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#1 2013-06-22 04:27:00

orthanc
Member
Registered: 2013-06-17
Posts: 7

[Solved] Grub Startup Issue

So after my last post and finally getting it booted I ran into more issued.

Turns out apparently nVidia isn't a big fan of EFI booting so I've been trying to switch back to BIOS booting.

I uninstalled grub-efi and install grub-bios.
I put it on /dev/sda2, now when I start up my computer I get this from grub.

http://i.imgur.com/tyNHHz8.jpg?1

Been using linux a while but this is a new one to me.

Last edited by orthanc (2013-06-23 18:36:42)

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#2 2013-06-22 05:19:07

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [Solved] Grub Startup Issue

That is new to me too... I guess it wanted to make sure you knew what you were using wink

I honestly have no idea what that could be, but it is pretty neat.  You didn't want a grub grub grub grub grub grub grub grub machine?

So waht is it you mean by "nVidia isn't a big fan of EFI booting"?  Are you still using that "nomodeset" parameter?  Becuase I think that without KMS (kernel mode setting) you can't run a graphical interface.  You need either KMS or a traditional frambuffer I think.  At least this is how Intel's i915 module is.  Have you tried using early KMS, that is ensureing that the nvidia module is loaded early by having it explicity installed in the intiramfs (mkinitcpio)?

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#3 2013-06-22 14:36:06

orthanc
Member
Registered: 2013-06-17
Posts: 7

Re: [Solved] Grub Startup Issue

Ah yes sorry, I forgot to mention, once I installed the nvidia drivers I no longer need the nomodeset kernel option. I turned on debug at one point and it looked like neoveu was having issues with a frame buffer. With the binary blob it booted fine.

I don't recall exactly where but after some googling it I read that some devices are initialized differently under EFI and nvidia's drivers don't always work with it.

Alright, I got EFI booting back and it is sooo much faster than bios mode.
The error I am getting with nvidia is 'could not open the device file /dev/nvidia0 (Input/output error)' when I tried to start X. I tried a couple things from here but none seemed to help.

Below is a couple things from dmesg aswell.

[    24.793125] NVRM: failed to copy vbios to system memeory.
[    24.793387] NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x30:0ffffffff:711)
[    24.793398] NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed

Edit: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … _7,1#Video and https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=162289&p=2 both talk about nvidia not working in EFI mode. I'm going to try again to get legacy mode working.

Last edited by orthanc (2013-06-22 15:43:11)

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#4 2013-06-22 18:49:36

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [Solved] Grub Startup Issue

Yeah  I had heard that before about nvidia and Apple's EFI having issues, but it was a while ago, so I had just assumed that this must have been resolved by now.  I guess maybe it hasn't.  Bios compatibility mode tends to be slower all around.  It is slower in booting the system itself, as well as when the Mac has to switch from its funky EFI implentation to the bios mode.  But the delay in the switch can be at least reduced very significantly if you use the OSX "bless" utility to properly set the default boot option.  I know there was a Linux bless utility before, but I am not sure if it is still being developed.  It is probably best to boot from OSX or even the installer or recovery partition (if you still have any of those) and using the terminal there anyway though.

FWIW, I believe that Rod Smith's rEFInd can be used to switch from the EFI mode to bios compatibility just by selecting the proper menu option... though the last time I was using Linux on a Mac, I was using rEFIt as rEFInd hadn't been forked at that point.

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#5 2013-06-23 18:36:24

orthanc
Member
Registered: 2013-06-17
Posts: 7

Re: [Solved] Grub Startup Issue

I should probably post what I finally got working here in case me or someone else ever needs it (Macbook Pro 4,1 I found out btw)

Working setup

  • msdos parition table

  • rEFInd installed via linux (worked better than installed within OSX)

  • Syslinux (had to manually edit the config, it tried to set /dev/sda3 as root rather than /dev/sda4 for some reason)

  • Nvidia binary blob

  • synaptics driver for touchpad

  • expanded MBR area (had to delete /dev/sda1 and recreate it further from the beginning of the disk in order to embed the boot image)

Finally getting all of this setup makes me never want to get a SSD for that laptop and I suppose it is old enough at this point that it wouldn't be worth it anyway.

Last edited by orthanc (2013-06-23 18:37:00)

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