Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

Peikko · 2012-09-02 12:59:51

Hello,

I'm trying to install arch with help of the beginners guide but whatever I try I'm not able to get it working.
I prepared the parititions before installing with GParted Live Disk and created a 512 MB fat32 partition for UEFI and set the boot flag. If I follow the guide step by step and when I'm finished, after a reboot
it tells me that it can't find a operating system.
After loading the module efivars i have several files in /boot/efi so I think I booted correctly with UEFI. But still I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

cfr · 2012-09-05 02:01:41

Can you please give some more detail about your set up?

For example, the output of gdisk -l /dev/sdX.

Which media did you use to install? I'm guessing you used a USB key - did you make a EFI bootable one or did you boot with a different system afterwards?

Which grub install command did you use and did you get any errors? (You may find it easier to see without the --debug flag.)

Loading efivars isn't sufficient to get files under /boot/efi. Do you see files under /sys/firmware/efi/vars? If you've booted in UEFI mode and modprobed efivars correctly, you should see a lot of files in this directory.

If applicable, did you modprobe *before* chrooting?

Which guide are you using?

Have you checked that EFI booting is enabled in the bios setup?

Peikko · 2012-09-05 17:02:56

Sorry for the lack of info. But there were no error messages while installing so I didn't know which info you would need.
Meanwhile I tries to install it 4 times. No luck. I still do something wrong.

No as Media I used a CD (external drive) and downloaded the archlinux-2012.08.04-dual.iso. My BIOS is set to use only UEFI at boot so UEFI seems to work and the installation starts normally.

Do you see files under /sys/firmware/efi/vars?

I will check this next time I try to install. Maybe today.

If applicable, did you modprobe *before* chrooting?

I checked the beginners installation guide again and I belive there is not everything sair that needs to be done. Next time I use the installation guide for grub2 in it's wiki page. maybe this will work. If not, it would be great if I still get help here.

But thank you cfr for replying in the first place.

gdisk -l /dev/sdX.

Will do.

cfr · 2012-09-05 20:58:03

Please report back when you've investigated - either to report what worked or with the details if you need help.

Just to emphasise: do make sure that your EFI partition is at least 512Mb if you use fat 32. (Nobody tweaked the minimum 512Mb size when I couldn't boot this machine in EFI mode so I ended up doing something else - this firmware is fussy.)

You should see the files under /sys/firmware/efi/vars after modprobing efivars. If not, you haven't succeeded in booting in EFI mode.

Peikko · 2012-09-09 19:41:51

Hi cfr,

I managed to install arch this time and everything is working now.

There is just one thing that confuses me. The beginners installation guide seems to be changed since my lest installation attempt.

Right now I installed arch and the EFI files are on a partition (sda1). The guide says:

Please do not use something like sda1. You want to install to the MBR, not to a partition (which is discouraged).

So I think I have to mount /boot/efi on /dev/sda, right? (instead of /dev/sda1).
This would mean that the fat32 partition would not be needed. correct?
But the guide still says:

If you have a UEFI motherboard you will need another partition to host the UEFI System partition. Read this article.

hope you understand, what I'm trying to ask.

cfr · 2012-09-09 23:09:58

You need the EFI partition e.g. on my machine that's /dev/sda1 and it gets mounted at /boot/efi. It should be fat 32 (probably).

When you install grub using grub-install, you direct grub to the whole disk (e.g. /dev/sda) rather than to any particular partition. grub will find the EFI partition itself provided it is mounted and marked with the correct code in gdisk (or parted).

So the EFI partition is a proper partition but grub gets installed to the whole disk (and figures out the partition for itself).

Peikko · 2012-09-10 09:25:17

Thank you. So I did it wrong. I directed grub on 'grub-install' to /dev/sda1
But still thanks alot now I know what to do.

By the way ... why it didn't work in the first place: I did not mount /boot/efi and that is the reason why it failed. After my first two tries to isntall which failed I asked in the arch IRC chanel and somebody told me that I don't have to mount it. I belived him since the beginners guide didn't say that I have to do this.

Thank you.

Last edited by Peikko (2012-09-10 09:26:01)

cfr · 2012-09-10 22:59:58

There seems to be some confusion about this. I've seen other threads in which the same advice has been given.

I think the confusion stems from the fact that you don't need to mount the EFI partition to boot i.e. it doesn't need to be in fstab if you don't wish. But it does need to be mounted for grub-install to do its magic i.e. to install or to update grub.

It may also be that people are confusing grub-bios and grub-efi. If you use GPT and grub in BIOS mode, you need a special unformatted partition which doesn't need a file system or to be mounted. This partition is tiny e.g. 2M. But I wonder if some of the advice is confusing that with the EFI partition in the grub-efi case...

PS Have you considered amending the wiki?

Last edited by cfr (2012-09-10 23:01:13)

Peikko · 2012-09-11 12:49:11

PS Have you considered amending the wiki?

It sure would be better if somebody does but I think I'm the wrong person for this. My english is bad and my knowledge for arch is very basic. Somebody would do a much better job.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-09-02 12:59:51

Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

#2 2012-09-05 02:01:41

Re: Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

#3 2012-09-05 17:02:56

Re: Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

#4 2012-09-05 20:58:03

Re: Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

#5 2012-09-09 19:41:51

Re: Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

#6 2012-09-09 23:09:58

Re: Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

#7 2012-09-10 09:25:17

Re: Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

#8 2012-09-10 22:59:58

Re: Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

#9 2012-09-11 12:49:11

Re: Not able to install Arch with UEFI on X121e

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