Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

MisterTea · 2016-10-28 00:33:17

Hi guys, after two days of scratching my head I give up.
Can anybody help me set refind to display and boot archlinux ?

I already installed arch multiple times but this time I wanted to have my main boot on arch and an other on windows 10.

I disabled fast boot on windows 10, installed refind with "refind-install".

It booted as it should on refind but arch didn't show up. Only windows.

Here is in details what I did so far :

simple partitionning : 16G for swap, remaining of my free space for arch.

Swap is on sda6, arch is on sda7.
Windows 10 EFI is on sda2.

mounted sda7 on /mnt, mounted sda2 on /mnt/boot
installed refind with pacman then : refind-install.

Here is my file structure :

EFI
>
Boot
Microsoft
refind
>
icons
icons-backup
keys
themes
refind.conf
refind.conf-sample
refind_x64.efi
tools
refind_linux.conf

refind_linux.conf content >>>>

"Boot with standard options" "archisobasedir=arch archisolabel=ARCH_201610"
"Boot to single-user mode" "archisobasedir=arch archisolabel=ARCH_201610 single"
"Boot with minimal options" "ro root=UUID=e1a51b71-6192-41a3-a844-3b39aa7dda32"

my not working stanza at the end of refind.conf :

menuentry "Arch Linux" {
icon \EFI\refind\icons\os_arch.png
volume "e1a51b71-6192-41a3-a844-3b39aa7dda32"
loader vmlinuz-linux
initrd initramfs-linux.img
options "root=UUID=e1a51b71-6192-41a3-a844-3b39aa7dda32 rootfstype=ext4 rw add_efi_memmap"
}

Am I supposed to have vmlinuz on my efi partition ???
I ask as when the stanza fails it tells me about error loader vmlinuz
Am I supposed to add ext4 drivers ? (my arch part).

I hope someone will be able to help

I used clover by the past and it worked pretty well. It's sad there isn't any tool to install it from arch.

BTW, when booting from my usb arch installer, I got kernel panics the half of the time. Are Lenovo Yoga (710) known to have issues? Any idea why it acts up? (the laptop is brand new)

Last edited by MisterTea (2016-10-28 00:52:56)

mcloaked · 2016-10-28 14:29:02

Your vmlinuz and initrd files are usually in the same directory - which can be on the efi, but could also be on say /boot if that is a partition in your root partition which doesn't have to be vfat. Make sure that, if the kernel and initrd are not vfat but say ext4, that you have the appropriate refind driver for the filesystem in the same directory as the refind binary. It's flexible and you can choose a variety of different ways to configure your directories - and then make sure that the volume and root=UUID= sections of the menuentry stanza refer correctly to the partitions/directories/files where the various needed files are.

In my case /boot is a directory with the "/" root partition which is ext4 and within /boot I have:

$ ls /boot
efi                           initramfs-linux.img  refind_linux.conf.bak
grub                          intel-ucode.img      syslinux

with /boot/efi/EFI being the EFI partition containing:

$ ls /boot/efi/EFI/
boot  fonts  icons  refind  tools

Then in my case the vfat efi partition is mounted as /boot/efi

i.e. in my /etc/fstab I have lines like:

# <file system> <dir>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# /dev/sdb2
UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx      /               ext4            defaults,relatime       0 1

# /dev/sdb1
UUID=yyyy-yyyy                                  /boot/efi       vfat            noatime0 2

It is important to make sure that lines in refind_linux.conf and refind.conf match the required rules explained in the documentation exactly. I also noticed that your refind_linux.conf has two lines referring to archisobasedir and one referring to a partition on what looks like your hard drive - the first two are possibly relating to the mounted install drive used during your install rather than the hard drive or ssd? If so that may need correcting since the install media will presumably no longer be present once the install is completed?

Last edited by mcloaked (2016-10-28 14:30:37)

olive · 2016-10-28 15:49:48

Here is my working stanza for booting archlinux with refind

menuentry "ArchLinux (last kernel)" {
volume ARCHMAIN
loader /boot/vmlinuz-linux
options "root=LABEL=ARCHMAIN rw ipv6.disable=1 resume=LABEL=ARCHMAIN resume_offset=71680 initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img initrd=/boot/initramfs-linux.img"

ARCHMAIN being the label of my arch filesystem.

I have not tested every possible variation but there are apparently several problems with your stanza. I don't think you should quote the volume entry and it should be the first line in the stanza. The loader and initrd should be an absolute path relative top the root of the filesystem where they reside. You can put the kernel in whatever partition you would like, provided you mention the correct volume (the initrd should be on the same partition as the kernel). If the kernel is not on a vfat partition, you should have the corresponding driver in the drivers_x64 directory (refind load all the drivers that are there automatically).

Last edited by olive (2016-10-28 15:51:29)

MisterTea · 2016-10-28 17:28:25

Thank you for the replies guys.

About vmlinuz and initrd I don't have these files.

I think there is something I don't get. Isn't it refind role to mount the EFI partition (which it resides in) as /boot ?
If not how can I set it to be mounted as /boot ?

I guess the problem is that I don't have the vmlinuz and initrd ...
Any idea ?

Where can I get them ?

olive · 2016-10-28 18:09:34

vmlinuz and initrd are the kernel and the initramrisk. How have you installed Archlinux? If you don't have installed the kernel, I suspect there are other very important files that are missing too. I think you should reread the installation wiki.

Last edited by olive (2016-10-28 18:18:29)

MisterTea · 2016-10-28 18:25:41

olive wrote:

vmlinuz and initrd are the kernel and the initramrisk. How have you installed Archlinux? If you don't have installed the kernel, I suspect there are other very important files that are missing too. I think you should reread the installation wiki.

Well, as I said earlier, I follow the official tutorial : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide .

Isn't it pacstrap job to install kernel ?

olive · 2016-10-28 18:38:49

That's indeed the role of the install install the base packages section. You don't appear to have installed Arch properly and this appears to be so serious that I think it is necessary to start over and reinstall.

Last edited by olive (2016-10-28 18:39:14)

MisterTea · 2016-10-28 19:51:51

Ok well, it seems I used pacstrap without having /boot mounted, this explaining the missing files ...

so refind_linux.conf now contains : rw root=UUID=e1a51b71-6192-41a3-a844-3b39aa7dda32

and refind.conf contains this :
menuentry "Arch Linux" {
icon \EFI\refind\icons\os_arch.png
volume "Arch"
loader vmlinuz-linux
initrd initramfs-linux.img
options "root=UUID=e1a51b71-6192-41a3-a844-3b39aa7dda32 rootfstype=ext4 rw add_efi_memmap"
}

Should I modify these ? maybe change rw to ro ? I don't know ...

The problem now is that the boot isn't complete...
From time to time, I see arch booting and then black screen.
As I said earlier, I already had issues with the usb install. From time to time I had kernel panics.
Now it's either black screen after some time or these errors :

http://imgur.com/Ov4xNVX
http://imgur.com/fj6OnMY
http://imgur.com/zMYSeuz

The errors are not from the installation process as I even had troubles with the bootable key ...

Any idea to work this around ?

EDIT: After some searches it seems i2c_hid is the culprit, I have to blacklist it's loading

Last edited by MisterTea (2016-10-28 20:16:57)

olive · 2016-10-29 08:10:14

I am not sure you properly understand the basic of how Linux boot nor that you have read my posts. The job of refind is to put the kernel in memory. So where exactly have you finally put the kernel and initramfs? You should mention absolute paths relative to the partition where the kernel lies in refind.conf (although some relative paths may work) and mention this partition with the volume option (unless you put them in the efi partition). So please specify a proper loader and initrd option (and use proper code tags in your posts).

Last edited by olive (2016-10-29 08:27:22)

MisterTea · 2016-11-02 23:27:56

olive wrote:

I am not sure you properly understand the basic of how Linux boot nor that you have read my posts. The job of refind is to put the kernel in memory. So where exactly have you finally put the kernel and initramfs? You should mention absolute paths relative to the partition where the kernel lies in refind.conf (although some relative paths may work) and mention this partition with the volume option (unless you put them in the efi partition). So please specify a proper loader and initrd option (and use proper code tags in your posts).

Well I was confused with all the kernel panic I was getting.
Refind was doing it's job. Now I got it running fine with this command : blacklist hid_sensor_hub.

Thank you.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-10-28 00:33:17

Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#2 2016-10-28 14:29:02

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#3 2016-10-28 15:49:48

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#4 2016-10-28 17:28:25

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#5 2016-10-28 18:09:34

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#6 2016-10-28 18:25:41

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#7 2016-10-28 18:38:49

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#8 2016-10-28 19:51:51

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#9 2016-10-29 08:10:14

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

#10 2016-11-02 23:27:56

Re: Refind Archlinux + Windows 10 EFI

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