EFI boot hardy

[dranfi]

Well, I have a 5-boot working (Leopard, XP (32 bits, SP3) ,Vista (32 bits, SP1), Ubuntu (32 bits, 8.04) and Fedora (64 bits, 9)) on my MacBook C2C 2,1; GPT/MBR hybrid partitioning.
I have my grub (the one included in Ubuntu) installed on my OS X partition.
I'm using rEFIt. I started paying with GRUB2, version EFI. Now I can chainload OS X, but I can't load Ubuntu, my kernel is 2.6.24-19-generic.
I think that I should recompile a newer kernel in order to have EFI support?
Can you give me the instructions and/or .config file? Not forgetting the kernel args.

Thank you in advance.

[cyberdork33]

You have to enable EFI bootability in the kernel. I think this is on by default in 2.6.26 (i.e. Intrepid might work)

[pxwpxw]

You need 2.6.25 or 2.6.26.

The current linux-image from the intrepid packages is good for grub.efi,
just install the package, no need to reconfigure. I am using it or the
2.6.26-4-generic from intrepid server install cd.


admax@WDC:~$ uname -a
Linux WDC 2.6.26-4-generic #1 SMP Mon Jul 14 18:39:53 UTC 2008 i686
GNU/Linux
admax@WDC:~$

I will post my config info tomorow, its a bit late now.
Good to see someone else using grub.efi

[dranfi]

Well I tryed with that kernel (32 bits), my EFI firmware is 32 bit and I have an horrible screen : http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=B3YZ2AM3.
My grub.efi is capable to load a 64 bits Fedora kernel but is has a lot of ata1.00 errors.

[cyberdork33]

graphics do not work well under an EFI boot. This is a known limitation.

[dranfi]

I that case, it's not a limitation, but it's unusable!

[cyberdork33]

I that case, it's not a limitation, but it's unusable!
I say that because it really depends on what Mac you use. You can even get 3d acceleration going on Mac Minis. This is the biggest obstacle so far in getting a good EFI-boot solution for Linux on Macs.

[pxwpxw]

I that case, it's not a limitation, but it's unusable!

In your screen picture .jpg, the "venetian blind" with 10 columns is just an indication that some tweaking of kernel boot args and blacklist is needed.

I have seen that many times until fixed.

It requires agp off and use of framebuffer (fbdev), so if you can't live without agp, thats the end of the story, but if you can then see my next post.

[pxwpxw]

===============================
Tweaks for grub.efi booting MacBook c2d.

1. grub.cfg menuentry (extracts )


menuentry "search-2.6.26-4-generic sdb2 X" {
search --set /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-4-generic
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-4-generic root=/dev/sdb2 ro agp=off video=efifb
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-4-generic
}
menuentry "search-2.6.26-4-generic sdb2 SINGLE" {
search --set /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-4-generic
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-4-generic root=/dev/sdb2 ro single agp=off video=efifb
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-4-generic
}

### one custom kernel needed the pci=bioisrq for ATA error, bug not seen since, (hint was in syslog/dmesg)

menuentry "search-2.6.26-efi01 sda4 -SINGLE" {
search --set /linux/vmlinuz-2.6.26-pxw-efi-01
linux /linux/vmlinuz-2.6.26-pxw-efi-01 root=/dev/sda4 ro single video=vesafb agp=off pci=biosirq
initrd /linux/initrd.img-2.6.26-pxw-efi-01
}


2. Use the single user root console startup until all clear to run the Desktop.
You can edit your ubuntu system from another linux or rescue cd (if you cant boot it with a non-efi bootloader).

## console needs the fbcon module, this intrepid install had it, if not, you may get a blank console screen, you have to edit /etc/modules and add fbcon - probably from the rescue cd, or other system (and later add to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and update-initramfs).

4. /etc/X11/xorg.conf needs the Driver "fbdev", no other change if it was working before.

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "fbdev"
EndSection


5. additions to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist - required.

blacklist agpgart
blacklist intel-agp


6. I am using grub.efi made by grub-mkimage compiled from the grub2 gnu source, not the ubuntu grub2 packages.

http://svn.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/trunk/grub2/?root=grub

7. grub.efi and grub.cfg are in an hfsplus partition#1 on this external enclosure,
intrepid is on ext3 #2. (I also have grub.efi in various hfsplus parts on the MacBook hd, with Macosx on sda2 and xubuntu804 on sda3/4).
The external is /dev/sdb and has MBR partitioning.


(parted) p free
Model: WD 3200AAJS Externa (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 7151MB 7151MB primary hfs+
7151MB 7156MB 4841kB Free Space
2 7156MB 47.1GB 40.0GB primary ext3 boot
3 47.1GB 49.1GB 1999MB primary linux-swap
49.1GB 320GB 271GB Free Space


8. Previous related post and links

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5579534&postcount=16

[pxwpxw]

on my macbook (see below):

grub.efi from the ubuntu grub-efi package :

grub-efi_1.96+20080512-1ubuntu2_i386.deb

is broken.

grub.efi made with all modules and installed manually fails
to load ubuntu kernels

vmlinuz-2.6.26-5-generic
vmlinuz-2.6.26-5-generic
vmlinuz-2.6.25-1-386
and others.

and has bugs in its command line.

It does manage to chainload macosx.

Use grub.efi made by grub-mkimage compiled from the grub2 gnu source, it works.

http://svn.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/trunk/grub2/?root=grub

Platform:
# dmidecode -t system
# dmidecode 2.9
# SMBIOS entry point at 0x3eebf000
SMBIOS 2.4 present.

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Product Name: MacBook2,1
Version: 1.0
Serial Number: W8717FYXWGL
UUID: 61F9E18A-38B2-B440-A87E-7457DF18863C
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
SKU Number: System SKUNumber
Family: MacBook

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 32, 20 bytes
System Boot Information
Status: No errors detected

Handle 0x0106, DMI type 12, 5 bytes
System Configuration Options

Running kernel loaded by grub.efi (svn)

# uname -r
2.6.25-1-386

I have submitted a bug report on launchpad:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/259986/

[cyberdork33]

I have submitted a bug report on launchpad:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/259986/
Now's the time to get them in. I have noticed a lot of the mactel bugs are getting assigned to devs recently, probably for inclusion to Intrepid. Still nothing on the MBR clearing bug though :(
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/222126