Arch Linux

nojan

Member

Registered: 2012-11-07

Posts: 15

[SOLVED] Can't setup UEFI boot

Hi, I'm in the process of installing a newly bought laptop (Sony Vaio SVS1311P9EB). I'm able to boot from the install media and to install the system but when it comes to setting up the boot I run into some issues.

The HDD is formated with GPT with a EFI partition on /dev/sda3 (there is actually on on sda1 as well, but I think that one is for system recovery. It does lack the boot flag) and the arch system root on /dev/sda6, the partitions in between is used by Windows 7 (pre installed from factory). Works perfectly by the way...

The BIOS is set to use UEFI, "Boot mode" = UEFI. However even though i run 'modprobe efivars' the kernel can't detect any EFI variables, in fact the directory /sys/firmware/efi doesn't even exist.
This causes problems when I run (from the newbie install guide);

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

and

efibootmgr -c -g -d /dev/sda -p 3 -w -L "Arch Linux (GRUB)" -l '\EFI\arch_grub\grubx64.efi

The error both times are;

Fatal: Couldn't open either sysfs or procfs directories for accessing EFI variables

If I reboot the computer the BIOS ignores arch (not surprising I guess) and just jumps straight to Windows.
Any ideas how I can get around this problem?

Last edited by nojan (2012-11-07 22:27:12)

DSpider

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 2,273

Re: [SOLVED] Can't setup UEFI boot

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … _UEFI_mode

---

"How to Succeed with Linux"

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

nojan

Member

Registered: 2012-11-07

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Can't setup UEFI boot

The module loads fine, but that directory does not get created. If I'm reading the wiki correctly that means that UEFI isn't being used, however that doesn't make any sense since the BIOS is setup to use UEFI

Edit: Found this link; http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … 175411129/. Seems that the guys at H2O BIOS has decided to hardcode the paths to UEFI system files. Renaming the windows file solved the problem, although it is hack alert on the highest level!

Last edited by nojan (2012-11-07 20:20:24)

Mocco

Member

Registered: 2012-07-12

Posts: 53

Re: [SOLVED] Can't setup UEFI boot

Had the same exact issues, had to rename grub uefi boot manager with window's one.

s.Oliver

Member

Registered: 2011-04-06

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Can't setup UEFI boot

I had a similar problem, efibootmgr failed since there wasn't a /sys/firmware/efi.
I solved my problem by adding 'add_efi_memmap' to the kernel parameters.