UEFI hell?

[ClientAlive]

Ok, my intention is not to go off on a rant but I really should explain a couple things so that people might be able to help me...

I built a new desktop over a month ago and haven't been able to use it yet. I specifically chose a uefi motherboard because I thought I would be able to take advantage of all these wonderful new efi features. I've spent the last 3 weeks trying to install 2 other distros without success. It's important to me that it be a Linux system and that it be an efi bootabel system. I also have large disks so I will require gpt to take advantage of all my disk space (I know there is add hoc software that gives you a workaround but I don't want that). As of this point I'm just hoping to find something I can 'just install' and begin using my new computer. I've been using ubuntu 10.04 LTS for a little over a year now and it's my first Linux (using it on the loaptop I'm writing to you on now). So, that being said, I'm hoping to verify whether this is true of Ubuntu or not - that it does well with uefi. If anyone has experience with this (non mac) please share...

Heres what I have so far:

3 X 3 TB disks partitioned with gpt in the followind way -

root@sysresccd /root % gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.1

 

Partition table scan:

  MBR: protective

  BSD: not present

  APM: not present

  GPT: present

 

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

 

Command (? for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 5860533168 sectors, 2.7 TiB

Logical sector size: 512 bytes

Disk identifier (GUID): BF5AB663-8960-406F-BCE1-1DECD658A063

Partition table holds up to 128 entries

First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 5860533134

Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries

Total free space is 2014 sectors (1007.0 KiB)

 

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name

   1            2048          104447   50.0 MiB    EF00  EFI System

   2          104448      1536104447   732.4 GiB   FD00  Linux RAID

   3      1536104448      1547290623   5.3 GiB     8200  Linux swap

   4      1547290624      5860533134   2.0 TiB     FD00  Linux RAID

 

Command (? for help): q

root@sysresccd /root % gdisk /dev/sdb

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.1

 

Partition table scan:

  MBR: protective

  BSD: not present

  APM: not present

  GPT: present

 

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

 

Command (? for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 5860533168 sectors, 2.7 TiB

Logical sector size: 512 bytes

Disk identifier (GUID): 26EC247D-7F60-4789-8AF3-E04121501585

Partition table holds up to 128 entries

First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 5860533134

Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries

Total free space is 102366 sectors (50.0 MiB)

 

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name

   1          102400      1536102399   732.4 GiB   FD00  Linux RAID

   2      1536102400      1547288575   5.3 GiB     8200  Linux swap

   3      1547288576      5860533134   2.0 TiB     FD00  Linux RAID

 

Command (? for help): q

root@sysresccd /root % gdisk /dev/sdc

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.1

 

Partition table scan:

  MBR: protective

  BSD: not present

  APM: not present

  GPT: present

 

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

 

Command (? for help): p

Disk /dev/sdc: 5860533168 sectors, 2.7 TiB

Logical sector size: 512 bytes

Disk identifier (GUID): 26EC247D-7F60-4789-8AF3-E04121501585

Partition table holds up to 128 entries

First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 5860533134

Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries

Total free space is 102366 sectors (50.0 MiB)

 

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name

   1          102400      1536102399   732.4 GiB   FD00  Linux RAID

   2      1536102400      1547288575   5.3 GiB     8200  Linux swap

   3      1547288576      5860533134   2.0 TiB     FD00  Linux RAID

 

Command (? for help): q

RAID in the following configuration -

 root@sysresccd /root % cat /proc/mdstat
    Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]

    md126 : active raid5 sda2[0] sdc1[3] sdb1[1]

          1535996928 blocks super 1.2 level 5, 512k chunk, algorithm 2 [3/3] [UUU]

         

    md127 : active raid5 sda4[0] sdc3[3] sdb3[1]

          4313239552 blocks super 1.2 level 5, 512k chunk, algorithm 2 [3/3] [UUU]

  unused devices: <none>

And LVM in the following configuration -

   root@sysresccd /root % pvdisplay
      --- Physical volume ---

      PV Name               /dev/md127

      VG Name               data

      PV Size               4.02 TiB / not usable 4.00 MiB

      Allocatable           yes (but full)

      PE Size               4.00 MiB

      Total PE              1053036

      Free PE               0

      Allocated PE          1053036

      PV UUID               ekXL2P-Hgvo-h3C2-LDTD-oUsO-EIsp-Kzo0Wo

       

      --- Physical volume ---

      PV Name               /dev/md126

      VG Name               sys

      PV Size               1.43 TiB / not usable 0  

      Allocatable           yes (but full)

      PE Size               4.00 MiB

      Total PE              374999

      Free PE               0

      Allocated PE          374999

      PV UUID               OH3VfN-Jro5-DvEK-HoFL-0wG5-30Qc-LXpBcd

       

    root@sysresccd /root % vgdisplay

      --- Volume group ---

      VG Name               data

      System ID            

      Format                lvm2

      Metadata Areas        1

      Metadata Sequence No  6

      VG Access             read/write

      VG Status             resizable

      MAX LV                0

      Cur LV                1

      Open LV               0

      Max PV                0

      Cur PV                1

      Act PV                1

      VG Size               4.02 TiB

      PE Size               4.00 MiB

      Total PE              1053036

      Alloc PE / Size       1053036 / 4.02 TiB

      Free  PE / Size       0 / 0  

      VG UUID               vLZg8a-K3qK-W7ae-ea30-ViAh-Pnri-rRjL2C

       

      --- Volume group ---

      VG Name               sys

      System ID            

      Format                lvm2

      Metadata Areas        1

      Metadata Sequence No  13

      VG Access             read/write

      VG Status             resizable

      MAX LV                0

      Cur LV                2

      Open LV               1

      Max PV                0

      Cur PV                1

      Act PV                1

      VG Size               1.43 TiB

      PE Size               4.00 MiB

      Total PE              374999

      Alloc PE / Size       374999 / 1.43 TiB

      Free  PE / Size       0 / 0  

      VG UUID               6w59f4-0AEz-hn7t-2pNF-olbT-EM8g-mkwVpD

       

    root@sysresccd /root % lvdisplay

      --- Logical volume ---

      LV Name                /dev/data/storage

      VG Name                data

      LV UUID                hWfopU-NjVi-s7Ao-dDsQ-1uik-Mv2v-tec3Pf

      LV Write Access        read/write

      LV Status              available

      # open                 0

      LV Size                4.02 TiB

      Current LE             1053036

      Segments               1

      Allocation             inherit

      Read ahead sectors     auto

      - currently set to     4096

      Block device           253:0

       

      --- Logical volume ---

      LV Name                /dev/sys/root

      VG Name                sys

      LV UUID                2MlJJA-B8N7-ReMa-Oj8q-VRAs-muU7-OvBNjk

      LV Write Access        read/write

      LV Status              available

      # open                 1

      LV Size                50.00 GiB

      Current LE             12800

      Segments               1

      Allocation             inherit

      Read ahead sectors     auto

      - currently set to     4096

      Block device           253:1

       

      --- Logical volume ---

      LV Name                /dev/sys/vm

      VG Name                sys

      LV UUID                0KpbV5-3hiS-T3PY-1lw1-VLmr-nT87-O0LegZ

      LV Write Access        read/write

      LV Status              available

      # open                 0

      LV Size                1.38 TiB

      Current LE             362199

      Segments               1

      Allocation             inherit

      Read ahead sectors     auto

      - currently set to     4096

      Block device           253:2

These are that which I intend to keep. Let me clarify, I can and am willing to step back and repartition, redo raid and redo lvm - if some different configuration is necessary or even just better. I would rather avoid that but I am willing. What I can't give up is having RAID and lvm altogether - these are things I need to have as part of my system.

I should also explain why I'm writing this post first rather than just "trying it and see..."

I have spent the last 4 solid days (I'm talking about all day from the momonet my eyes crack open until I can no longer hold them open) trying to build gentoo on that !@#^# of a machine. Suffice it to say, UEFI bites me in the but again on that one (good luck installing grub2 on a gentoo build).

So the moral of the story is I just don't want to clobber Gentoo until I'm a little more certain that what I would replace it with will work without too much greif.

I know this was a long post; and, if you made it throught to this point I sincerely appreciate you reading this. If you have any words of wisdom please do share them with me. I'm tired. I need my computer.

Thanks
Jake

[acimi66]

Sorry I can't really help but heres some link that might help

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

or this video be informative
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=-zYFeUlInpo

the uefi bios looks great.
Good Luck

[nothingspecial]

Merged.

[Cheesemill]

My setup doesn't use LVM but I have successfully installed Arch on a system that uses UEFI, GPT and GRUB2.

I'm not sure if using RAID as a boot device is possible though, I just have an SSD as my OS drive and a software RAID using mdadm for my storage.

Some links that may be useful:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GPT
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub2

I know that you were asking about Ubuntu, but I figure that if you're OK with Gentoo then Arch should be no problem

Also I used this installation media:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot

Which has support for GPT / GRUB2 / UEFI built in unlike the official install image.

[Gone fishing]

You can have the raid on the boot device (I've done it).
I found this which looks useful with Ubuntu http://askubuntu.com/questions/91484...-from-efi-uefi

[oldfred]

I think Cheesemill gave you some good links. I have not installed with UEFI and do not know RAID nor LVM.

Grub2 has many updates to work with UEFI and you need the newest version. There were(are) many bugs also, some that require major workaround.

If just Ubuntu and you have partitioned in advance and are installing the newest version it should work. But only those who partitioned in advance seemed to make it work.

grub EFI -skodabenz
1. Most of the modern UEFI systems come with GPT instead of MBR.
2. GRUB needs to be installed to the ESP (EFI SYSTEM PARTITION). The ESP has to be the first partition in the drive, with file system of a FAT variant, and it has to be larger then 100 MiB (200MiB or more recommended). Ubuntu mounts the ESP by default in /boot/efi .
3. After you install grub in the ESP, you need to make a boot enrty for it using efibootmgr, or you could launch it with the UEFI shell
EFI boot loader information - srs5694 & skodabenz
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1849160
http://www.rodsbooks.com/bios2uefi/

UEFI bugs:
Deletes Windows efi partition
Installer should not format an existing EFI System Partition
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...fi/+bug/769669
EFI SYSTEM PARTITION should be atleast 100 MiB size and formatted as FAT32, not FAT16
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...fi/+bug/811485
ctrl-x does not work in grub-efi
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...b2/+bug/722950
grub-update fails to detect windows bootloader on a uefi system
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...b2/+bug/807801

[ClientAlive]

Thank you, those are some good links.

I found a couple links myself which may be useful if anyone ever reads this thread in the future:

I found this one which contains information, in the response, that indicates the ubuntu installer has been designed to boot on either BIOS or UEFI since 10.10. I don't know who Colin Watson is but he speaks in the first person singular in his response. Perhaps he is the person responsible for creating the ubuntu installers. Do you see the inforamation in that response? It's only half a sentance but it's there:

In 10.10, I changed the standard amd64 images to dual-boot on either BIOS or UEFI systems

https://answers.launchpad.net/mactel...uestion/162838

In that sentance he is talking about the "standard" image, not the MAC image - even though the question was about the MAC image.

Reading that response told me the standard image should work.

I don't have the links up any longer but I had also found a couple web pages that indicate you need to use the alternate install cd if you want to deal with raid and lvm. Perhaps it was dated and these things can be done with the other install images these days - idk. I also want a cli only install and build from there myself - so this seemed like the right option.

So I'm booted with the ubuntu-11.10-alternate-amd64.iso and all seems to be going fine except I have no way to verify that it's efi booted or not. I had discoverd before this that the way to verify it is to check for the existence of a certain directory, after the installer is booted. For fedora it is: /sys/firmware/efi. For anything standard grub2 it may, concievably be something like: /boot/efi/EFI or /boot/efi/efi (sometheing like that but I'm not certain). The problem is that ctrl+F1 and ctrl+F2 do not give me a terminal while in this ubuntu installer. I have no way to check for it. I guess I'm just pushing forward and hope for a clean install. If I have to do some hacking after the install that's fine.

The installer allows me to set /dev/mapper/sys-root (a logical volume) with the / mount point so hopefully all will proceed well to the finish.

* If anyone knows how I can veryify whether this installer is efi booted or not it would be appreciated.

---------------------------
Link to the 64-bit Mac (AMD64) alternate install CD (if you do happen to have a MAC):

http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/releases/natty/release/
---------------------------

Edit:

As for the efi system partition:

I can't find anywhere in the "Use as" menu that corresponds with an efi system partition or in the "Mount point" menu that corresponds wtih mounting it as the efi system partition. This is disturbing, as I'm rather certain I need something like this for a uefi install.

Until I can sort this out I'm kind of at a stand still...

Should I set it manually as /dev/mapper/sys-root/boot ??

Any ideas?

Pictures attached.

[Cheesemill]

I don't have the links up any longer but I had also found a couple web pages that indicate you need to use the alternate install cd if you want to deal with raid and lvm.

Yep.

For fedora it is: /sys/firmware/efi. For anything standard grub2 it may, concievably be something like: /boot/efi/EFI or /boot/efi/efi (sometheing like that but I'm not certain).

I'm pretty sure it's /boot/efi

The problem is that ctrl+F1 and ctrl+F2 do not give me a terminal while in this ubuntu installer.

Isn't it CTRL+ALT+F1 etc...

As for the efi system partition:

I can't find anywhere in the "Use as" menu that corresponds with an efi system partition or in the "Mount point" menu that corresponds wtih mounting it as the efi system partition. This is disturbing, as I'm rather certain I need something like this for a uefi install.

Until I can sort this out I'm kind of at a stand still...

Should I set it manually as /dev/mapper/sys-root/boot ??

Any ideas?

From the Arch wiki pages:

To create a UEFI system partition:

For MBR partitioned disks:
Using GNU Parted/GParted: Create a >=400 MiB FAT32 partition. Change the type code of that partition to 0xEF using fdisk, cfdisk or sfdisk.
or
Using fdisk: Create a >=400 MiB partition with partition type 0xEF and format it as FAT32 using mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/<THAT_PARTITION>

For GPT partitioned disks:
Using GNU Parted/GParted: Create a >=400 MiB FAT32 partition. Set "boot" flag on for that partition.
or
Using GPT fdisk (aka gdisk): Create a >=400 MiB partition with gdisk type code "EF00". Then format that partition as FAT32 using mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/<THAT_PARTITION>

Then mount the UEFI system partition at /boot/efi

(Disclaimer - Again this is all from my experiences with Arch so YMMV. As far as possible Arch uses unpatched sources for everything so unless the Ubuntu devs have done anything weird then you should be OK)

[oldfred]

You can run boot info script and see if it shows grub2's boot loader in the MBR or a efi partition.

Only the git/test version parses efi partitions.

wget -O bootinfoscript 'http://bootinfoscript.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=bootinfoscript/bootinfoscript;a=blob_plain;f=bootinfoscript;hb=HEAD'
chmod a+x bootinfoscript
sudo bash bootinfoscript

Not sure if Boot-Repair works with your system but it also runs the git version.
Boot Repair:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
You can repair many boot issues with this or post the link to a run of boot info script so we can see your exact configuration.

If from liveCD you may have to install the extra drivers:
Is able to search LVM partitions if the LVM2 package is install
# ("apt-get install lvm2" in debian based distros)
# Is able to search Linux Software Raid partitions (MD Raids) if
# the "mdadm" package is installed.
sudo apt-get install lvm2
sudo apt-get install mdadm
sudo apt-get install xz-utils
unlzma is equivalent to xz --format=lzma --decompress.

[ClientAlive]

Isn't it CTRL+ALT+F1 etc...

That's what I was pressing. It was a typo on my part when I posted. Still doesn't get me a terminal though so I'm kind out of ideas on getting one open from within this installer.

This is a really big deal! If I can't get a terminal I'm very very limited here. And I really need to find out whether this thing is efi booted or not before I know what choices I face. Critical to find that out.

You can run boot info script and see if it shows grub2's boot loader in the MBR or a efi partition.

Only the git/test version parses efi partitions.

wget -O bootinfoscript 'http://bootinfoscript.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=bootinfoscript/bootinfoscript;a=blob_plain;f=bootinfoscript;hb=HEAD'
chmod a+x bootinfoscript
sudo bash bootinfoscript

Not sure if Boot-Repair works with your system but it also runs the git version.
Boot Repair:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
You can repair many boot issues with this or post the link to a run of boot info script so we can see your exact configuration.

If from liveCD you may have to install the extra drivers:
Is able to search LVM partitions if the LVM2 package is install
# ("apt-get install lvm2" in debian based distros)
# Is able to search Linux Software Raid partitions (MD Raids) if
# the "mdadm" package is installed.
sudo apt-get install lvm2
sudo apt-get install mdadm
sudo apt-get install xz-utils
unlzma is equivalent to xz --format=lzma --decompress.

I'm not sure I understand how this might help. There is no operating system on that machine. I'm booted via cd into the ubuntu alternate install cd. If I restart the machine with a different cd in there, then it's exactly that - the ubuntu installer will no longer be fired up on the machine. There's nothing to check as being booted efi or not except the installer itself. This also seems to require a command line which I've been unable to get up in the installer.
-----------------------------

Basically I'm stuck with a few little questions. Some have more to do with how this installer treats UEFI and other how it treats other things:

From the Arch wiki pages:

To create a UEFI system partition:

Using GPT fdisk (aka gdisk): Create a >=400 MiB partition with gdisk type code "EF00". Then format that partition as FAT32 using mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/<THAT_PARTITION>

I've noticed that the size you're told to make the system partition is all over the board depending on what source you look at. I've seen one source use only 8 MiB (or was it MB - either way... ). I've seen others tell you between 200 and 500. I've seen another one tell you >= 100, and the list goes on. Mine happens to be 50 MiB.

Then mount the UEFI system partition at /boot/efi

/boot (for me) would be instide a logical volume. Specifically, I have /dev/mapper/sys-boot (a logical volume) set to be mounted to /. I'm assuming this means that /boot (among other things) will be created inside there as part of the install process.

If I were to need to "...mount the UEFI System partion at /boot/efi" the only path I can think of for it's mount point would be: /dev/mapper/sys-root/boot/efi (or would it just be /boot/efi because of some technicality in regard to how the installer treats thing? I'm not sure... )

In either of the cases (regarding what path is technically correct for the mount point) this raises some questions:

(1) Is the installation going to create the directory "efi" as part of the install process?

(2) To mount /dev/sda1 (my system partition) to /dev/mapper/sys-root/boot... (to take the first notion of what the path should be) would be to mount it to a directory (/boot) which doesn't even exist yet. IE: "/boot (for me) would be instide a logical volume ... I'm assuming this means that /boot (among other things) will be created inside there as part of the install process."

The crossroad I feel I'm standing at right now is this:

Either the installer is efi booted and I can work on how to proceed that way; or the installer is not booted efi and I need to consider whether I can get a clean BIOS boot install out of it and then try to convert to efi after the install is complete.