[SOLVED] UEFI woes

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-29 01:44:55

@cfr, the update will only write the files to \EFI\gummiboot\gummibootx64.efi as well as \EFI\boot\bootx64.efi. The install command will write those files as well as make the firmware entry. So if the OP installs with pacman -S --noscriptlet gummiboot then compies manually, it should be fine thereafter. Though it sounds as though the package is already installed.

@FerretBuster, cfr is right. You need to be way more specific about your issues and what you are seeing here. That error message begs the question of what you actually have set as the boot device, and whether the internal disk you intend to boot off of is in that list.

cfr · 2013-10-29 02:00:18

For example, is /dev/sda3 the correct partition? What is the output of lsblk -f?

FerretBuster · 2013-10-29 02:15:44

yes dev/sda3 is my root partition

lsblk -f

sda1 vfat 46C6-F1F3 /mnt/boot
sda2 swap 6123fce9-44fc-4c99-9740-466059a06cfa [swap]
sda3 ext4 d6b29837-c076-46b6091b8-3e593ad36592 /mnt
...

I assume that's what you meant

cfr · 2013-10-29 02:34:02

What exactly do you see when you boot? What is the exact error message?

Try setting the machine to boot EFI mode only in the BIOS setup. Also, try bringing up the boot menu for the machine when you boot and see if you can select your hard drive from there.

FerretBuster · 2013-10-29 10:24:35

Upon booting from the hard drive (whether selected from boot order in the bios, or manually selecting to boot from it) I receive the message: "Reboot and select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media Media in selected Boot device and press a key".
Also the bios is terrible in the way of settings, I don't think there is really anything I can change.

EDIT: I have managed to create a uefi bootable disk that works. I did so by creating it in linux on a friends machine, however i have ran into a seperate problem now. When I install gummiboot everything seems to install and copy over fine, apart from this one error I get: "failed to create efi boot variable entry: no space left on device". What on earth does that mean? I mean my EFI partition is 1gb, so surely that should be plenty of space right?

Last edited by FerretBuster (2013-10-29 19:34:00)

cfr · 2013-10-29 22:49:30

When you're booted from the uefi media, what output does efibootmgr -v give?

The space isn't about disk space - that's not where the EFI menu entries live. It could mean you're out of space there but it is much more likely this is just buggy firmware.

Have you checked for updates to your firmware? I can't remember if this came up earlier in the thread. Because you seem to be running into lots of issues.

If not, do you need to boot in uefi mode?

It seems odd there are no settings for that in BIOS. My BIOS has not many options or settings but even I can set uefi only/legacy only/both - uefi first/both - legacy first. I'd expect you to at least be able to enable/disable legacy support but maybe I'm being overly optimistic.

What firmware do you have i.e. name and version.

FerretBuster · 2013-10-29 22:57:47

I think you are correct in thinking that the firmware is VERY buggy. I did just attempt to install completely fresh just to ensure that I didn't do any steps incorrectly in the beginners guide, but when I did so it gave me that horrible freeze up after running the pacman command to install gummiboot. My bios is the most up to date it can be I think being version 0503, the EC firmware version says EPCD-059t if that helps any. (my laptop is an asus 1215b)

In regards to the settings in bios, in the boot tab all I have access to is boot order priorities and there is a seperate setting called "Hard drive BBS priorities" - which says it "sets the order of legacy devices in this group".
Then in the exit menu I have the ability to boot override by selecting a device manually, and there is one last option below that that says "Launch EFI shell from filesystem device".

I hope this helps

Last edited by FerretBuster (2013-10-29 22:58:30)

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-29 23:02:29

FerretBuster, it is really quite hard to help you when you only give half the information everytime. Your bios version is great... if we actually knew what kind of bios you are running, or even the machine type, or even just the motherboard model. But you fail to give any of that info.

cfr has asked you some pretty specific questions, that I am not sure how you could interpret in more than one way. For example, he specifically asked you should the output of efibootmgr -v gives... yet you give no answer.

I understand that you are probably quite frusturated with this whole thing. But others who could potentially help guide you to a solution are likely to get just as frusturated just trying to pry information from you.

cfr · 2013-10-29 23:19:23

I tried downloading the manual for your laptop but it doesn't give me much detail on the BIOS, unfortunately. I can't see what most of the options are. It does mention Boot Boost and I think you should definitely have that disabled if you have it. (I'm not sure what it does but I suspect it jumps steps on the assumption stuff hasn't changed or something like that since you need to disable it for various recovery/update functions.)

You could try installing an EFI shell and using the BIOS option to launch that from where you might be able to launch the system.

If I were you, though, I'd think seriously about whether you need EFI support.

FerretBuster · 2013-10-29 23:23:19

Asus eee pc ACPI BIOS, bios version 0503, build date: 11/30/2011. EC Firmware version : EPCD-059t. Laptop model: ASUS 1215B. - The bios is also called aptio steup utility by american megatrends.

The output of efibootmgr -v is:

Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0002, 0001
Boot0001* Hard Drive BIOS(2,0,00)
Boot0002* UEFI: Cion AP192 Pendrive 1.0 ACPI(ao341d0,0)PCI(12,2)USB(1,0)HD(1k800,1f1000,ab4130d6-045b-4359-852f-0bfb1df6cfbe)

Also if it's any help - the way I created the boot media was to format a memory stick with the fat32 file system, and a gpt partition table. I then copied over the contents of the ISO and to allow it to boot in UEFI mode correctly the loader.efi was copied and renamed to bootx64.efi (replacing the original). In addition to this the volume was renamed with the correct label detailed in one of the conf files.

As well as this I do apologise if I have come across as if I am just trying to leech of the forum, however it is quite the opposite - I would love to contribute once I have another arch system setup again. Hence the reason I'm doing this. But I am very busy with UNI stuff at the moment and am trying to reply while doing multiple things, as I am trying to reply within our different time zones(it seems you guys are active around the time I go to bed). So again I apologise if the details I give are flakey. I hope this post clears things up.

FerretBuster · 2013-10-29 23:24:48

How would I go about installing without EFI support? Since it's an EFI motherboard I thought that it wasn't able to use legacy BIOS.

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-29 23:29:20

I think that the inclusion of bios compatibility is actually part of the UEFI spec (though don't quote me on that, as I havne't actually read it). There are a few machines that don't offer this, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

I would venture to geuss that the part of the bios settings that allow you to choose legacy devices is what you are looking for here. So set up a bios bootloader on the disk, set it as the first legacy boot device and see what ahppens. The worst that can happen is that it doesn't work.

cfr · 2013-10-29 23:32:05

You booted in legacy mode on page 1 of this thread so we know the machine supports it in some version, at least.

FerretBuster · 2013-10-30 01:36:56

Ok I installed grub (using non uefi legacy mode boot media) and having done everything, upon restarting I get just a black screen with flashing cursor upon boot. And there isn't really any options I can see in the bios that could help me boot.

Last edited by FerretBuster (2013-10-30 01:37:24)

cfr · 2013-10-30 01:50:08

So you don't get the grub menu?

Please post the output of fdisk -l (if you used MBR) or gdisk -l (if you used GPT) and the exact commands you used to install grub.

the.ridikulus.rat · 2013-10-30 08:17:27

FerretBuster wrote:

When I install gummiboot everything seems to install and copy over fine, apart from this one error I get: "failed to create efi boot variable entry: no space left on device". What on earth does that mean?

That error is about lack of space in storage space in your firmware's NVRAM for more boot entires. You must have some pstore dumps in the EFI VAR data that is taking up space. See
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … k_properly - specifically the last 2 points. I also suggest reading the entire https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Variables section to understand how efibootmgr, kernel and the UEFI firmware interact. That understanding is very important to debug UEFI boot issues.

Last edited by the.ridikulus.rat (2013-10-30 08:19:40)

ANOKNUSA · 2013-10-30 13:43:41

the.ridikulus.rat wrote:

FerretBuster wrote:
When I install gummiboot everything seems to install and copy over fine, apart from this one error I get: "failed to create efi boot variable entry: no space left on device". What on earth does that mean?
That error is about lack of space in storage space in your firmware's NVRAM for more boot entires. You must have some pstore dumps in the EFI VAR data that is taking up space. See
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … k_properly - specifically the last 2 points. I also suggest reading the entire https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Variables section to understand how efibootmgr, kernel and the UEFI firmware interact. That understanding is very important to debug UEFI boot issues.

Gummiboot Wiki Page wrote:

If you are not booted via EFI, creating the boot entry will fail. You should however still be able to boot gummiboot as it copies the binary to the default EFI binary location on your ESP ($esp/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi on x64 systems) (unless a non-gummiboot $esp/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi is already present).

This is the case for me. I've never had a gummiboot entry written to my EFI menu, but my EFI partition is mount at /boot and the system boots just fine from the first disk on the EFI menu. So space or no, there's a chance it would still boot.

@FerretBuster: Install the same way you did before, only open the BIOS menu and, under "BOOT," switch to "Legacy first." That will boot into the legacy BIOS Arch live environment.

Last edited by ANOKNUSA (2013-10-30 13:44:15)

FerretBuster · 2013-10-30 17:52:34

Changing whether a device is legacy or uefi is not actually possible in my bios. The only article I could find that shows a system similar to it is this: http://info-coach.fr/pc/hardware/AsusP8 … s-UEFI.php. Which basically states that whether a device is legacy or UEFI is determined automatically. I may just have to try and use a traditional legacy bios/mbr setup as you guys have recommended.

However I did give one last go at installing through my legacy media, but still installing it on a gpt partioned disk with gummiboot. But for some reason when I boot from my hard drive all I get is a black screen and the words grub in the top left... (I had previously installed grub using the mbr but I thought that when you used cgdisk, that it overwrites any previous partition tables. Not sure why this is happening... kinda odd. Anyway I guess i'll try and make a traditional legacy mbr setup. Unless you guys have any other suggestions?

Last edited by FerretBuster (2013-10-30 17:54:04)

cfr · 2013-10-31 02:33:31

Well getting rid of all traces of grub etc. might work. If it is trying to load grub and maybe reading an old partition table, that would definitely screw things up.

ANOKNUSA · 2013-10-31 03:55:15

Sorry, Ferret, I misread the info you gave. My second suggestion would have been cfr's advice about manually copying the files to the appropriate location; as long as the gummiboot EFI executable is in the EFI partition, there's a chance it will boot. Failing anything else, you might be able to use a different disto's LiveCD (maybe System Rescue CD?) to install via chroot, or use it to configure the boot menu files.

FerretBuster · 2013-10-31 09:22:41

I've managed to find an article on the installation for my netbook - https://plus.google.com/app/basic/strea … nrgjfxyt04
so what I can glean from this is that I should try using grub? And then booting using the mentioned menu entry in the bios?

Edit: I think my best bet is to boot the arch live media in legacy mode, install a bootloader and use the bcfg command to add an entry by launching the efi shell.

Last edited by FerretBuster (2013-10-31 11:16:46)

srs5694 · 2013-10-31 17:08:57

I'm afraid this thread has grown long enough that I'm not entirely sure what the problem is any more; however, perhaps my page on installing Linux on EFI systems might help. Some specific points I'd like to make, based on recent comments in this thread, are:

ASUS products generally have better EFI implementations than do most other manufacturers. This doesn't mean that your particular product isn't buggy, but it makes rampant bugs seem less likely, especially if it's a fairly recent model. (OTOH, your system does seem to be a couple of years old, based on the file dates on ASUS' site, so it could be there are bugs that ASUS hasn't bothered to fix because your computer is past its manufacturer support date.)
Although the Compatibility Support Module (CSM), which provides BIOS/legacy support, is described in the EFI spec, it's not a required part of EFI. There are computers that ship without this support.
If the problem is that a boot loader isn't loading, using the fallback filename (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi) on the ESP usually fixes the problem.
Some EFIs are fussy about the filesystem used on the ESP. Be sure it's FAT32 and that the ESP is at least 512MiB in size. (Make it at least 550MiB to avoid issues with MB-vs-MiB confusion and to ensure that mkdosfs creates FAT32 by default.)

If you still have problems, try running the Boot Info Script and post the RESULTS.txt file that it generates, either on a pastebin site with a link to it here, or directly on this site but between code tags. Do not post it directly here without using code tags.

the.ridikulus.rat · 2013-10-31 18:29:36

@FerretBuster: Can you try this? Create a GPT (not MBR/msdos) partition table in the USB oendrive, with one partition covering the entire drive. Mark the partition os EF00 (EFI System Partition) and format it as FAT32. After that extract the iso contents to the USB. If Official Install ISO fails, try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ar … O_Releases.

If your firmware is auto-detecting whether to UEFI boot or BIOS boot, then it is most likely dependent on whether it detects a MBR (BIOS boot) or GPT (UEFI boot) partition table in the USB.

EDIT 1: Did you follow everything at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … k_properly ?

EDIT 2: In 2 of my systems, 1 Thinkpad and another a normal Lenovo H520s desktop, I was able to boot using a simple FAT32 formatted USB (MBR partition) containing contents of the ISO. I did not use GPT in the USB.

EDIT 3: Similar issue https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1024451 . Did you boot with "add_efi_memmap" kernel parameter?

Last edited by the.ridikulus.rat (2013-10-31 18:37:30)

FerretBuster · 2013-10-31 22:31:23

Ok massive update. I managed to install arch with gummiboot, with a slight issue. Firstly I used legacy boot media to install everything using a gpt partition scheme (with a /boot, swap and root). I then installed gummiboot using the steps from the beginner's guide, and used this article: https://plus.google.com/103155108926231 … k1oKEUR6zB to allow me to boot. (I copied the gummiboot.efi to boot/shellx64.efi). This allows me to boot arch by going into my boot menu and selecting "Launch EFI Shell from filesystem device". BUT, that means that everytime I want to boot my os I have to remember to go into bios and select this option. Not only this. if I forget to select this option it boots to a black screen with GRUB written on the top left of the screen (I think this is leftover for when I tried an MBR grub installation).

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank anyone that has responded, these issues have been going on for days yet people are still coming back to help. The arch community is so great ;D

So my questions remaining are:
1) How do I safely delete what is in my MBR? So that I don't have this random grub text when I forget to go into bios to launch my OS.
2) How can I get my system to boot directly into arch?

Last edited by FerretBuster (2013-10-31 22:33:04)

cfr · 2013-10-31 22:53:00

FerretBuster wrote:

I've managed to find an article on the installation for my netbook - https://plus.google.com/app/basic/strea … nrgjfxyt04
so what I can glean from this is that I should try using grub? And then booting using the mentioned menu entry in the bios?

Those instructions are out of date. Moreover nothing there indicates that grub is required to work around the problem. The only thing there which might be helpful is the suggestion to use the bcfg command to create the menu entry. But copying the efi application to the default/fallback position should avoid the need for that entry.

Take srs5694's advice. He's the author of rEFInd and knows more about this stuff than anybody else I know.

Arch Linux

#51 2013-10-29 01:44:55

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#52 2013-10-29 02:00:18

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#53 2013-10-29 02:15:44

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#54 2013-10-29 02:34:02

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#55 2013-10-29 10:24:35

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#56 2013-10-29 22:49:30

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#57 2013-10-29 22:57:47

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#58 2013-10-29 23:02:29

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#59 2013-10-29 23:19:23

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#60 2013-10-29 23:23:19

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#61 2013-10-29 23:24:48

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#62 2013-10-29 23:29:20

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#63 2013-10-29 23:32:05

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#64 2013-10-30 01:36:56

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#65 2013-10-30 01:50:08

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#66 2013-10-30 08:17:27

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#67 2013-10-30 13:43:41

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#68 2013-10-30 17:52:34

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#69 2013-10-31 02:33:31

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#70 2013-10-31 03:55:15

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#71 2013-10-31 09:22:41

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#72 2013-10-31 17:08:57

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#73 2013-10-31 18:29:36

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#74 2013-10-31 22:31:23

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

#75 2013-10-31 22:53:00

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI woes

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