UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

AndyRTR · 2011-01-07 10:27:58

Almost all new Intel P67 based motherboards come with new UEFI bios. I'm going to buy such one very soon. Can somebody tell me if I will be able to boot my current installation that has / on an ext4 partition, no separate boot partition and using regular grub from core?

Or am I forced to go the grub2-efi way with an addtional fat32 partition like described in our UEFI wiki page?

skodabenz · 2011-01-07 13:45:25

AndyRTR wrote:

Can somebody tell me if I will be able to boot my current installation that has / on an ext4 partition, no separate boot partition and using regular grub from core?
Or am I forced to go the grub2-efi way with an additional fat32 partition like described in our UEFI wiki page?

Most likely your motherboard includes an option to turn on (or off) UEFI boot support. If you are not particular about uefi, you can turn that off and continue using the same configuration in BIOS mode. But if you want uefi then a separate EFI SYSTEM PARTITION (about 200MB FAT32) is required. I also recommend you to install efibootmgr ( http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=11899 ) and use grub-efi-fedora or grub2-efi pkgs (see my signature in the bottom of this post for the package links). efibootmgr should be installed to enable grub2 to setup the uefi firmware to boot grub2.efi (like bless command in Intel Macs). Also check whether the uefi boot mode supports AHCI SATA mode (most likely the default in the firmware). Otherwise you need to change to IDE Emulation mode to allow the uefi firmware to detect the HDDs. Some things that work in BIOS mode may not work or work differently in UEFI mode (like AHCI etc.).

Also use GPT if you are not using Windows, even in BIOS mode.

Last edited by skodabenz (2011-01-07 13:50:03)

skodabenz · 2011-01-07 13:54:25

On a side note (may slightly deviate from the topic), do you know of any non-Apple Laptops (not netbooks) running Windows 7 (need it for SolidWorks and other stuff related to college) that provide x86_64-UEFI firmware, within US $1200 (or Indian Rs.60000/-) max. I couldn't find any.

If not laptops, any gigabyte or msi (Intel P67 based) desktop motherboards providing UEFI firmware. Thanks in advance.

Last edited by skodabenz (2011-01-07 17:28:28)

skodabenz · 2011-01-08 16:51:19

It would also be helpful if you give the output of fdisk -p (or gdisk -p) of your HDD along with the filesystem of each partition to determine possible changes required. If you need help, I will be in irc with the nick skodabenz

AndyRTR · 2011-01-08 17:12:46

Thanks for your help offer. I hope the hardware will be shipped within the next week.

Inxsible · 2011-01-08 19:00:09

skodabenz wrote:

On a side note (may slightly deviate from the topic), do you know of any non-Apple Laptops (not netbooks) running Windows 7 (need it for SolidWorks and other stuff related to college) that provide x86_64-UEFI firmware, within US $1200 (or Indian Rs.60000/-) max. I couldn't find any.
If not laptops, any gigabyte or msi (Intel P67 based) desktop motherboards providing UEFI firmware. Thanks in advance.

skodabenz, if you know its offtopic -- and its way off topic not slightly as you suggest -- DO NOT post it in the same thread. Create another thread. Please read the forum rules. Hijacking of threads does not serve anyone's purpose and is considered just noise.

skodabenz · 2011-01-09 10:28:07

Inxsible wrote:

skodabenz, if you know its offtopic -- and its way off topic not slightly as you suggest -- DO NOT post it in the same thread. Create another thread. Please read the forum rules. Hijacking of threads does not serve anyone's purpose and is considered just noise.

Will remember that. But I figured out that irc is a better place to ask these kind of questions than the forum.

Cadynum · 2011-01-22 00:39:19

Hi, I've gotten myself an intel sandy bridge with a motherboard supporting uefi (asus p8p67-m pro).
Wanting to try out the UEFI GPT boot i partitioned a disk like this with gdisk:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          411647   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2          411648        84297727   40.0 GiB    0700  Linux/Windows data
   3        84297728       125045390   19.4 GiB    0700  Linux/Windows data

(Like https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Interface suggests)

After that i proceeded by installing archlinux like normally, except i skipped the bootloader step and installed this instead: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=40290
Instructions followed from the .install without any error messages except "modprove efivars", which the .install claims is fine.

However it doesn't appear to work. After the uefi initialization nothing happens, it just stays a black screen with a blinking cursor. The keyboard is unresponsive except ctrl-alt-del which reboots the system.
Right now I'm booting via a rescue grub2 usb.
I know i could also boot via the classical MBR with GPT, but i would prefer to get it working with UEFI.
Does anyone have any idea what I'm missing? Maybe I'm overlooking some vital part, but it's hard to find out what since there is very little documentation about it.

skodabenz · 2011-01-22 06:32:58

Can you please continue at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=111327

skodabenz · 2011-01-22 06:39:02

Cadynum wrote:

Hi, I've gotten myself an intel sandy bridge with a motherboard supporting uefi (asus p8p67-m pro).
Wanting to try out the UEFI GPT boot i partitioned a disk like this with gdisk:
Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          411647   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2          411648        84297727   40.0 GiB    0700  Linux/Windows data
   3        84297728       125045390   19.4 GiB    0700  Linux/Windows data
(Like https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Interface suggests)
After that i proceeded by installing archlinux like normally, except i skipped the bootloader step and installed this instead: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=40290
Instructions followed from the .install without any error messages except "modprove efivars", which the .install claims is fine.
However it doesn't appear to work. After the uefi initialization nothing happens, it just stays a black screen with a blinking cursor. The keyboard is unresponsive except ctrl-alt-del which reboots the system.
Right now I'm booting via a rescue grub2 usb.
I know i could also boot via the classical MBR with GPT, but i would prefer to get it working with UEFI.
Does anyone have any idea what I'm missing? Maybe I'm overlooking some vital part, but it's hard to find out what since there is very little documentation about it.

I am the maintainer of that package. It seems to be a problem with grub2 upstream and if it is possible for you to obtain any debug messages it would be helpful. Using GPT has nothing to do with this problem and it will occur even with MBR.

Can you please try these packages in order grub-efi-fedora http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=38466 and elilo-git http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=45565 (only if grub-efi-fedora fails).

The only grub2 related uefi documentation available is http://grub.enbug.org/TestingOnMacbook (but most of it is Intel mac specific).

Last edited by skodabenz (2011-01-22 06:55:32)

jasonwryan · 2011-01-22 06:40:34

skodabenz wrote:

Can you please continue at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=111327

Merged...

AndyRTR · 2011-01-22 08:36:31

Just short note: My Asus P8P67 board boots fine my old grub-legacy setup without any changes.

skodabenz · 2011-01-22 08:42:12

AndyRTR wrote:

Just short note: My Asus P8P67 board boots fine my old grub-legacy setup without any changes.

That should have been grub-legacy official package which supports only bios booting. Can you please try grub2-efi-bzr or grub2-efi-x86_64 (https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/19838#comment66259) or grub-efi-fedora for uefi booting and check whether you are getting same problem as Cadynum .

eter · 2011-01-22 18:32:38

I can confirm neither grub2-efi-bzr or grub-efi-fedora packages work on the H67 version of the Asus boards. I get the same blank cursor, no menu, and was not able to get any debug output either. I will try elilo today and see if I can get a different result. Thanks!

Same deal - blank cursor, no uefi shell, no lilo loader. Somehow there is a disconnect between this uefi implementation and the boot loader on these boards.

Couple observations - efibootmgr does not work with this board as a modprobe efivars fails with a no such device. Also, when trying to load a uefi shell from within the bios on the system partition it does not find the file it was looking for.

Last edited by eter (2011-01-22 19:26:13)

skodabenz · 2011-01-22 19:41:36

eter wrote:

I can confirm neither grub2-efi-bzr or grub-efi-fedora packages work on the H67 version of the Asus boards. I get the same blank cursor, no menu, and was not able to get any debug output either. I will try elilo today and see if I can get a different result. Thanks!
Same deal - blank cursor, no uefi shell, no lilo loader. Somehow there is a disconnect between this uefi implementation and the boot loader on these boards.
Couple observations - efibootmgr does not work with this board as a modprobe efivars fails with a no such device. Also, when trying to load a uefi shell from within the bios on the system partition it does not find the file it was looking for.

Do these errors occur after you launch grub.efi or elilo.efi from the EFI Boot Manager or even before that (like - the firmware hangs by itself before even launching any bootloader). Does elilo.efi does not work or does it fail. In my system (Arch64 with Tianocore EDK2 DuetPkg x86_64 UEFI 2.3 firmware) fails to boot grub2-efi and grub-efi-fedora (both share some code base) but boot elilo perfectly.

You can download the EFI Shell from http://tianocore.git.sourceforge.net/gi … fi;hb=HEAD (Part of Intel's Tianocore EDK2 Project - BSD licensed so no problem in using it) and rename it as shellx64.efi and copy it to <EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION>/efi/boot/shellx64.efi .

If <EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION>/efi/boot/shellx64.efi does not work try <EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION>/efi/shellx64.efi or <EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION>/shellx64.efi

Once inside the shell can you post the output of 'ver' and 'mmap' commands. The shell allows output redirection to a text file. The shell behaves like Windows cmd shell with path names like \path etc.

Last edited by skodabenz (2011-01-22 19:45:52)

Cadynum · 2011-01-23 02:22:39

I placed a copy of shellx64 in each of the directories you suggested, however when booting I still just saw that blinking cursor.
In the uefi bios(?) setup, the option "Launch EFI shell" now worked as contrary to before.
I'm afraid I cant give you the output though as redirection (or ls, mkdir etc) all complained about non existing mapping.
From what i can recall from my mind 'ver' at least said this:
EFI Version: 2.0
EFI provider: American Megatrends

If you tell me how to 'map' the disks, I can provide the full output.

skodabenz · 2011-01-23 05:44:29

In the shell, type 'map -b' (The -b is the pager for the shell like 'more' command) and check whether fs0, fs1 etc..exist (atleast fs0 should exist).

Type fs0: and check whether it goes into fs0 (like typing d: in windows cmd shell cd's into d:). Tyr the same for fs1:, fs2: till you get an error for fs<num>: .

For memory map use 'memmap > fs0:\memmap.txt'
For ver use 'ver > fs0:\ver.txt'
For map 'map > fs0:\map.txt'

I want the output of memmap and map commands.

Most likely you EFI SYSTEM PARTITION should be mounted in fs0:\ and you should have full write access to it since it is FAT32.

BTW can you check which of the 3 paths actually worked for UEFI Shell

<EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION>/efi/boot/shellx64.efi
<EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION>/efi/shellx64.efi
<EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION>/shellx64.efi

I want to put this in the wiki

I know how UEFI works but I do not know how Asus or MSI specific implementations work since I do not have any sandy bridge board. It would be better if you could come into #archlinux .

My UEFI is

EFI Version: 2.3
EFI provider: EDK II
EFI Revision: 1.0

Last edited by skodabenz (2011-01-23 10:56:28)

Cadynum · 2011-01-23 21:43:11

ver:
EFI Specification Revision : 2.0
EFI Vendor : American Megatrends
EFI Revision : 4.640

map: http://codepad.org/xCWjMjVu

memmap: http://codepad.org/WjHN55RQ

<EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION>/shellx64.efi Seems to be the only one that works.

NaterGator · 2011-02-02 06:09:15

Ok, ASUS G73SW-A1 user here.

I have been fighting this big time tonight... I initially encountered the same problems, however I was able to get a grub2 menu by adding the following to my grub.conf generated from grub-mkconfig:
insmod efi_gop
set gfxmode=auto

I also had to manually add grub2 as an EFI boot option in the bios, specifying the path as:
\efi\grub\grub.efi
(Note: when mounted in a chrooted env, the path actually appears as /boot/efi/EFI/grub/grub.efi where /boot/efi is the mountpoint. The bios simply ignores capitals, it seems).

My new problem, and one that is quite aggravating, is that I see "Loading initramfs..." flash and then the screen goes black, no kernel panic or anything output, and no disk activity. Not sure where to go next as I have tried all sorts of kernel parameters. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is some interplay between the on-die integrated graphics and discrete nvidia 460M... but I can't be sure until I can get some sort of useful kernel panic message out of this thing.

skodabenz · 2011-02-02 13:09:10

NaterGator wrote:

Ok, ASUS G73SW-A1 user here.
I have been fighting this big time tonight... I initially encountered the same problems, however I was able to get a grub2 menu by adding the following to my grub.conf generated from grub-mkconfig:
insmod efi_gop
set gfxmode=auto

I also had to manually add grub2 as an EFI boot option in the bios, specifying the path as:
\efi\grub\grub.efi
(Note: when mounted in a chrooted env, the path actually appears as /boot/efi/EFI/grub/grub.efi where /boot/efi is the mountpoint. The bios simply ignores capitals, it seems).

The BIOS does not ignore capital letters, it is due to the fact the by default fat32 does not use UTF-8 and therefore all the file names in fat32 filesystem are case-insensitive.

My new problem, and one that is quite aggravating, is that I see "Loading initramfs..." flash and then the screen goes black, no kernel panic or anything output, and no disk activity. Not sure where to go next as I have tried all sorts of kernel parameters. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is some interplay between the on-die integrated graphics and discrete nvidia 460M... but I can't be sure until I can get some sort of useful kernel panic message out of this thing.

This problem occurs because grub2 does not pass proper video mode (resolution) to the kernel so no boot messages appear on the screen. Copy /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 to /boot/efi/EFI/grub/unicode.pf2 and add these lines to grub.cfg

insmod efi_gop
insmod font

if loadfont ${prefix}/unicode.pf2
then
    insmod gfxterm
    set gfxmode=auto
    set gfxpayload=keep
    terminal_output gfxterm
fi

In this code, 'set gfxpayload=keep' instructs grub2 to pass the same video mode that grub2 itself uses (detected by 'set gfxmode=auto' ). The font file is required for a proper graphical terminal and without a graphical terminal, kernel boot messages will not be seen. This problem occurs because grub2 upstream removed text_mode output in uefi and allows only graphical terminal output. According to upstream, there is no reliable way to detect text_mode in uefi firmware (see http://osdir.com/ml/grub-devel-gnu/2010 … 00093.html ). Since gfxterm is not initialized in your case ( code 'terminal_output gfxterm' ), the boot messages are shown.

BTW did you use grub2-efi-x86_64 1.99~rc1 from testing repo or grub2-efi-bzr from AUR?

Last edited by skodabenz (2011-02-02 13:10:05)

NaterGator · 2011-02-02 13:50:57

skodabenz wrote:

The BIOS does not ignore capital letters, it is due to the fact the by default fat32 does not use UTF-8 and therefore all the file names in fat32 filesystem are case-insensitive.
This problem occurs because grub2 does not pass proper video mode (resolution) to the kernel so no boot messages appear on the screen. Copy /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 to /boot/efi/EFI/grub/unicode.pf2 and add these lines to grub.cfg
insmod efi_gop
insmod font

if loadfont ${prefix}/unicode.pf2
then
    insmod gfxterm
    set gfxmode=auto
    set gfxpayload=keep
    terminal_output gfxterm
fi
In this code, 'set gfxpayload=keep' instructs grub2 to pass the same video mode that grub2 itself uses (detected by 'set gfxmode=auto' ). The font file is required for a proper graphical terminal and without a graphical terminal, kernel boot messages will not be seen. This problem occurs because grub2 upstream removed text_mode output in uefi and allows only graphical terminal output. According to upstream, there is no reliable way to detect text_mode in uefi firmware (see http://osdir.com/ml/grub-devel-gnu/2010 … 00093.html ). Since gfxterm is not initialized in your case ( code 'terminal_output gfxterm' ), the boot messages are shown.
BTW did you use grub2-efi-x86_64 1.99~rc1 from testing repo or grub2-efi-bzr from AUR?

Yes. I just wasn't thinking about FAT32 because it was so late.

Thanks for the tip re: getting messages. I have in fact copied the fonts over per the wiki, and I believe I my config file has everything except gfxpayload=keep set as you specified. That said, I'm not sure so I'll go double check.

I used grub2-efi-x86_64 1.99~rc1 as it appeared to be the newer release.

NaterGator · 2011-02-02 14:33:20

skodabenz, that advice got my UEFI boot a little better as the console does not go to black... this is where I stop now:

No messages from the kernel or signs of panic at all. I have confirmed that grub sees my disks, and there is disk access as if the kernel is being loaded. I'm going to root around and see if the kernel26 package needs custom building on my system for EFI/GPT booting (ie kconfig has m/n where I need a Y)... but beyond that I can't really figure why initrd never seems to load or execute the image and why no warnings are displayed.

NaterGator · 2011-02-02 16:01:31

Was finally able to get the sandy bridge chipset to boot from grub2 w/ UEFI by adding noefi to the kernel command line.

Of course, now I have no ACPI, but I guess that does show intel 6 series systems (w/ ASUS BIOSes, at least) can be booted from EFI w/ GPT disks directly.

skodabenz · 2011-02-02 19:25:47

NaterGator wrote:

Was finally able to get the sandy bridge chipset to boot from grub2 w/ UEFI by adding noefi to the kernel command line.
Of course, now I have no ACPI, but I guess that does show intel 6 series systems (w/ ASUS BIOSes, at least) can be booted from EFI w/ GPT disks directly.

If the system boots only with 'noefi' then there is something wrong with you uefi firmware. I guess some runtime services bug similar to tianocore edk2 firmware as explained at http://smackerelofopinion.blogspot.com/ … -with.html .

Anyway can you try booting with add_efi_memmap instead of noefi and try it. If that doesn't work how about nomodeset. In some uefi firmwares grub2 takes some time to copy the kernel and initramfs to the memory before launching the kernel due to efi memory map bugs. You might have to wait some time after "Loading initramfs..." stage to see boot messages.

NaterGator · 2011-02-02 20:15:10

add_efi_memmap didn't do anything; I've left the computer to sit for ~15 minutes and nothing happens... if it's going to take longer than that I'll not wait. There is disk access while the kernel is loaded, but there is nothing output whatsoever at initrd. :\

I had previously tried with nomodeset but it had no effect.

This being my first foray into EFI/UEFI, is there any use in me booting into a UEFI shell and prodding around?

Arch Linux

#1 2011-01-07 10:27:58

UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#2 2011-01-07 13:45:25

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#3 2011-01-07 13:54:25

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#4 2011-01-08 16:51:19

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#5 2011-01-08 17:12:46

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#6 2011-01-08 19:00:09

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#7 2011-01-09 10:28:07

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#8 2011-01-22 00:39:19

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#9 2011-01-22 06:32:58

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#10 2011-01-22 06:39:02

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#11 2011-01-22 06:40:34

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#12 2011-01-22 08:36:31

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#13 2011-01-22 08:42:12

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#14 2011-01-22 18:32:38

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#15 2011-01-22 19:41:36

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#16 2011-01-23 02:22:39

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#17 2011-01-23 05:44:29

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#18 2011-01-23 21:43:11

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#19 2011-02-02 06:09:15

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#20 2011-02-02 13:09:10

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#21 2011-02-02 13:50:57

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#22 2011-02-02 14:33:20

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#23 2011-02-02 16:01:31

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#24 2011-02-02 19:25:47

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

#25 2011-02-02 20:15:10

Re: UEFI boot with Intel P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard

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