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#1 2012-07-29 16:47:52

KairiTech
Member
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: 2011-06-04
Posts: 275

[Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

Edit: Not supported out-of-the-box. See here...so I'll be sticking with Archboot  2012.06-1 archboot "2k12-R3" for now since it still works for me for my pure UEFI install.

Has anyone successfully booted 2012.07.15 in UEFI mode from a USB device?

I have tried several methods of preparing the USB mentioned in the Wikis (actually tried then on two different devices) but none worked. Funny thing is I was able to boot UEFI from the iso image in VirtualBox with no problem so I know there's nothing wrong with the download.

Last edited by KairiTech (2012-08-14 18:15:18)

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#2 2012-07-30 01:14:36

cfr
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From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,130

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

I just semi-accidentally rendered my system unbootable (I thought that might happen but didn't think I would find it so difficult to recover) and failed to boot the Arch USB key in UEFI mode. I ended up using a live Ubuntu key to fix Arch instead. On the other hand, all I tried was dd-ing it because I couldn't think how else to do it at the time. Did you try the more complicated method involving installing syslinux etc. by hand?


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#3 2012-07-30 01:53:04

djgera
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From: Buenos Aires - Argentina
Registered: 2008-12-24
Posts: 723
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Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

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#4 2012-07-30 19:25:07

89c51
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Registered: 2012-06-05
Posts: 741

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

You can try archboot if you have trouble with the original. Just remember you have to extract it.

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#5 2012-07-31 13:08:47

KairiTech
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From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: 2011-06-04
Posts: 275

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

cfr wrote:

Did you try the more complicated method involving installing syslinux etc. by hand?

I did and it worked for the non-UEFI boot.

I'm a bit reluctant to try this but I will. Seem to be drifting away from Arch's KISS principle. I guess the real question is whether or not 2012.07.15 is supposed to "officially" support UEFI mode booting from a USB device.

89c51 wrote:

You can try archboot if you have trouble with the original. Just remember you have to extract it.

Again, a bit reluctant to try this also. Seem to be drifting as well.

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#6 2012-07-31 14:38:54

89c51
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Registered: 2012-06-05
Posts: 741

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

I also had trouble making the latest install media boot in EFI. Haven't tried what djgera proposes but archboot worked fine. dding the iso never worked for me.

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#7 2012-07-31 21:29:22

cfr
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From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,130

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

No. I don't think that existed on the iso I downloaded and, in any case, I wouldn't have known to read it in advance...

Thanks for pointing that out. I'm having a go now...

OK. So I've wiped my simple dd-created media and am trying this. I seem to need to use root for everything even though it is a USB key but maybe that's normal.

So I'm currently looking at this command:

# mcopy -s -i <MNT-TARGET-N>/EFI/archiso/efiboot.img ::/EFI <MNT-TARGET-N>/

This is step 5: "Extract efiboot.img on EFI/ on target filesystem."

I try to never run a command without checking what it does --- doubly so as root. So I'm having some trouble checking this one out. There's a man page and googling gets me loads of hits but none of them show this particular syntax i.e. the double-colon with no drive letter and followed by a unix path separator, and then there are three arguments in total which I can't make fit the syntax I'm seeing. Moreover, the -s is recursive but the -i isn't listed in anything I've found.

Can somebody point me to documentation which covers this option and syntax?

For comparison, the manual page (and the stuff I've found online) gives these possible schemas:

          mcopy [-bspanvmQT] [-D clash_option] sourcefile targetfile
          mcopy [-bspanvmQT] [-D clash_option] sourcefile [ sourcefiles... ] targetdirectory
          mcopy [-tnvm] MSDOSsourcefile

The fact that there are three arguments suggests the second version but "::/EFI" does not obviously appear to be a sourcefile(s). The manual page deals with single colons but the double has me a bit lost and I'm not sure why the following path separator is unix since I thought the colons were for msdos-style specifications? And, of course, there's no -i...

EDIT: I should make clear that I can find plenty of references where -i, at least, is _used_ but I can't find a reference in the documentation to what it _does_.

EDIT: Well, I'm not very happy about relying on it but Wikipedia seems to cover this usage (but not the stuff in the manual page). Weird.

Last edited by cfr (2012-07-31 21:45:24)


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#8 2012-07-31 21:46:23

cfr
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From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,130

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

Unmounting the media hung forever and I had to kill it. (But it did seem to unmount.) Not sure why...

Haven't tested this yet. Will report back shortly.


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#9 2012-07-31 21:47:05

djgera
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From: Buenos Aires - Argentina
Registered: 2008-12-24
Posts: 723
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Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

Look at mtools(1) wink Of course you can use mount/cp/umount to do such task without mtools wink

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#10 2012-07-31 21:57:13

cfr
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From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,130

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

djgera wrote:

Look at mtools(1) wink Of course you can use mount/cp/umount to do such task without mtools wink

Thanks. I did look at that - though I'll take another look.

Do you mean I could just mount the efiboot.img and copy the files from there instead? Why don't they _say_ so?! I just assumed that there was some mysterious feature of msdos which meant I had to use a cross-platform unix-to-dos transformer for some reason... If I could do it with unix stuff why don't they mention that for goodness sake?!!

[Note: I realise that msdos is probably not like an uncharted and trecherous alien planet to everyone...]

EDIT: I realise that mcopy is a linux programme. But it doesn't use unix/linux/darwin _syntax_...

Last edited by cfr (2012-07-31 21:59:03)


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#11 2012-08-05 12:29:38

Slurp
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From: Madrid, Spain
Registered: 2008-09-02
Posts: 124

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

Hi, I am trying to install Arch on a GPT + UEFI machine, and I keep reading that is important that live USB boots in UEFI mode, but I can not find where it is said how to do that. Could you please tell me?


Stop the world, I get off...

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#12 2012-08-05 14:49:28

KairiTech
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From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: 2011-06-04
Posts: 275

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

Slurp wrote:

... important that live USB boots in UEFI mode, but I can not find where it is said how to do that. Could you please tell me?

That was my reason for this post but nothing yet...

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#13 2012-08-05 16:13:12

Slurp
Member
From: Madrid, Spain
Registered: 2008-09-02
Posts: 124

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

ups... hehe ok... I miss the days when installing Arch was easy hehehe


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#14 2012-08-05 16:25:54

the.ridikulus.rat
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From: Indiana, USA
Registered: 2011-10-04
Posts: 765

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

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#15 2012-08-06 13:16:31

KairiTech
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From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: 2011-06-04
Posts: 275

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

Updated the title of the post to avoid any confusion. I'm only interested in a pure UEFI install. No dual-boot and no Windows of any kind.

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#16 2012-08-06 14:53:37

czubek
Banned
Registered: 2012-03-08
Posts: 141

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

To whoever is responsible for Archboot I would like to thank them. I had a competing version of Arch installed which crashed badly as a result of the filesystem upgrade. I installed Arch Linux which again crashed due to the glibc upgrade. I re-installed Arch Linux only to have it crash again due to the GRUB2 conversion. I tried the latest install media and its associated wiki only to face failure again. Then I saw suggestions for Archboot and that finally worked. I have gpt and GRUB2. The only thing I needed to add was the creation of a grub.cfg which I did with the install media.

I can understand the desire to reduce the ranks of noobs like myself but please don’t do away with Archboot.

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#17 2012-08-11 07:22:32

the.ridikulus.rat
Member
From: Indiana, USA
Registered: 2011-10-04
Posts: 765

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

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#18 2012-08-11 13:27:42

Smoerrebroed
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-07-24
Posts: 106

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

KairiTech wrote:

Edit: Nope! Still waiting on someone to confirm that the latest install media is capable of booting in UEFI mode.

Yes, it is capable of UEFI booting *if* it is burnt to a CD-R. smile

KairiTech wrote:

Has anyone successfully booted 2012.07.15 in UEFI mode from a USB device?

Yes, but as indicated below above (and on the wiki page), you cannot simply write the iso file to a usb drive for that to work. You have to create your bootable usb drive manually (as outlined in the wiki), which is not a big deal though.

Cheers

Smoerrebroed

Last edited by Smoerrebroed (2012-08-11 13:28:13)

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#19 2012-08-11 23:48:59

cfr
Member
From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,130

Re: [Solved] Latest (2012.08.04) install media and UEFI mode boot

I just created a USB key from the latest source (20120804) and booted it in UEFI mode. I tested this by modprobing efivars and checking that the variables were indeed available to the system. (Couldn't remember exactly where to look but found them in the end.) So it definitely works.

I did not, however, follow the instructions given in the wiki. I'm not saying those don't work. I'm just saying those aren't the instructions I tested. Instead, I followed a very slight variant of the instructions in the official README.

The following assumes you have downloaded the .iso file, the corresponding .sig and the sha1sum and md5sum files. Here's the record I kept of the commands I used:

# check integrity of download (belt and braces)
pacman-key -v archlinux-<YYYY>.<MM>.<DD>-dual.iso.sig
sha1sum -c sha1sums.txt
md5sum -c md5sums.txt
# fetch a current copy of the README (or extract it from the .iso)
wget https://projects.archlinux.org/archiso.git/plain/README
# check instructions haven't changed
# insert USB media
# figure out which device your media has become
sudo gdisk /dev/sdX
# create GPT partition table with single partition of type ef00
# check number of partition you need to use
sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n ARCH_<YYYY><MM> /dev/sdXN
# if you have pmount installed - if not, use sudo mount etc.
pmount /dev/sdXN /media/ARCH_<YYYY><MM>
bsdtar -x --exclude=isolinux/ --exclude=arch/boot/syslinux/ -f archlinux-<YYYY>.<MM>.<DD>-dual.iso -C /media/ARCH_<YYYY><MM>
mcopy -s -i /media/ARCH_<YYYY><MM>/EFI/archiso/efiboot.img ::/EFI /media/ARCH_<YYYY><MM>/
rm /media/ARCH_<YYYY><MM>/EFI/archiso/efiboot.img
# if you have pmount - if not, use sudo umount etc.
pumount /media/ARCH_<YYYY><MM>

In my case, <YYYY> was 2012, <MM> was 08 and <DD> was 04. The README contains fuller instructions and also explains how to create live media for other circumstances and situations.

Note, I used fat 32 even though the EFI partition on my hard drive is fat 16 as it refused to boot from fat 32. Apparently, it doesn't mind on a USB key.

Last edited by cfr (2012-08-11 23:51:21)


CLI Paste | How To Ask Questions

Arch Linux | x86_64 | GPT | EFI boot | refind | stub loader | systemd | LVM2 on LUKS
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