Attempting to install on an HP Stream netbook (problems dealing with EFI)

laprjns · 12-27-2017, 08:12 AM

Are you trying to install Slackware 14.2? I believe that the Slackware 14.2 installer cannot detect and install to devices identified by mmcblkX. Try either Slackware-current or Slint 14.2.1.

Didier Spaier · 12-27-2017, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahc_fan

Well, I did get GRUB installed using the following:

Code:

# chroot /mnt
# grub-install --force /dev/mmcblk0
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Now it boots up and I see "Welcome to GRUB" for a split second and then nothing but a blank screen. This netbook is a pain in the ass I tell you. So this thing can boot GRUB from the MBR, but not LILO("no bootable device")? Hmmm

This is because lilo is not able to handle MMC devices, I assume. And that won't change, as lilo is no longer developed.

Try installing in EFI mode but you will need a fairly recent -current ISO. You can get one here, thanks to Eric Hameleers. Or you can get the ISO there, which is based on Slackware64-14.2, but be aware that the latter won't give you a genuine Slackware.

EDIT Rich was faster

Gerard Lally · 12-27-2017, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahc_fan

Well, I did get GRUB installed using the following:

Code:

# chroot /mnt
# grub-install --force /dev/mmcblk0
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Now it boots up and I see "Welcome to GRUB" for a split second and then nothing but a blank screen. This netbook is a pain in the ass I tell you. So this thing can boot GRUB from the MBR, but not LILO("no bootable device")? Hmmm

You said you tried with a GPT table. Did you make sure to zero out the sectors at both start and end of disk before going back to MBR?

ahc_fan · 12-27-2017, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

This is because lilo is not able to handle MMC devices, I assume. And that won't change, as lilo is no longer developed.

Try installing in EFI mode but you will need a fairly recent -current ISO. You can get one here, thanks to Eric Hameleers. Or you can get the ISO there, which is based on Slackware64-14.2, but be aware that the latter won't give you a genuine Slackware.

EDIT Rich was faster

I tried the current ISO and it doesn't seem to work any differently than 14.2 for me. When you say EFI mode do you mean creating an EFI partition and installing ELILO?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerard Lally

You said you tried with a GPT table. Did you make sure to zero out the sectors at both start and end of disk before going back to MBR?

I zeroed the first 512 bytes, is it necessary to zero the end?

I'm thinking about going with Antergos. I mean it works, but dang I would much prefer Slackware.

Gerard Lally · 12-27-2017, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahc_fan

I zeroed the first 512 bytes, is it necessary to zero the end?

I've had problems whenever I've forgotten to do so. The newer partitioning tools in Slackware - gdisk and fdisk - might look after this for you when you revert to MBR; I'm not sure. I still prefer to fully clear the GPT table anyway, a backup copy of which is located at the end of the disk.

Didier Spaier · 12-27-2017, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahc_fan

I tried the current ISO and it doesn't seem to work any differently than 14.2 for me. When you say EFI mode do you mean creating an EFI partition and installing ELILO?

Of course. And you need to set your machine's firmware to EFI mode, not Legacy, else ELILO can't work at all.

ahc_fan · 12-27-2017, 05:00 PM

It just won't boot the slackware ISO when I disable legacy and enable secure boot. It says the boot image doesn't pass authentication. I tried selecting which efi file to boot and it happens with all of them.

Didier Spaier · 12-27-2017, 05:02 PM

Don't enable secure boot, just disable legacy.

Gerard Lally · 12-27-2017, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahc_fan

It just won't boot the slackware ISO when I disable legacy and enable secure boot. It says the boot image doesn't pass authentication. I tried selecting which efi file to boot and it happens with all of them.

Does it not allow you to disable legacy and leave secure boot disabled as well?

ahc_fan · 12-27-2017, 06:48 PM

I'm not sure that ELILO is being installed. During the setup it asks if I want to skip installing LILO and proceed to installing ELILO, but when I select that option it immediately goes to network setup. There is no indication that ELILO actually installed, also there are no files in /boot/efi.

Out of curiosity I did chroot /mnt and tried to run 'eliloconfig' and it says "system is not running under efi". This is with both legacy and secure boot disabled.

laprjns · 12-27-2017, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahc_fan

Out of curiosity I did chroot /mnt and tried to run 'eliloconfig' and it says "system is not running under efi". This is with both legacy and secure boot disabled.

No that doesn't mean that the installer is not running under uefi. To determine if a system is running under uefi, eliloconfig checks for the directory /sys/firmware/efi. Since you chrooted into /mnt, that directory wouldn't exist (i.e /mnt/sys/firmware/efi).
You can check to see if the installer is running under uefi by checking for the the directory (without chroot'ing).

Code:

# ls /sys/firmware/efi

You could also try running eliloconfig without change rooting.

Didier Spaier · 12-28-2017, 04:00 AM

Hello,

What laprjns said, with a small correction: read /sys/firmware/efi, instead of /system/firmware/efi.

Anyway the installer detected it, else it wouldn't have asked if you want to skip elilo, so yes when you tried the machine was in EFI mode. However for some reason at some point the installer didn't detect properly your efi partition or couldn't use it, hence eliloconfig failed or didn't run. Let's investigate why.

Quote:

Out of curiosity I did chroot /mnt and tried to run 'eliloconfig' and it says "system is not running under efi". This is with both legacy and secure boot disabled.

This is because in the chroot /sys was not mounted, hence /sys/firmware/efi couldn't be found. In order for this test to work you should bind mount /sys before chroot, and also other special directories, like this:

Code:

mount <future root directory> /mnt # if not already done by the installer
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
chroot /mnt
mount <your EFI partition> /boot/efi
eliloconfig

Now to investigate further, please do this:

boot the installer up to and including the (fake) login as root, but do not type "setup" yet.
check the presence of /sys/firmware/efi, just to be sure:
Code:
```
file /sys/firmware/efi
```
type this command and report back its exact output(*):
Code:
```
lsblk -o model,name,size,parttype,fstype
```
Be careful not to include any whitespace in the comma-separated list of options else the command will fail.
tell us what is the purpose (intended usage) of each partition listed by the command above.
give a link to the ISO you downloaded to test
mount the future / (root) partition of the to_be_installed system as /mnt, then do the bind mounts indicated above, chroot /mnt, run eliloconfig and report the outcome.

(*) To avoid copying the output by hand you could mount an USB stick's partition as /floppy, run "lsblk -o model,name,size,parttype,fstype > /floppy/lsblk.txt" and give the content of lsblk.txt or attach it to your next post.

Thanks in advance.

colorpurple21859 · 12-28-2017, 05:26 AM

@ Didier Spaier, for eliloconfig to work shouldn't the op mount the efi partiion at /mnt/boot/efi before chrooting or /boot/efi after chrooting before running eliloconfig?

Didier Spaier · 12-28-2017, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

@ Didier Spaier, for eliloconfig to work shouldn't the op mount the efi partiion at /mnt/boot/efi before chrooting or /boot/efi after chrooting before running eliloconfig?

That's right, I forgot that, thanks.

PS Now fixed.

ahc_fan · 12-28-2017, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Hello,

What laprjns said, with a small correction: read /sys/firmware/efi, instead of /system/firmware/efi.

Anyway the installer detected it, else it wouldn't have asked if you want to skip elilo, so yes when you tried the machine was in EFI mode. However for some reason at some point the installer didn't detect properly your efi partition or couldn't use it, hence eliloconfig failed or didn't run. Let's investigate why.

This is because in the chroot /sys was not mounted, hence /sys/firmware/efi couldn't be found. In order for this test to work you should bind mount /sys before chroot, and also other special directories, like this:

Code:

mount <future root directory> /mnt # if not already done by the installer
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
chroot /mnt
mount <your EFI partition> /boot/efi
eliloconfig

Now to investigate further, please do this:

boot the installer up to and including the (fake) login as root, but do not type "setup" yet.
check the presence of /sys/firmware/efi, just to be sure:
Code:
```
file /sys/firmware/efi
```
type this command and report back its exact output(*):
Code:
```
lsblk -o model,name,size,parttype,fstype
```
Be careful not to include any whitespace in the comma-separated list of options else the command will fail.
tell us what is the purpose (intended usage) of each partition listed by the command above.
give a link to the ISO you downloaded to test
mount the future / (root) partition of the to_be_installed system as /mnt, then do the bind mounts indicated above, chroot /mnt, run eliloconfig and report the outcome.

(*) To avoid copying the output by hand you could mount an USB stick's partition as /floppy, run "lsblk -o model,name,size,parttype,fstype > /floppy/lsblk.txt" and give the content of lsblk.txt or attach it to your next post.

Thanks in advance.

/sys/firmware/efi directory exists

lsblk.txt

Code:

MODEL            NAME           SIZE PARTTYPE                             FSTYPE
SD  Transcend    sdb           29.7G                                      
                 `-sdb1        29.7G 0xb                                  vfat
                 mmcblk0       29.1G                                      
                 |-mmcblk0p1  476.9M 0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4 vfat
                 |-mmcblk0p2    3.7G 0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4 swap
                 `-mmcblk0p3     25G 0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4 ext4
                 mmcblk0boot0     4M                                      
                 mmcblk0boot1     4M                                      
                 mmcblk0rpmb      4M

mmcblk0p1 = EFI partition
mmcblk0p2 = swap partition
mmcblk0p3 = root partition

The ISO I'm using is the current iso from here.

I cannot(read: don't know how to) use eliloconfig after chroot. The command is not found.

Thanks for your patience guys.