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Thread: Mint EFI boot problems

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    SW Forida
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    Hidden!
    Distro
    Kubuntu

    Re: Mint EFI boot problems

    You have grub installed to the MBR as if in BIOS mode. And a install to the partition boot sector.

    Newer posts say you do not have to recompile grub with Ubuntu, but what version of grub2 are you using? Or what Ubuntu is your Mint based on.

    I still do not see full boot script. Boot Repair creates a link. Just post link.

    Just to get you booting create a new 1MB partition anywhere on drive and flag it with bios_grub. Reinstall grub2's boot loader to the MBR and set to boot in BIOS mode.

    If drive is only going to be Ubuntu (never Windows), I would suggest using gpt not MBR as the partitioning scheme. You then do not have any logical partitions, they are all primary and it has a backup in case of problems. You do have to create a tiny bios_grub partition to correctly install grub2's boot loader to the drive.
    If using gpt with BIOS create a 1MB bios_grub partition. I used gparted and selected gpt under device, advanced & select gpt over msdos(MBR) default partitioning....

    In a GPT partition map, the 31 kiB area after Master Boot Record where GRUB is usually embedded to, does not exist. When GRUB can't be embedded, its only option is to use blocklists, which are unreliable and discouraged.
    However, in the GPT setup, there is no space following the 512-byte MBR for embedding the "second stage" core.img. Thus, you must make a separate "BIOS boot partition" to hold core.img.

    Since the BIOS Boot Partition ("bios_grub" flag set in GNU Parted) is used without a filesystem for storing GRUB 2 boot code "unknown" filesystem! may be shown in many Partition tools.

    You can set bios_grub flag in gparted or with command line: In GPT fdisk (gdisk), give it a type code of EF02.
    sudo parted /dev/sda set <partition_number> bios_grub on

    BIOS Boot Partition only needs to be about 32 KiB in size, although in most cases make it 1 MiB because of partition alignment issues

    Actually, using ext2 for example, and GParted Live CD, the minimum partition size is 8 MB, or 32 MB for FAT32.

    Since the BIOS Boot Partition ("bios_grub" flag set in GNU Parted) is used without a filesystem for storing GRUB 2 boot code, and since the EFI System Partition (ESP) is used by EFI with a FAT-32 filesystem for storing EFI files, the two cannot be the same partition.
    If you're using EFI mode to boot, you don't need a BIOS Boot Partition, but you do need an EFI System Partition (ESP)
    If a new drive, to be safe, create both of these partitions, in addition to your regular Linux partitions. But the efi partition has to be first. Do not configure Linux to use either the ESP or the BIOS Boot Partition; they'll be used automatically by GRUB, if necessary.

    If you're using EFI mode to boot, you don't need a BIOS Boot Partition with gpt partitions (only for BIOS), but you do need an EFI System Partition (ESP). This is entirely different; it should be a 200-300 MiB FAT32 partition that's flagged as an ESP and must be the first partition. In libparted-based tools, you'd give it a "boot" flag (which is entirely unrelated to the MBR boot/active flag, although libparted makes them look the same). In gdisk, you'd give it a type code of EF00.
    An EFI System Partition (~100 to -256MiB, FAT32) for UEFI, a BIOS Boot Partition (~1MiB, no filesystem) for BIOS, and whatever partitions you want for Linux. You must set the partition type codes correctly, but how you do this depends on the utility you use to create them. Also, you should be sure to create a GUID Partition Table (GPT) on the disk, not a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table. In BIOS mode, Ubuntu's installer defaults to creating MBR partitions, at least on sub-2TB disks, so you may need to use another utility to do the partitioning.

    In GPT fdisk, ESPs have a type code of EF00. In libparted-based tools, you mark the ESP as such by setting its "boot flag." Note that the libparted "boot flag" means something entirely different under MBR, and you should not set the "boot flag" on any OS partition under GPT!
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Beans
    35

    Re: Mint EFI boot problems

    I finally managed to boot with EFI, I wrote a guide of how I did it:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11842855

    Thanks for all the help!

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