UEFI questions

[DiBosco]

Warning slightly ranty anti-M$ post coming up.

Folks,

I know there are lots of how-tos about this UEFI boot, but after reading a lot of them, there are loads of things I am not clear about. I have just got a Windoze 8 laptop and am wanting install Mageia 4.1 on it for my partner's father. So, after playing with the laptop itself I have found the following, some of which goes against what I have read and previously understood.

So:

1. It would appear that you cannot install from DVD/CD when secure boot is enabled. Is that correct?
2. If I disable secure boot and install Mageia, will I be able to boot into Win8 afterwards. In truth, it's unlikely the demon OS will ever be used, but for the moment, I need to leave it in. I don't care about secure boot, it's a load of old cobblers.
3. If I disable secure boot and the DVD starts to load, the Mageia install DVD seems to give some sort of different menu as to when I installed on my [home built] machine and my Macbook. It actually mentions UEFI which it didn't on those other machines. So, does this means Mageia has the keys needed? (I say keys, but I don't understand this secure boot nonsense at all, so don't know what I'm on about or whether keys is the right word. And yes, I've read endless explanations about UEFI and not found a single one which explains it well.)
4. Is it possible at all to install with secure boot and DVD or is it mandatory to use a USB stick? I think I read somewhere that it needs FAT. If so, what a joke that is.

The long and short of it is, if I could disable secure boot, install Mageia as usual and have it dual booting without this utterly useless secure boot I'd be most happy.

Please, please, please do not just point me to one of the plethora of how-tos on this, because not a single one makes any sense to me and seems massively over complicated.

Thanks! :~)

[jkerr82508]

A quick summary. Others, more expert than I, may provide more details.

1. Mageia does not and will probably never support Secure boot. To install and run Mageia you must disable Secure boot. (I believe that there may be some systems that are built to prevent the disabling of Secure boot.)

2. You should be able to boot into Windows 8, after disabling Secure boot and installing Mageia.

3. UEFI is not Secure boot. It is a replacement for the legacy BIOS boot. Mageia does support UEFI - but the support is still experimental. It is hoped to have full support in Mageia 5.

4. You cannot install and/or run Mageia unless you disable Secure boot. Once Secure boot is disabled you should be able to boot and install from a DVD/CD or USB stick.

You should also check if the hard drive is GPT or MBR. IIUC the Mageia installer cannot yet create partitions on a GPT disk. You need to use another application such as gparted to create the partitions before launching the Mageia installer.

You did not want more reading but these may be worth struggling through:

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/UEFI_how-to
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 81258.aspx

Jim

[DiBosco]

Jim,

Thanks a lot, that has cleared a few things up. I must say I had not understood that secure boot was not UEFI, so that's been really helpful. I'll disable it and give it a try.

[Lebarhon]

Some more information:
Mageia supports UEFI provided the use of Grub2 instead of Grub Legacy, the default boot loader.
Neither UEFI nor Secure boot are mandatory to run Windows 8. But, take great care to what you are doing, the Windows product key (needed for an installation) isn't any more on a paper but in the UEFI BIOS. Think to fetch it before disabling UEFI if you need to re-install Windows.

[DiBosco]

Thanks, Lebarhon,

I think I am screwed because I simply cannot do anything unless I disable UEFI and use legacy. Even then Mageia does not show up in the bootloader and just boots into Windoze. I have never hated Micro$oft more than today.

[wintpe]

ideally just dump windows (perhaps use clonezilla to backup the disk before you start in case of any warrantee issues)

then switch into legacy boot (called by all sorts of different names by different vendors)

disable secure boot

wipe the disk completely , including the uefi partition, (legacy boot does not need it) and install magia.

now install windows XP or windows 7 inside virtualbox for when you need some windows function.

add the usb extensions and the virtualbox drivers, and it pretty much provides all you need for those, only windows monents like vmware vcenter console or similar.

mageia 3 or 4 depending on ypur own personal perception of which is the most stable, should provide you with everything you need but everyone's mileage varies on that.

regards peter

[DiBosco]

Peter, were the machine for me, I'd wiper Windoze and never be bothered. It's not though, and, until the user is happy he really doesn't need Windows, I daren't erase it completely. Your advice will be useful for a later date though

[doktor5000]

What does (U)EFI or the bootloader have to do with Microsoft? Please stop cursing like that, doesn't help anybody.

[DiBosco]

Helps me. And this whole thing has everything to do with M$ trying to lock us out of hardware, with nothing to do with making computing life any better or easier.

[DiBosco]

OK. Deep breaths. No more anti-Microsoft rants. Sorry.

Quoting from the Mageia how to:

For Mga3, make sure the stick is formatted as FAT32, and label it as MGA3LIVE

Copy the contents of the iso to the USB stick.

Boot up your system, go into UEFI (Bios) disable legacy and secure boot,

Then boot from your usb stick and it should show a black screen with a options to boot, install, boot safe mode.

Select to boot, and it should start up nicely in live uefi mode.

If I copy files,choose any of the UEFI modes, the LED on the USB stick flashes for a few moments, stops and the screen is completely black. any of those options.

If I make a stick with isodumper, the live stick boots up beautifully.

I have even managed to install the full DVD and can boot into it. I can't get into it other than by pressing F9 and boot and going in through boot from hard drive. If I install efibootmgr and run it, I get an error:

"Couldn't open either sysfs or procfs directories for accessing EFI variables. Try 'modprobe efivars' as root". The latter does not help.

Does any of this ring any bells with anyone?

[DiBosco]

I tried reinstalling from DVD, following the instrctions at the top of this page:

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/UEFI_how-to

This time the Grub2 install works without the EFI variables error. However, still, unless I both have the machine in legacy mode, it will not boot into Linux, even if I press F9 at boot to choose the boot order. If I am in legacy mode, I still have to hit F9 and this time I get a different looking boot menu, I guess that's the grub2 boot menu that looks different to grub.

Am I still missing something out or do HP machines just make it impossible to boot into Linux?

[martinw]

I use rEFInd, not Grub2, but I expect this applies to both. Some EFI implementations don't properly add boot options when you use efibootmgr. My HP notebook is an example of this. There are various possible solutions described here (in the section "Registering the Boot Loader with the EFI") - the one which worked for me was to use the bcdedit command from a Windows Administrator command prompt.

[DiBosco]

I use rEFInd, not Grub2, but I expect this applies to both. Some EFI implementations don't properly add boot options when you use efibootmgr. My HP notebook is an example of this. There are various possible solutions described here (in the section "Registering the Boot Loader with the EFI") - the one which worked for me was to use the bcdedit command from a Windows Administrator command prompt.

Thank you, the bcdedit did the trick. I had tried refind, but it hadn't worked.

So, let's see if I remember correctly what I ended up having to do:

0. Resize your Windows partiion: http://www.tweakhound.com/2013/01/02/ho ... partition/
1. Burn the full DVD
2. Switch on legacy and off secure boot
3. Relaunch the machine and select DVD drive.
4. Install as normal other than:
a. Ignore the X server is slow to start
b. When you get to the disk partitioning part of the install mount the EFI part of the drive as /boot/EFI You can see which partition that is in step zeo. Note the size and marry it up in the Mageia installer
c. Choose grub2 as the bootlaoder when it comes to the last screen in the install. (Honestly not sure how important that is.
5. Boot into Linux by changing boot order (F9 on this HP) and choosing the Mageia option. Install refind and efibootmgr from repository. (Not sure how important efibootmgr is.)
6. Note where your EFI bootloader file is. Mine was /boot/EFI/mageia/grubx64.efi
7. Boot back to Windoze and run bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\mageia\grubx86.efi Your exact file and location may be different I guess! You need to do it in as Administrator Command Prompt by hitting WinKey & X at the same time then selecting it from the menu that pops up bottom left. It took AGES to appear!
8. Reboot and you should, hopefully. see a lovely, lovely Mageia boot screen with Mageia the first option and the option still to boot into VirusOS (tm).

Obvious, innit?