboot/EFI/boot/startup.nsh, THEN build the ISO
NB4: you can also launch the kernel from the EFI shell, which is provided by the ISO, but ATM i don't know the complete command .....

the patch: http://pastebin.com/MHDLByvQ

last: i tried with

nomodeset | noapic | irqpoll | acpi=force | debug

and with "nomodeset" i get this screen:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g43ir3e5xdowz … .39.00.jpg

with other parameters the situation worsen and the screen is powered off
in every case keyboard doesn't respond

djgera · 2012-07-25 15:04:01

blacklist your video module... anyways is not a good thing... Think that what happens here, will be exactly when you get Arch Linux installed on such hardware...

nTia89 · 2012-07-25 15:34:53

djgera wrote:

blacklist your video module... anyways is not a good thing... Think that what happens here, will be exactly when you get Arch Linux installed on such hardware...

be more explicit

djgera · 2012-07-25 16:23:52

Pass modprobe.blacklist=<module> to Linux command line, where <module> correspond to your video hardware.

nTia89 · 2012-07-25 17:00:10

tried with:

blacklist intel
blacklist intel-agp
blacklist agpgart-intel

->screen black

with:

acpi=off

->monitor turns off

and with:

options i915 modeset=0

->screen has a white horizontal line then goes black

any idea ?

djgera · 2012-07-25 17:08:14

You never want to disable acpi at all, this is a really bad idea.

such options listed are for configuration files only related to modprobe, not for Linux cmdline.

so if you have an i915 GPU then modprobe.blacklist=i915

nTia89 · 2012-07-25 17:37:38

"blacklist ..." and "options ..." are in the file (root-image)/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

is that wrong ?

Last edited by nTia89 (2012-07-25 17:38:19)

djgera · 2012-07-25 18:00:49

Yes, since video modules are present in initramfs.

nTia89 · 2012-07-25 18:39:42

so, i need to pass these parameter only through startup.nsh ?

djgera · 2012-07-25 19:48:44

yes, or via EFI shell when executing vmlinux.efi, or rebuild initramfs without video modules...

nTia89 · 2012-07-25 19:53:42

ok, i have build ISOs with these parameters at boot and tomorrow i'll try

EDIT: thinking was a video related issue, so i thought to try a live CD of archlinux -> chakra (latest ISO i686) <-
no EFI support, so i can boot only in BIOS-compatibility mode, but despite it, works....THIS IS NOT THE SOLUTION.....it's only a test, but if i won't boot (pure) arch in some way, i switch to chakra.

coming back to the dirty work. since Chakra works, how can i see which is the right trick ?

Last edited by nTia89 (2012-07-25 19:54:08)

djgera · 2012-07-25 20:36:59

compare each Linux version and see each config.

nTia89 · 2012-07-25 20:52:09

chakra kernel: 3.4.3
arch kernel: 3.4.6

what do you mean with config ? kernel config ?

djgera · 2012-07-25 20:57:59

esattamente

Arch Linux

#1 2012-07-22 21:19:38

[EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#2 2012-07-22 22:05:28

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#3 2012-07-22 22:07:52

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#4 2012-07-23 09:08:46

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#5 2012-07-23 16:57:31

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#6 2012-07-23 21:59:43

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#7 2012-07-23 23:25:21

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#8 2012-07-24 07:59:18

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#9 2012-07-24 13:35:15

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#10 2012-07-24 13:42:08

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#11 2012-07-24 18:41:09

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#12 2012-07-25 10:06:18

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#13 2012-07-25 15:04:01

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#14 2012-07-25 15:34:53

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#15 2012-07-25 16:23:52

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#16 2012-07-25 17:00:10

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#17 2012-07-25 17:08:14

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#18 2012-07-25 17:37:38

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#19 2012-07-25 18:00:49

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#20 2012-07-25 18:39:42

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#21 2012-07-25 19:48:44

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#22 2012-07-25 19:53:42

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#23 2012-07-25 20:36:59

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#24 2012-07-25 20:52:09

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

#25 2012-07-25 20:57:59

Re: [EFI 32-bit problem] archiso doesn't boot on macbook

Board footer