Arch Linux

seisatsu

Member

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 9

Gummiboot black-screens.

I am attempting to install Gummiboot x64 on my Asus G75VW laptop. All instructions on the wiki were followed, but when I load Gummiboot from the UEFI boot options, I get a permanently hung black screen. The same happens when I run Gummiboot manually from the UEFI shell.

A similar issue is reported in this thread, but the solution isn't helpful since I wrote the configuration files fresh.

Both the Extra repo and GIT (~30 mins ago) versions fail in the same manner.

Secure boot has been properly disabled. I can boot the Archlinux ISO in UEFI mode just fine, so this is a bit of a mystery.

Edit: Does Gummiboot accept tabs as spaces?

Last edited by seisatsu (2013-01-26 05:14:57)

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,424

Website

Re: Gummiboot black-screens.

A similar issue is reported in this thread, but the solution isn't helpful since I wrote the configuration files fresh.

Do you think it might be helpful to share those?

---

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Registered Linux User #482438

seisatsu

Member

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 9

Re: Gummiboot black-screens.

Sorry, I didn't post these at first because Windows arbitrarily disallows me from mounting the UEFI partition. I booted the archlinux CD and copied the whole partition to a thumbdrive. (It's a bit difficult to use the forums on elinks.)

Here are the relevant files with paths relative to the root of the UEFI partition.

/EFI/gummiboot/gummiboot.efi (x64 version)

/loader/loader.conf

default    archlinux-ck
timeout    4

/loader/entries/archlinux-ck.conf

title    Arch Linux (CK)
linux    \EFI\archlinux\vmlinuz-linux-ck.efi
initrd    \efi\archlinux\initramfs-linux-ck.img
options    root=/dev/sda8 elevator=bfq nomodeset ro

I am using tabs instead of spaces, if that makes a difference.

Edit: Just noticed I did something annoying with the cases on the archlinux-ck entry file, though that shouldn't make a difference on fat.

Edit 2: Changing the tabs to spaces and fixing the uppercase/lowercase discrepancy accomplished nothing.

Last edited by seisatsu (2013-01-26 05:56:11)

jynnantonix

Member

Registered: 2012-09-07

Posts: 33

Re: Gummiboot black-screens.

Sorry, I didn't post these at first because Windows arbitrarily disallows me from mounting the UEFI partition. I booted the archlinux CD and copied the whole partition to a thumbdrive. (It's a bit difficult to use the forums on elinks.)

For future reference

cat loader.conf | curl -F 'sprunge=<-' http://sprunge.us

If / is the root of your EFI system partition then I don't think you need the /EFI folder.  Try moving everything out of /EFI to /

srs5694

Member

From: Woonsocket, RI

Registered: 2012-11-06

Posts: 719

Website

Re: Gummiboot black-screens.

If / is the root of your EFI system partition then I don't think you need the /EFI folder.  Try moving everything out of /EFI to /

The EFI spec says that EFI boot loaders should go in subdirectories of the "EFI" directory, as in EFI/arch and EFI/BOOT on the ESP. These would translate to /boot/EFI/arch and /boot/EFI/BOOT if you mount the ESP at /boot in Linux, or to /boot/efi/EFI/arch and /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT if you mount it at /boot/efi in Linux. If you mount the ESP at /boot/efi, you should not attempt to remove the "extra EFI" in the path, because it's required by the combination of the EFI spec and your chosen mount point. You could change the mount point if it really offends you to have "efi/EFI" as part of the path.

That said, most EFI implementations will launch EFI boot loaders from other locations; however, the EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi boot loader is special in this respect. Also, I've heard of a few EFI implementations that can be fussy about boot loader locations added to the NVRAM. Thus, it's probably best to stick with the standard location, at least for the fallback EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi boot loader and for anything you register with the EFI's boot manager.

Gummiboot uses an unusual directory location -- namely the "loader" directory on the ESP's root. This directory is not a subdirectory of the "EFI" directory. The gummiboot binary would normally reside elsewhere, though. This is just gummiboot's own quirk.