UEFI doesn't work for me... - Page 3

tlmiller · posted: 2016-09-20 19:49

I most definitely am not using secure boot, as I primarily use base-debian, and they have NOT implemented any form of secure boot so I can't use it.

I do have another laptop I can try it on...

Possibly it's something in the newer chipsets, all that I tested on except 1 machine were skylakes (and that 1 was broadwell, the predecessor to skylake).

Shay · posted: 2016-09-20 20:24

tlmiller wrote:
Shay wrote:A regular BIOS, will see but not boot the stick.
GRRRR!
By regular do you mean UEFI or legacy? I'm ASSUMING you mean UEFI since that's what the rest of us are seeing, but want to confirm.

I mean the older BIOS, not the newer UEFI setup.

I have some computers/laptops that are or are close to 10 years old. Maybe older and they still work just fine. Added a SSD, if new enough, and they run just great.

Shay · posted: 2016-09-20 20:33

tlmiller wrote:I most definitely am not using secure boot, as I primarily use base-debian, and they have NOT implemented any form of secure boot so I can't use it.

I do have another laptop I can try it on...

Possibly it's something in the newer chipsets, all that I tested on except 1 machine were skylakes (and that 1 was broadwell, the predecessor to skylake).

Secure boot is in UEFI setup. Sounds like it is disabled and/or Legacy is enabled.

I had to disable Secure Boot in the wife's HP Stream before it would boot Antix or MX at all.
But today, I learned a way to make the AntiX stick where it should boot it with Secure Boot enabled.

tlmiller · posted: 2016-09-20 20:37

I meant Debian doesn't have a signed bootloader, so secure boot, if enabled, will prevent the usb from booting (however, it will still show up as bootable in UEFI). Debian does have the ability to be configured with signed bootloader & kernel POST install, but no interest in doing that.

greywolf · posted: 2016-09-24 13:48

For good order, I thought I should report here that my initial problem of this Asus laptop not detecting the Antix16 usb stick on boot, irrespective of creation method, has been solved!

I got into PM discussions with @BitJam over on the Mepis Forums arising out of a thread on the same issue and we did some testing. Turns out, for this machine at least (Asus X555UJ), the iso needs to have the 'efi' & 'efi/boot' folders changed to UPPER case; ie 'EFI' & 'EFI/BOOT'. The resultant usb stick is easily recognized, bootable and installable from next boot.

Personally, I think this is a hangover from uefi firmware being so closely tied to Microsoft requirements around Safe Boot etc. Anyway, if it is no big deal, I suggest a change by the developers to upper case for these folders upon iso creation may alleviate a (maybe limited?) hardware recognition problem. More installs the better right?!! __{{emoticon}}__

cheers,
greywolf.

ps: If the details of what we did are required I can post.

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2016-09-24 14:13

Nice!

Shay · posted: 2016-09-24 17:28

greywolf wrote: the iso needs to have the 'efi' & 'efi/boot' folders changed to UPPER case; ie 'EFI' & 'EFI/BOOT'.

cheers,
greywolf.

ps: If the details of what we did are required I can post.

I for one would like to know!

Shay · posted: 2016-09-24 18:15

Lenovo has locked some of their recent laptops in to Windows 10.

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tlmiller · posted: 2016-09-24 23:36

Shay wrote:Lenovo has locked some of their recent laptops in to Windows 10.

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If you had read the updates that were posted before you posted those links, you'll see that no, Lenovo hasn't locked anyone out of anything. They've just removed the AHCI option for the hard drive, it's locked into RAID mode and the drivers ID that they use for fakeraid simply need to be added to the linux kernel's boot recognition (the drivers, as I understand it, are already there, just need the ID added so the kernel knows to load them).

greywolf wrote:For good order, I thought I should report here that my initial problem of this Asus laptop not detecting the Antix16 usb stick on boot, irrespective of creation method, has been solved!

I got into PM discussions with @BitJam over on the Mepis Forums arising out of a thread on the same issue and we did some testing. Turns out, for this machine at least (Asus X555UJ), the iso needs to have the 'efi' & 'efi/boot' folders changed to UPPER case; ie 'EFI' & 'EFI/BOOT'. The resultant usb stick is easily recognized, bootable and installable from next boot.

Personally, I think this is a hangover from uefi firmware being so closely tied to Microsoft requirements around Safe Boot etc. Anyway, if it is no big deal, I suggest a change by the developers to upper case for these folders upon iso creation may alleviate a (maybe limited?) hardware recognition problem. More installs the better right?!! __{{emoticon}}__

cheers,
greywolf.

ps: If the details of what we did are required I can post.

Hmmmmm, wonder if that holds true for Dell's Latitude line, certainly would explain a lot...

Shay · posted: 2016-09-25 00:13

If you had read the updates that were posted before you posted those links, you'll see that no, Lenovo hasn't locked anyone out of anything. They've just removed the AHCI option for the hard drive, it's locked into RAID mode and the drivers ID that they use for fakeraid simply need to be added to the linux kernel's boot recognition (the drivers, as I understand it, are already there, just need the ID added so the kernel knows to load them).

Read it, but missed AHCI option bit for sure and being fairly new to Linix I could not figure out how they locked things up. Let alone add the ID to the kernal so they load.

tlmiller · posted: 2016-09-25 17:13

In all reality, from what I understand (I'm going off what someone who knows more than I told me), it's just a single text file that needs to be updated on the various installation images to add the device id to the AHCI identifier, and it would then work, as the chipset they are using the fakerade is supported by linux, it's simply the device ID has been changed due to the removal of the AHCI option.

BitJam · posted: 2016-09-26 17:08

@tmiller et al., I may have fixed the UEFI problems (with greywolf's help). The MX dev m_pav has been kind enough to include these changes in his latest néos snapshot of MX which can be downloaded from this
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. He also included the live-usb-maker and live-kernel-updater programs which are available in the System submenu.

The snapshot program has not been updated so if you make a snapshot then a"dd" live-usb made from the new iso file won't boot via UEFI.

Here is the
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. The néos snapshot has a very recent kernel and other changes to work on recent hardware.

Shay · posted: 2016-09-26 19:55

Tried MX 15 neos X64.
Win 10 Format stick Fat32
Used Rufus MBR for UEFI
Used F12, Booted to the stick
Made it persistence all and it reboots nicely.
Now will try in AntiX 16.

Shay · posted: 2016-09-26 20:22

AntiX 16 using UNetbootin.
F12 worked
It tried to read the stick several times, but it would not boot up. __{{emoticon}}__

BitJam · posted: 2016-09-26 21:08

Shay wrote:AntiX 16 using UNetbootin.
F12 worked
It tried to read the stick several times, but it would not boot up. __{{emoticon}}__

If you used a ext file system then it won't boot via UEFI. If you are using a fat32 file system then try to rename the directories /efi/boot to /EFI/BOOT. You may need to use an intermediate name due to the perversities of fat32:

Code: Select all

mv efi temp
mv temp EFI
cd EFI
mv  boot temp
mv temp BOOT