grub2 EFI boot loader internal/external booting

[pxwpxw]

27 Nov 2009.
Menu posts on this thread are now out of date, a lot more has been done -
You should see the current latest links in particular burg-devel for up to date menu examples and discussion, all listed on
Fancy menu for GRUB EFI
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1248647

[TheW4rden]

Hi,

I have skimmed through this thread and have played with the compiled grub64.efi samples provided.

In summary am I right in thinking that on a MBP4.1 (EFI1.1) there is still no way to get the nvidia drivers working but on a MBP5.1 (UEFI2) it is possible (with fakebios)? I have only tried a MBP4.1 so far and can boot Linux off a USB stick and have the efifb working but as soon as X tries to start I get:

NVRM: failed to copy vbios to system memory.
NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x30:0xffffffff:909)
NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed

Is this something that is being worked on or is it simply not possible to get it working for the older EFI1.1 Macs? Does anyone know if it works under ELILO?

Keep up the amazing work done so far!

[sroecker]

Just noticed, if you want to boot lucid you need to change initrd.gz to initrd.lz in grub.cfg.

[robyz80s]

Hi all

i have a mbp 5,3 and i compiled grub2 with --with-platform=efi --target=x86_64. As primary bootloader i use refit. I executed grub_install with disk0s1 mounted (EFI partition) and i moved the directory grub2 in EFI. This the relevant portion of grub.cfg:

menuentry "GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.32.2" {
insmod ext2
fakebios
set root=(hd0,3)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a36c5327-bf7d-49a3-81fa-774bb8e422e0
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32.2 root=/dev/sda4 ro agp=off video=efifb
initrd /initramfs-2.6.32.2.img
}

Refit sucessfully detected grub.efi and then i executed grub2 and i selected from the menu the entry. But after grub2 displayed the two lines relative to the loading of the kernel and the initrd, nothing happened. What's wrong?
Thanks in advance for replies

[robyz80s]

OK, i followed the instructions in past posts, i tried the grub64.efi in the post #844 and it worked.
Now the boot process hangs when mounting the root device. First, i cannot see any message from the initrd (i suspect it never be executed). I have compiled built-in all required modules and the root cannot get mounted. The last message is the list of the partitions of my disk with a strange numeration: 0801 for sda1, 0802 for sda2 etc... Does it depend from grub2 and do i need to insert extra modules?

[robyz80s]

I tried both ubuntu and fedora, with different kernel versions/config.
There's always one issue:

[ 1.279579] RAMDISK: Couldn't find valid RAM disk image starting at 0.

Fedora cannot proceed because it's unable to find the console. Ubuntu works.
How to solve the problem with the initramfs?

[TheW4rden]

NVRM: failed to copy vbios to system memory.
NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x30:0xffffffff:909)
NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed

Is this something that is being worked on or is it simply not possible to get it working for the older EFI1.1 Macs? Does anyone know if it works under ELILO?

Just to follow up. I can get the Nvidia card working on a MBP5.4 (EFI2.0) but not on the MBP4.1 (EFI1.1). This is with the same USB stick/grub2/kernel. Also kernels > 2.6.30 give the "failed to find valid ramdisk" error on my MBP5.4 but not on a MBP4.1. Linux 2.6.30 boots fine on both. This may or may not be related to:

http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14658

[toxicer]

I am trying to get an actual Mac Mini (3,1) installed using an usb stick.
This is my grub.conf:

menuviewer="text"

timeout=20
default=0

set F1=ctrl-x

set color_normal=yellow/red

menuentry "A ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso " {
fakebios
set root=(hd0,1)
search --set -f /ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
loopback loop /ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso noefi fbdev video=efifb
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "B ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso fbdev " {
fakebios
search --set -f /ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
loopback loop /ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso video=efifb fbdev noefi single
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "xubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso" {
fakebios
set root=(hd0,1)
loopback loop /ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso noefi video=efifb --
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

I can load grub2 and make my selection but after some EXT4-fs related outputs on the screen I am dropped into BusyBox together with an error message starting with:
(initramfs) Could not find the ISO /ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso....
The iso is located in the root of the usb stick. At this time the Mac doesn't react on any inputs anymore.
Any ideas?

[TheW4rden]

[ 1.279579] RAMDISK: Couldn't find valid RAM disk image starting at 0.

This can be fixed by reverting this patch:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kerne...96db05202a12fe

[robyz80s]

Ok, thanks. Works fine with the latest stable kernel 2.6.32.4. Still problem with the DMI (when booting in efi native mode) and the nvidia backlight. I tried the instructions in the post #398, and prompting the command loadbios /boot/bios.bin seems to work. But after the shutdown of the machine this file is no longer valid and i need to regenerate it another time. When the bios informations are correctly loaded, either pommed or the mbp_nvidia_bl module don't work. I also tried to modify the kernel module (by adding Macbook Pro 5,3) in the identification string list but no success. Does someone has knowledge of a solution? Thanks