Building system using gpt and uefi

kurt · 2012-08-18 07:45:13

I'm building a new Arch_64 system.

I've got a ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe motherboard that seems to support UEFI.
Two drives.
1st is a 120GB SSD
2nd is a 1TB HDD

1) I booted using the archlinux-2012.08.04-dual.iso burnt to a CD
2) Used parted to mklabel gpt
3) Using gdisk partitioned the SDD as follows:
sda1 - fat32 - EFI System (ef00) - 512MB
sda2 - ext4 - Linux filesystem (8300)
sda3 - swap - Linux swap (8200)

The boot flag was set for sda1

Mounted the partitions:
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/home
swapon /dev/sda3

I then went through the beginners guide for installation from the wiki.

All went fine until I got to the stage of installing grub for for UEFI motherboards. The command:

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

Returned the following:

Fatal: Couldn't open either sysfs or procfs directories for accessing EFI varibles.
Try 'modprobe efivars' as root.
Fatal: Couldn't open either sysfs or procfs directories for accessing EFI varibles.
Try 'modprobe efivars' as root.
Installation finished. No error reported.

I tried re-running after doing a modprobe efivars but had the same effect.

Hoping beyond hope that the last line of "No error reported" was true rebooted however the computer says:

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected device and press a key

(The boot order set is for CD and then the SDD)

Any help much appreciated.

89c51 · 2012-08-18 08:23:20

Are you sure you are booting in EFI mode and not in a bios fallback??

DSpider · 2012-08-18 08:25:01

You forgot to generate a "grub.cfg" file.

Do this:

from the Arch LiveCD:
mount the root partition to /mnt
mount the boot partition to /mnt/boot
run arch-chroot /mnt
and then proceed with the instructions bellow.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … Guide#GRUB

Last edited by DSpider (2012-08-18 08:26:11)

kurt · 2012-08-18 08:56:24

89c51 wrote:

Are you sure you are booting in EFI mode and not in a bios fallback??

No I'm not and I'm not sure how to check this or force it. Prior to posting I did do some searching and this seemed to be a common response but as of yet I cannot work out how to do it.

DSpider wrote:

You forgot to generate a "grub.cfg" file.
Do this:
from the Arch LiveCD:
mount the root partition to /mnt
mount the boot partition to /mnt/boot
run arch-chroot /mnt
and then proceed with the instructions bellow.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … Guide#GRUB

I did do this. I went through the beginners guide from top to bottom and rebooted after setting the root password. I apologise as I did not make this clear in my orginal post

89c51 · 2012-08-18 09:34:41

First of you have to enable UEFI in the bios menu.

Then it will probably boot in that mode.

kurt · 2012-08-18 10:38:14

89c51 wrote:

First of you have to enable UEFI in the bios menu.
Then it will probably boot in that mode.

OK - Just come back from reading my motherboards (P8Z68 Deluxe original, not GEN3) manual and can find no mention of how to force UEFI.

Been through the Advance Mode of the ASUS UEFI BIOS Utility and the only mention I can find for EFI is on the Boot tab. I can set PCI ROM Priority to Legacy ROM or EFI Compatible ROM. It was already set to EFI Compatible ROM.

Another strange thing. When I boot with the arch_linux install media in my CD drive and go into the BIOS Utility - EZ Mode it shows under 'Boot Priority':-

CDDrive->SSD->CDDrive again but this time with UEFI written on it.

89c51 · 2012-08-18 11:35:07

If it boots in efi you will probably end up with lots of efi related mesasges in dmesg.

tolga9009 · 2012-08-18 12:40:35

Hi,

I also have an ASUS motherboard (P8C WS) and would recommend you to take a USB media to install (or you can simply choose the "UEFI: CD Drive" as mentioned in post #6). In order to boot the media in UEFI mode (it is turned on by default), you have to format the USB stick with FAT32 (UEFI only detects FAT formatted drives). If you have access to a Windows PC, you can use http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal- … -as-1-2-3/ for an automated creation.
Next, you should reboot your PC and boot into BIOS. Go into "Boot" menu and look at all boot devices. Your USB stick will be listed twice; one with, one without a "UEFI" prefix. Example: "Intenso 16GB Stick" and "UEFI: Intenso 16GB Stick". Of course, you have to choose the UEFI one.
When you successfully booted into Arch Linux Installation media, you may want to recheck, if your mainboard really booted with UEFI options: try "modprobe efivars" and then "efibootmgr". If you don't get an error message, everything should be fine.

//Edit: you may also try Archboot, which is imho a superor installer to the standard Arch installer. You can find R3 here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=143541 and the lateset beta here http://dev.archlinux.org/~tpowa/. This will probably make the installation alot easier.

Last edited by tolga9009 (2012-08-18 12:45:25)

cfr · 2012-08-18 22:19:09

If you fix this by chrooting, be sure to modprobe efivars *before* changing into the chroot as the modprobe needs to match the kernel you're booting from. See the EFI/grub2/etc. wiki pages for details of setting up the chroot if you're not sure.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-18 07:45:13

Building system using gpt and uefi

#2 2012-08-18 08:23:20

Re: Building system using gpt and uefi

#3 2012-08-18 08:25:01

Re: Building system using gpt and uefi

#4 2012-08-18 08:56:24

Re: Building system using gpt and uefi

#5 2012-08-18 09:34:41

Re: Building system using gpt and uefi

#6 2012-08-18 10:38:14

Re: Building system using gpt and uefi

#7 2012-08-18 11:35:07

Re: Building system using gpt and uefi

#8 2012-08-18 12:40:35

Re: Building system using gpt and uefi

#9 2012-08-18 22:19:09

Re: Building system using gpt and uefi

Board footer