Ubuntu efi disaster.

[viking777]

Just got a new laptop, Fujitsu Lifebook AH532. Installed Ubuntu 12.10 on it (overwriting Windows) because I had heard it had good efi support. Indeed it does, too good perhaps, because now the only thing I can do is to boot Ubuntu, nothing else.

I can't access the bios, cant boot from usb, cant boot from cd/dvd, all those options are gone. I installed boot-repair carried out a repair but nothing has changed. The comprehensive information it provides is here:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/1375041/

Maybe boot-repair is not the answer since Ubuntu boots perfectly, but what is? I can't install a second distro, I can't reinstall the first one, I can't run any repair tools (unless they run from within Ubuntu like boot-repair), I can't use tools like gparted (because all my partitions are mounted). I have a disk image of the original disk, but I can't use it because I can't run Clonezilla to clone it back to the drive.

Basically I am just completely stuck.

Any ideas?

NB. If you read the pastebin output ignore all refernces to /dev/sdb, it is not a boot device and it makes no difference to anything even if it is unplugged.

[darkod]

The machine surely has a way to enter bios. Can you refer to some manual or contact support?

Maybe it only has some sort of fast boot combined with a logo that's hiding the good old DOS like messages on the screen. Most manufacturers do that now hoping to present the computers as fast booting, not thinking about situations when you actually need time to go into some bios options, and similar.

I never want a machine that will just speed through boot.

[viking777]

The machine surely has a way to enter bios. Can you refer to some manual or contact support?

Maybe it only has some sort of fast boot combined with a logo that's hiding the good old DOS like messages on the screen. Most manufacturers do that now hoping to present the computers as fast booting, not thinking about situations when you actually need time to go into some bios options, and similar.

I never want a machine that will just speed through boot.

Yes it has a way to enter the bios - press f2 at boot up - except it no longer works since installing ubuntu in efi mode, it just ignores it (it used to work before I installed Ubuntu, but not any more).

I agree with you 100% about machines that speed through boot without messages and I disable that function in every distro I install including this one, I see all the boot messages on the screen as they happen, but it doesn't help, there are no errors.

[oldfred]

It is my understanding that Ubuntu uses the same secure boot key as Windows, so there should not be any difference. And installing a system does not modify UEFI or BIOS in any way.

Unless UEFI had options in the Windows boot loader to boot back into UEFI but I have not seen that. But this new secure boot is different.

Did you turn secure boot off or is it still on? Ubuntu should work either way. Some have reported dual booting both Windows 8 & Ubuntu with secure boot setting in UEFI on or off after install without issue. But again that varies by how vendor has implemented UEFI secure boot.

You still have the Microsoft efi files in the efi partition. You could experiment with booting those from grub 's menu and see what happens after that crashes as it of course has no place to go.

menuentry "Windows 7 UEFI" {
search --file --no-floppy --set=root /efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
chainloader (${root})/efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

#Add above to 40_custom
gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom
sudo update-grub

[viking777]

Thanks for the reply oldfred, I don't think that was a solution, but I found a workround at least, although it was absolutely terrifying with such a new machine. I had to follow the process mentioned here:

http://www.linlap.com/fujitsu_lifebook_ah532

about removing the ram modules and shorting the cl1, cl2 pins.

If Ubuntu caused me to have to do this then they need to rapidly rethink their handling of efi booting.

This is only a workround because I still have no access to my bios (f2 still doesn't work). However f12 does and this gives you access to the boot choices menu. Before shorting those terminals there was nothing in there except Ubuntu. After shorting them all boot choices show up (although there is no way to order them as in the bios) at least you can choose which to boot from.

And Linus thinks that efi is not a problem does he?

Hmm?

[lsatenstein]

Thanks for the reply oldfred, I don't think that was a solution, but I found a workround at least, although it was absolutely terrifying with such a new machine. I had to follow the process mentioned here:

http://www.linlap.com/fujitsu_lifebook_ah532

about removing the ram modules and shorting the cl1, cl2 pins.

If Ubuntu caused me to have to do this then they need to rapidly rethink their handling of efi booting.

This is only a workround because I still have no access to my bios (f2 still doesn't work). However f12 does and this gives you access to the boot choices menu. Before shorting those terminals there was nothing in there except Ubuntu. After shorting them all boot choices show up (although there is no way to order them as in the bios) at least you can choose which to boot from.

And Linus thinks that efi is not a problem does he?

Hmm?

Is it possible that besides jumpering out the bios memory keep alive voltage, that there is a set of parameters stored within the clock chip? You could try the jumper again and also or alternatively, remove the battery (flat mercury Oxide) battery.

I am reading this problem 10 days after you first reported it.

[YannBuntu]

Yes it has a way to enter the bios - press f2 at boot up - except it no longer works since installing ubuntu in efi mode, it just ignores it

maybe a bug in efibootmgr... Please report the hole bug here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...otmgr/+filebug
and tell us the link so that we can follow-up.

[viking777]

I will do that when I get the time Yannbuntu, in the meantime an update.

I decided to reinstall Ubuntu in the hope of getting my bios access back, instead of that it reverted to having no bios access (f2) and the boot options access (f12) displayed two versions of Ubuntu and nothing else (despite there only being one Ubuntu version installed). So I had to short my motherboard yet again.

I have a good deal of experience with Linux and use it exclusively, but I can tell you I don't find this remotely funny. If novice users get UEFI experiences like this then Linux on the desktop is finished.

BTW before I removed windows I had access to the bios and I searched through the entire bios menu and found no controls relating to uefi or secure boot whatsoever. Here is the dmidecode output:

BIOS Information
        Vendor: FUJITSU // Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
        Version: Version 1.09
        Release Date: 05/22/2012
        Address: 0xE0000
        Runtime Size: 128 kB
        ROM Size: 4096 kB
        Characteristics:
                PCI is supported
                PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported
                PNP is supported
                BIOS is upgradeable
                BIOS shadowing is allowed
                Boot from CD is supported
                Selectable boot is supported
                EDD is supported
                3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
                Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
                8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
                Serial services are supported (int 14h)
                Printer services are supported (int 17h)
                CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
                ACPI is supported
                USB legacy is supported
                BIOS boot specification is supported
                Function key-initiated network boot is supported
                Targeted content distribution is supported
                UEFI is supported
        BIOS Revision: 1.9

There is a bios update on their site (10Aug2012) but needless to say it is a windows exe file and therefore I would need to put Windows back on to install it.

[darkod]

I might be wrong but I am starting to think that UEFI is actually designed to be more difficult to users, not easier. Especially yo users that want freedom.

They want to tie you to a certain manufacturer or OS.

I am planning my desktop upgrade and I am watching out very carefully the board model and have downloaded the manual from their website to confirm you can disable UEFI boot and run legacy boot only.

[grahammechanical]

May I say something?

All this is very new to all of us. With secure boot enabled it will only be possible to install an OS that supports Secure Boot and there are not many of them around at the moment. Ubuntu 12.10 is perhaps one of two for the time being.

http://web.dodds.net/~vorlon/wiki/bl..._Ubuntu_12.10/

Secure boot is just a part of the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) specification. What does the rest of the specification say?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified...ware_Interface

Here are my questions: If we install an OS with Secure Boot on do we get UEFI instead of BIOS? If so, then how does a user access the UEFI set up? Do we still have a BIOS that can be accessed by F2 or Del or whatever?

UEFI is a replacement for BIOS.

http://www.uefi.org/learning_center/

Regards.