Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

julian24 · 2012-09-26 21:03:50

Hi.

I want to boot Arch in my new ThinkPad using UEFI but I didn't manage to get it right after many hours of trying. It's a fresh installation with kernel version 3.5.4-1 from [core].

I tried using UEFI Shell, an efibootmgr entry and Gummiboot to boot it but it doesn't work at all. I also tried different initrds but still no change. The whole system just hangs without any error message. But interestingly I can boot the Archiso image via UEFI just fine. Does anyone have an idea what's going on here?

Update: When I try to just boot with "vmlinuz-arch.efi initrd=" I get the message "Failed to open initrd" file so I assume that the kernel gets started and if I pass a correct path to the initramfs it actually finds it but somehow fails to start it. Is that right? Don't know what else I should try to get this working…

Thanks,
Julian

Last edited by julian24 (2012-09-27 09:23:03)

bsilbaugh · 2012-09-27 20:37:25

It might be helpful (to us) if you outline your disk partitioning scheme, the procedure you used to setup the boot loader and boot manager, and perhaps how you generated the initramfs. In other words, did your installation procedure correspond with that described in the current version of the Beginner's Guide, or did you do something different? (I'm not trying to be condescending, here. I just want to be sure that I/we've got the facts straight before "diving in".)

julian24 · 2012-09-27 21:21:45

I've given up on UEFI and I'm using legacy boot now but maybe I can get some information here so that I can try again

bsilbaugh wrote:

It might be helpful (to us) if you outline your disk partitioning scheme, the procedure you used to setup the boot loader and boot manager, and perhaps how you generated the initramfs. In other words, did your installation procedure correspond with that described in the current version of the Beginner's Guide, or did you do something different? (I'm not trying to be condescending, here. I just want to be sure that I/we've got the facts straight before "diving in".)

Disk was partitioned with GPT, a FAT32 UEFISYS partition and an encrypted LVM containing my Arch installation. Kernel and initramfs were copied to the UEFISYS partition. I followed the installation guide and the initramfs was generated by mkinitcpio with the encrypt and lvm2 hooks added.

I tried booting the kernel with all methods described at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UE … ng_EFISTUB (except rEFInd) but none of them worked.

cfr · 2012-09-27 22:26:25

Just to be clear, at what point did the boot fail and with what error message(s)?

For example, it sounds as if you did not get the "no operating system found" error because you were apparently able to input commands. "none of them worked" isn't much to go on.

Which boot loaders did you try?

How large was your EFI partition?

What was your partition layout?

Last edited by cfr (2012-09-27 22:27:09)

altercation · 2012-09-28 02:01:24

I just posted a framework that I use to install Arch on a ThinkPad x220 with EFI support: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=149597

Even if you don't use the framework, you might take a look at how I setup the partitions and EFI bootloader. I also just revised the framework to support EFI setup on a non EFI booted sytem. Checkout the FILESYSTEM and BOOTLOADER blocks in the repo.

WonderWoofy · 2012-09-28 02:20:13

You know I spent quite some time trying to get EFI Stub Loader to boot. I too was getting the 'failed to laod initrd' message. What it turned out to be is that it did not like having the initramfs within the /EFI/arch directory. For sh*t's and giggles (mostly sh*ts), I moved it to the root of the EFI system partition, and it started working.

Also, if you try and boot from the UEFI Shell, you still have to pass the root= on the kernel command line. So for instance, mine would be

 fs0: vmlinuz-linux.efi root=/dev/sdb3 ro initrd=\initramfs-linux.img

What I ended up doing is simply setting my partitions up so that my EFI system partition is now mounted directly to /boot. So when I have a kernel update, it installs it in the correct spot, so no need for a custom service/path either.

julian24 · 2012-09-28 09:49:44

cfr wrote:

Just to be clear, at what point did the boot fail and with what error message(s)?
For example, it sounds as if you did not get the "no operating system found" error because you were apparently able to input commands. "none of them worked" isn't much to go on.

The problem is that there were no error messages. After trying to start the kernel, there was no more output at all. Even after a few minutes.

cfr wrote:

Which boot loaders did you try?

I tried booting from UEFI Shell, via Gummiboot and via an efibootmgr entry.

cfr wrote:

How large was your EFI partition?
What was your partition layout?

I used a GPT partition table. The first partition, the UEFISYS partition was a 512MiB FAT32 partition and the second one was an encrypted LVM.

WonderWoofy wrote:

You know I spent quite some time trying to get EFI Stub Loader to boot. I too was getting the 'failed to laod initrd' message. What it turned out to be is that it did not like having the initramfs within the /EFI/arch directory. For sh*t's and giggles (mostly sh*ts), I moved it to the root of the EFI system partition, and it started working.

I did only get this when I explicitly specify "initrd=" without any further argument. When i passed a correct path to the initrd, I did not get this message.

WonderWoofy wrote:

Also, if you try and boot from the UEFI Shell, you still have to pass the root= on the kernel command line. So for instance, mine would be
 fs0: vmlinuz-linux.efi root=/dev/sdb3 ro initrd=\initramfs-linux.img

I did pass a full command line just like this:

fs0:\EFI\arch> vmlinuz-arch.efi initrd=\EFI\arch\initramfs-arch.img root=/dev/mapper/system-root cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:system:allow-discards ro

Also I could boot the Archiso from UEFI Shell, even after copying kernel and initrd to the exact same location as the kernel of my new system (\EFI\arch).

the.ridikulus.rat · 2012-09-28 10:13:03

@julian24: what is the exact uefi shell command you used? efibootmgr command used? Gummiboot entries files? Don't simply say the system didn't boot without first mentioning how you setup your system.

julian24 · 2012-09-28 10:18:46

the.ridikulus.rat wrote:

@julian24: what is the exact uefi shell command you used? efibootmgr command used? Gummiboot entries files? Don't simply say the system didn't boot without first mentioning how you setup your system.

I posted the exact UEFI Shell command in my last post. efibootmanager command was exactly the one from the wiki except with the command line from my last post and my Gummiboot config was the one from the package just with changed paths/command line.

Anyways why are you so fixated on the bootloaders? The kernel should boot from UEFI Shell just fine but it doesn't.

the.ridikulus.rat · 2012-09-28 10:22:56

Post the EXACT commands and file contents you used. Don't just say i used wiki examples with paths changed, we cannot debug without knowing the exact commands used.

julian24 · 2012-09-28 10:24:34

the.ridikulus.rat wrote:

Post the EXACT commands and file contents you used. Don't just say i used wiki examples with paths changed, we cannot debug without knowing the exact commands used.

As I already postet, this is how I tried booting:

fs0:\EFI\arch> vmlinuz-arch.efi initrd=\EFI\arch\initramfs-arch.img root=/dev/mapper/system-root cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:system:allow-discards ro

the.ridikulus.rat · 2012-09-28 11:33:05

Try nomodeset or similar kernel parameter to disable kms.

bsilbaugh · 2012-09-28 15:52:45

I'm not sure how determined you are to get UEFI boot working, but it might be instructive to try setting up your system without LVM. At the very least it would eliminate some unnecessary complexity. You could always reintroduce LVM once you have a basic Arch installation booting on your system.

bsilbaugh · 2012-09-28 16:00:15

This might also be helpful: Installing Arch on a Thinkpad 420 with System Encryption

julian24 · 2012-09-28 16:02:21

bsilbaugh wrote:

I'm not sure how determined you are to get UEFI boot working, but it might be instructive to try setting up your system without LVM. At the very least it would eliminate some unnecessary complexity. You could always reintroduce LVM once you have a basic Arch installation booting on your system.

As I mentioned earlier it's now working fine with legacy boot but I might try UEFI again when I'm bored. I'd prefer it if it actually worked…

Arch Linux

#1 2012-09-26 21:03:50

Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#2 2012-09-27 20:37:25

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#3 2012-09-27 21:21:45

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#4 2012-09-27 22:26:25

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#5 2012-09-28 02:01:24

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#6 2012-09-28 02:20:13

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#7 2012-09-28 09:49:44

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#8 2012-09-28 10:13:03

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#9 2012-09-28 10:18:46

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#10 2012-09-28 10:22:56

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#11 2012-09-28 10:24:34

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#12 2012-09-28 11:33:05

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#13 2012-09-28 15:52:45

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#14 2012-09-28 16:00:15

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

#15 2012-09-28 16:02:21

Re: Can't boot via UEFI on ThinkPad T430

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