Can not boot any Grub options when trying to install using EFI.

[Geezanansa]

Am running the F8c firmware given to me by Gigabyte Global Technical Service which at least means i can now use my wireless keyboard to access BIOS settings predictably... can not confirm any other difference compared to the F8a version.

Have a dual boot system using Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.04 with grub acting as boot manager for both OS.

Part of managing an EFI system is registering boot loaders with firmware which in this instance is not achievable by using efibootmgr from Ubuntu or bcdedit from windows but both seem incapable of telling firmware what to do when trying from installed OS and can not boot an Ubuntu live session EFI mode due to the errors given at start of thread.

Have been using http://www.rodsbooks.com/gb-hybrid-efi/ and http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/index.html for main guidance. Have gotten as far as dual booting EFI mode but can not get rEFInd to work as expected when installing but rEFInd does work using the CD.iso.

ttfn

[Geezanansa]

Just a quick update..
rEFInd has been boot manager for Windows and Ubuntu for a while now but Windows is corrupted to the point of being barely usable; which is bootable but very poor performance taking ten minutes plus to boot and log in. chkdsk taking days to run.. all this is due to trying to set up Android Debug Bridge and mucking about with things i do not understand. Have managed to flash ICS to an ARM v6 Android phone though! Shame it can not run Ubuntu Phone...

Any hows, getting back to the point, this thread is still open as there seems to be no explanation as to why Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint and other distros simply will not install EFI mode. The nearest to running installer EFI mode is Grub the boot manager loading but Grub the boot loader can not be found.

As briefly mentioned in first post Windows installation media had to be recreated in order for an usable EFI image to be used in order for installer to run EFI mode.
I can not find anything online describing anything of the like for Ubuntu.

As another observation and which is hinted at rodsbooks gigabyte page it may be more than possible the firmware being used can only see Windows EFI images. Which may also be the reason a default install of rEFInd does not work on this hardware. As well as contributing to the necessity of running boot-repair to get Ubuntu booting EFI mode after installation.

[oldfred]

Did the new UEFI/BIOS from Gigabyte include an update from UEFI 1.1 to 2+. Ubuntu and Windows are compatible with the newer UEFI. Gigabyte was late in having full UEFI compared to most, but I did see several months ago where they released all new UEFI installs for many motherboards.

I think if you do not have UEFI shell, you can download one from Intel and use it. Intel was one of the creators of the UEFI spec.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UE...ing#UEFI_Shell
EFI/boot/bootx64.efi.efi" ---> Brings up 'EFI shell environment' with command prompt.
Launch EFI Shell from File System Device
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...ace#UEFI_Shell
http://software.intel.com/en-us/arti...and-scripting/

I think it was only the new systems with Windows pre-installed had UEFIs that were modified to only boot the Windows efi file. Boot-Repair did a work around naming grub's shim to the Windows file name, but no many systems now seem to have that issue. The newest Boot-Repair does not rename automatically, but has it now as an option in Advanced.
Your system has Windows boot file renamed. May be best to undo that.

To undo & to rename files to their original names, you just need to tick the "Restore EFI backups" option of Boot-Repair.

You also have a copy of the original Windows boot file:

Windows UEFI install should have backup of bootmgfw.efi here:
C:\Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi from a working Windows x86_64 installation.



The author of rEFIind sometimes posts in askUbuntu, if you have specific issues with that.

[Geezanansa]

Howdy oldfriend

Am actually uncertain to the exact precise EFI version being used as there is very little info from manufacturer. Using efisystab described version as being 1.1 rev 2 (from memory) and rEFInd reports 2.1 being used!

Before buying this board i viewed the webpage for this hardware and there were links regarding a full UEFI gui with loads of funky goodies. After purchasing and feeling let down approached the appropriate people and was told all information is for information only and buy a better board if UEFI is desired!
Regardless; now am using EFI for booting OS's and thanks to rEFInd have a shell environment available which will be useful after getting to learn how to use it! This hardware does have a fair bit of upgradability SATA 3 = ssd which will be another first for me.. so do still see it as investment. Just put the experience down to learning...

Thanks for advice for restoring efibootmgfw. Have found using bcdboot useful for restoring boot partition data - bcdboot c:\windows /s s: /f UEFI after mounting EFS partition then assigning s as volume label and making sure diskpart sees windows partition as c:

Boot-Repair automatically applied renaming fix for me as well as re-installing grub.efi.

What i am stuck on is working out why installation media that claims to be/is EFI capable is not running installer/try ubuntu or any other grub option after grub boot manager has loaded in EFI mode.

Really would be handy if installation media could be started in same mode as installed OS for say being able to use efibootmgr from live session.

[oldfred]

I thought how you boot install media for both Windows & Ubuntu is how it installs (or repairs). So if you boot flash drive in UEFI mode it should work in UEFI mode. But if you boot in BIOS/CSM/Legacy mode then you have old BIOS mode.

[Geezanansa]

Yes. That is my understanding how it should work also. This is not the case on this hardware due to "need to load kernel first" error as described.

The penny is dropping - "Boot-Repair will convert a BIOS install to UEFI by uninstalling grub-pc, and installing grub-efi. It will also rename Windows file if system only boots Windows and installs grub2's shim that has Microsoft secure boot key"
A small quote from oldfreds link from his post.

Regardless of bios settings and install mode of Ubuntu; grub has never loaded a kernel EFI mode for me when booting from installation media. Ubuntu installation media always stops at the black grub options screen with no usable kernels when started in EFI mode. Which means the only way to boot a live session is legacy mode = no efibootmgr.

Thought had posted link to the AskUbuntu question i asked in first post but can not see so here it is http://askubuntu.com/q/208405/102029.

[oldfred]

I think some with AMD do have more issues with UEFI for whatever reason.
Do you need added boot parameters either nomodeset or nomodeset and additional boot options?

Another thread posted this as another UEFI/BIOS setting that caused issues.
Linux kernel enable the IOMMU – input / output memory management unit support - AMD
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-...u-support.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...74&postcount=5

[Geezanansa]

Thanks for the links to extra resources oldfred. Have been trying different options to try and get Ubuntu installer running EFI mode but system hangs and returns the can not read file(vmlinuz) and the kernel needs to be loaded first errors. Have been overlooking editing kernel parameters and the omnly thing that i can boot to is when "noefi" is used....

As an observation have noticed that when boot repair installs grub-efi the grub_bios partition is left behind which my understanding is that partition would only be used with a legacy install alongside an existing efi install. So i deleted it using gdisk and still have dual boot system! Why does boot-repair leave this if it is not needed after installing grub-efi?

Is there a way to boot (FOSS) media EFI mode on this sytem(ga a75 ud4h)? Windows media is the only media i can boot into EFI installer as intended allthough i did have to rebuild iso with winPE in order for an usable EFI image to be available.
Is it possible to rename directories on iso (rebuild iso) for Ubuntu?

The hardware being used failed the secure boot check when using the windows upgrade assistant but i am wondering if there is some kind of secure boot implementation as have seen "secure boot is not enabled" once or twice (unpredictable occurance). But this could just be related to which flavour/distro is being booted to at install time.(shim) EDIT: This only happens when using an .iso with signed.efi image

[oldfred]

Boot-Repair does not add or delete partitions. It may tell you that it is needed, if converting from UEFI to BIOS boot. Ubuntu now does create a bios_grub partition. I only have BIOS and started using gpt with 10.10 and the installer did not create a bios_grub. I had to manually add that myself or grub would not install correctly on a gpt partitioned drive.

You only need an efi partition with UEFI boot or a bios_grub partition with BIOS boot, but I often suggest both if a new hard drive. Then you can install and all the partitions are there, or later you can change. Also if you install in BIOS mode and do not have an efi partition near beginning of drive it is difficult later to try to insert one when drive is full of data. Both are small compared to most new drives.

There just seem to be some systems that only boot the Windows efi file. That is a modification to the UEFI that is not UEFI standard. The only work around seems to be to install in BIOS mode and use Boot-Repair to rename the Windows efi file to actually be grub2's shim file which has the Microsoft signing key and still works. Then from grub menu you can boot the renamed/backed up Windows efi file.

Some Toshiba's will not boot.
they managed to leave the signing key out of the database that's used to validate binaries
Lenovo ThinkCentre M92p only boots Windows or Redhat.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTIyOTg
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/20187.html?thread=774619


Many vendors are fixing UEFI also, so updates to UEFI/BIOS may help resolve issues also.

[Geezanansa]

The hardware i have been using has been same from starting this little idea which is now a project of installing using EFI. Mobo manufacturer no where in their documentation confirm which version of EFI is being used but it is EFI and not UEFI.

Boot-Repair does not add or delete partitions. It may tell you that it is needed, if converting from UEFI to BIOS boot.

Using a 13.04 iso to install ubuntu would not start in efi mode at all for me i.e. never got black background grub list; ever. I had to let the bios installer run and then used boot-repair to get Ubuntu booting using grub-efi and all this was without switching EFI off!

<strike>Boot-repair prompted me with commands to enter from terminal which included chrooting and am fairly sure a grub_bios partition was created on this fix. i.e why was Ubuntu not booting if grub_bios was in existence. So Ubuntu failed to start EFI and possibly did not create grub_bios partition. boot-repair either fixed an unusable existing grub_bios or created it. Have terminal log saved as text file if you would like to see it as well as evidence</strike> (Edit: 12 August 2013 re-reading this thread from begining prompted memory that it was 13.04 installer that requested the making of grub_bios partition and has nothing to do with boot-repair)

Boot-repair renamed the ubuntu EFI boot files to windows EFI boot files after backing up the original windows ones.
Using a 12.04 or 12.10 iso does start EFI mode but throws the can not read file and kernel needs to be loaded first errors so have be installed legacy mode and then install grub-efi to convert to using EFI.
Earlier flavours 11.04 11.10 apparently create a 16bit EFI partition. Which has to be recreated to 32bit before attempting to use it as 16bit is not EFI compliable i.e not part of EFI specification. I have not had 11.04 or 11.10 running EFI mode on this hardware.

There just seem to be some systems that only boot the Windows efi file. That is a modification to the UEFI that is not UEFI standard.

It would appear i have hardware of the like as in having a very poor EFI implementation.
EFI specification is different from UEFI but EFI is essentialy UEFI. I prefer to use the EFI tag as that is what my machine describes it as. EFI has not been collaboratly designed as it is purely Intels work with not much input from manufacturers. Manufacturers are free to implement EFI on their hardware as they see fit or that is what my opinion is after doing some research. My motherboard was manufactured in 2011.

Have had both Ubuntu installer and rEFInd mentioning files related to secure boot. i.e.shim, amok, keys, signed image. This is what implies some kind of secure boot implementation on the hardware being used.

Many vendors are fixing UEFI also, so updates to UEFI/BIOS may help resolve issues also

AMD have ended the FM1 socket development. Motherboard manufacturer describes this model as entry level and have confirmed no development can be expected. The firmware being used is a firmware version that is not available at their website and was obtained through their technical services department.

All this knowledge still has not enabled me to boot Ubuntu installer in EFI mode; ever. That is not yet.

Am aware of firmware possibly looking for redhat and am working on a redhat install as part of the process of elemination..