Boot on MacBook hard-drive impossible

khronosschoty · 08-06-2018, 06:35 PM

Macs generally like their efi partitions to be 200 megs.

Edit: I got so caught up talking about the preference for the OSX disk utility when dealing with Macs I totally forgot what prompted me to begin my last post. That was I suspect you don't have a efi partition or that something is wrong with it (just conjecture). However, when you use the OSX disk utility to prepare a hard drive for installation it creates a 200 meg efi partition; this partition could of course be created manually.

l0f4r0 · 08-07-2018, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobr

Well, it seems time to do some reading if you want to get the boot going without install DVD (plenty of linked stuff provided above).

Yes, I will read those links asap. Thanks for finding & sharing them

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobr

BTW your screen with black-folder with question mark inside indicates that your Mac can't find a bootable disk. Here is a mac-restore-howto link that describe this:
http://top-frog.com/2010/02/03/blink...anic-just-yet/

Yes, great link thx. Unfortunately I don't succeed in making a Lion bootable disk: those funny Apple guys have not found anything better than doing an image of 4.72Go (0.02Go too much for my single layer DVDs...) + disk utility doesn't want to recover the disk image on a flash drive neither (authorization refused - could not restore - osstatus erreur 13). I'm cursed...

Quote:

Originally Posted by khronosschoty

I also found alienBOB's 'Slackware Live Edition' works well too. I suggested trying it out before and just wanted to repeat that again.

Yeah, I have burnt the DVD. One of the next steps for me if rEFInd is not conclusive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by khronosschoty

I'm still interested in what happens if you try and make a refit or refind boot cdrom or dvd (and booting that)

I have created a rEFInd boot flash media instead.
When I start the computer with the flash media inserted (but without the Slackware install DVD), rEFInd is launching and then displaying its menu:

Code:

Boot Linux (Legacy) from whole disk volume
About rEFInd
Manage Hidden Tags Menu
Shut Down Computer
Reboot Computer

Running choice 1 doesn't work as it displays the following:

Code:

Starting Legacy Loader
Using load options 'HD'
No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key

FYI, choice 2 displays the following:

Code:

rEFInd Version 0.11.3
[...]
Running on:
EFI Revision 1.10
Platform: x86_64 (64 bit) ; Secure Boot inactive
System Integrity Protection is enabled (0x10)
Firmware: Apple 1.10
[...]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

A was about to ask you to run again the lsblk command, this time directly from the installer (do not chroot) and post the output, as in your current output we are missing information about fstype and parttype, not provided when the command is run after a chroot.

Here is the result:

Code:

# lsblk -l -o name,size,type,fstype,parttype
NAME   SIZE TYPE FSTYPE  PARTTYPE
sda  465.8G disk         
sda1     4G part swap    0657fd6d-a4ab-43c4-84e5-0933c84b4f4f
sda2 461.8G part ext4    0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4
sdb     15G disk         
sdb1   200M part vfat    c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
sdb2  14.8G part         ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
sr0    2.6G rom  iso9660

Didier Spaier · 08-07-2018, 05:51 PM

So you don't have an EFI SystemPartition (I assume that /dev/sdb is the USB stick with the Slackware installer), so rEFInd won't work.

Tomorrow I will provide you a small hybrid ISO image that you will copy to an USB stick with the dd command, including and elilo bootloader and an elilo.conf config file set to start Slackware with a
vmlinuz-huge-4.4.132 kernel on /dev/sda2.

But something confuses me: How could have you run slackpkg upgrade-all and switched to a generic kernel if you never actually ran Slackware from the hard drive?

l0f4r0 · 08-08-2018, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

I assume that /dev/sdb is the USB stick with the Slackware installer

Actually, /dev/sdb is the USB flash drive with rEFInd on it. Slackware installer is on /dev/sr0

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Tomorrow I will provide you a small hybrid ISO image that you will copy to an USB stick with the dd command, including and elilo bootloader and an elilo.conf config file set to start Slackware with a vmlinuz-huge-4.4.132 kernel on /dev/sda2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

But something confuses me: How could have you run slackpkg upgrade-all and switched to a generic kernel if you never actually ran Slackware from the hard drive?

Maybe it was not apparent in my initial post (I've just amended it) but there was no direct link between "slackpkg upgrade-all" and the generic kernel. I switched on generic manually because I heard it was recommended by PV.

Didier Spaier · 08-08-2018, 12:57 PM

No ISO needed. Instructions:

On an USB stick, have a partition of type EFI System with a FAT file system.
In this partition have a directory /EFI/BOOT
Mount this partition as /mnt and copy all files in http://slint.fr/misc/l0f4r0/ to /mnt/EFI/BOOT
copy /boot/vmlinuz-huge-4.4.132 to /mnt/EFI/BOOT, renamed vmlinuz (I don't have this kernel anymore, and you need this one to fit with your installed kernel modules).
Reboot with the USB stick plugged in.

You can reuse the EFI System partition of your rEFInd USB stick instead of creating and formatting a new one, but then make sure BOOTx64.EFI is the one from http://slint.fr/misc/l0f4r0/. Let us know how that goes.

PS I took as a basis the Slint installer, and didn't make modifications others than the label and root partition to save time, don't worry about the customization screen.

khronosschoty · 08-08-2018, 02:10 PM

Looks like solid instructions there to me

l0f4r0 · 08-11-2018, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

No ISO needed. Instructions:

On an USB stick, have a partition of type EFI System with a FAT file system.
In this partition have a directory /EFI/BOOT
Mount this partition as /mnt and copy all files in http://slint.fr/misc/l0f4r0/ to /mnt/EFI/BOOT
copy /boot/vmlinuz-huge-4.4.132 to /mnt/EFI/BOOT, renamed vmlinuz (I don't have this kernel anymore, and you need this one to fit with your installed kernel modules).
Reboot with the USB stick plugged in.

You can reuse the EFI System partition of your rEFInd USB stick instead of creating and formatting a new one, but then make sure BOOTx64.EFI is the one from http://slint.fr/misc/l0f4r0/. Let us know how that goes.

Ok, I've followed your instructions.
When I reboot on my usb key (without any install dvd), rEFInd is launching with the following prompt:

Code:

Boot Linux (Legacy) from whole disk volume
Boot EFI\BOOT\vmlinuz from EFI
Boot Fallback boot loader from EFI
About rEFInd
Manage Hidden Tags Menu
Shut Down Computer
Reboot Computer

Choice 2 leads to:

Code:

rEFInd - Booting OS
Starting vmlinuz
Using load options ''

...but nothing happens after several minutes...

PS:

output for choice 1 remains unchanged (see post #47)
choice 3 leads to:

Code:

Starting bootx64.efi
Using load options ''
Invalid loader file!
Error: Not Found while loading bootx64.efi

Didier Spaier · 08-11-2018, 05:50 PM

Please from the installer mount the EFI partition of the USB stick as /mnt and provide the output of these commands:

Code:

tree /mnt
ls -l /mnt/EFI
ls -l /mnt/EFI/BOOT
cat /mnt/EFI/BOOT/elilo.conf

l0f4r0 · 08-11-2018, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Please from the installer mount the EFI partition of the USB stick as /mnt and provide the output of these commands:

Code:

tree /mnt
ls -l /mnt/EFI
ls -l /mnt/EFI/BOOT
cat /mnt/EFI/BOOT/elilo.conf

Here we are (please note that I mounted first /dev/sda2 on /mnt, then I mounted my usb key on /mnt/memory):

Code:

# tree /mnt/memory
/mnt/memory/
`-- EFI
    `-- BOOT
        |-- BOOTx64.EFI
        |-- customization.msg
        |-- elilo.conf
        |-- help.msg
        |-- message.msg
        `-- vmlinuz
2 directories, 6 files

Code:

# ls -al /mnt/memory/EFI
total 1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Aug 10 22:25 BOOT

Code:

# ls -al /mnt/memory/EFI/BOOT
total 7762
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  242556 Aug 10 22:22 BOOTx64.EFI
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    2380 Aug 10 22:22 customization.msg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     330 Aug 10 22:22 elilo.conf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    2184 Aug 10 22:23 help.msg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    2455 Aug 10 22:23 message.msg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7697200 Aug 10 22:24 vmlinuz

Code:

# cat /mnt/memory/EFI/BOOT/elilo.conf
chooser=textmenu
prompt
timeout=200
#
# the files containing the text (with attributes) to display
#
message=message.msg
#
# files to load when the corresponding function key is pressed
#
f1=help.msg
f2=customization.msg
image=vmlinuz
  label=Slint
  description="Start Slackware"
  read-only
  append="root=/dev/sda2 vga=normal"

Didier Spaier · 08-12-2018, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by l0f4r0

Here we are (please note that I mounted first /dev/sda2 on /mnt, then I mounted my usb key on /mnt/memory):

This is not what I requested, furthermore you didn't issue these commands from the installer as suggested (there is neither a "tree" command nor a /mnt/memory directory in the installer).

Anyway I don't have more time to help you solve this issue, good luck.

l0f4r0 · 08-12-2018, 06:34 AM

Hello Didier,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

This is not what I requested, furthermore you didn't issue these commands from the installer as suggested (there is neither a "tree" command nor a /mnt/memory directory in the installer).

I know but if I didn't mount my Linux root partition (/dev/sda2) on /mnt, I could not set up my Internet wire connection to send you the results...
More I didn't know mounting points were so important, the tree views remain the same, don't they?
Finally, from the installer only I got:

Code:

# tree /mnt
sh: tree: command not found

Was it really what you wanted?
Sorry if I don't understand fully what you have written/requested. I'm doing my best but I installed Slackware almost one month ago only...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Anyway I don't have more time to help you solve this issue, good luck.

Ok, too bad for me but thanks for the help you've provided me so far. I appreciate!

brobr · 08-12-2018, 10:00 AM

I wonder -when using the Slint boot with the slackware kernel- whether you still need an initrd apart from your vmlinux kernel. For example, look at the usbbootimg from /slackware/usb-and-pxe-installers, where the elilo.conf calls the vmlinux as well as the initrd in the main folder:

Quote:

bash-4.4# mount -o loop /save2nose/SLACKWARE/current64/usb-and-pxe-installers/usbboot.img /mnt/loop
bash-4.4# ls -l /mnt/loop
total 43382
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 Mar 11 2013 EFI
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 574 Aug 9 18:04 f2.txt
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8853264 Aug 9 18:04 huge.s
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 35366512 Aug 9 18:04 initrd.img
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 37888 Aug 9 18:05 ldlinux.sys
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 150024 Aug 9 18:04 memtest
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 683 Aug 9 18:04 message.txt
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3024 Aug 9 18:04 setpkg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 510 Aug 9 18:04 syslinux.cfg
bash-4.4# ls -l /mnt/loop/EFI
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Mar 10 20:36 BOOT
bash-4.4# ls -l /mnt/loop/EFI/BOOT/
total 238
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 237749 Nov 20 2017 BOOTX64.EFI
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 422 Mar 26 2013 elilo.conf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 562 Aug 9 18:04 message.txt

bash-4.4# cat /mnt/loop/EFI/BOOT/elilo.conf
chooser=simple
message=message.txt
delay=300
timeout=300
#
image=/huge.s
label=huge.s
initrd=/initrd.img
read-only
append="vga=normal load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ro printk.time=0 nomodeset SLACK_KERNEL=huge.s"
image=/huge.s
label=kms.s
initrd=/initrd.img
read-only
append="vga=normal load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ro printk.time=0 SLACK_KERNEL=huge.s"

The main items updated on new kernel releases are in the main folder; the EFI/BOOT remains the same.

Maybe you could try whether this stick works for booting (it should behave as the installer dvd although won't have the packages for installation); maybe the usb is not fast enough.....

Further, booting is not necessarily instantaneous. If I remember correctly, some posts about booting macs said that they had to wait for minutes.... (before the apple bootloader found the kernel on the boot partition). Please again read the posts of khronosschoty, he has a Mac as well and also suggests as all the stuff I've been reading, to create a boot-partition, that is the EFI or ESP, that is separate from the main partition. Having your swap a little smaller (4G to 3.7G) might not be a big deal in order to get your system to boot. That the REfind USB did not work/stop might be the result of the absence of a /boot partition or folder it can scan (although it normally works because it comes with the drivers to scan the various filesystems) as well. But I think you have to decide on a strategy. At the moment it seems that things have been attempted that might not help each other.... (read the rodbooks site back to front and start over again to understand what is going on; people advising you here have done that as well)

EDIT: Since the time I started the refind setup, both the kernelimages and the initrd.gz that go with it for booting contain their version-numbers. Refind (at least at the time I began using it) uses those numbers to distinguish between various kernels that could be present in the same folder to pick the one to boot. This should be reflected in the configs (be it for elilo or refind). Thus: the vmlinuz to boot should be for example vmlinuz-4.4.132 and the initrd.gz, initrd-4.4.132.gz. It does not matter whether 'generic' or 'huge' is present in the name.

khronosschoty · 08-12-2018, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobr

I wonder -when using the Slint boot with the slackware kernel- whether you still need an initrd apart from your vmlinux kernel. For example, look at the usbbootimg from /slackware/usb-and-pxe-installers, where the elilo.conf calls the vmlinux as well as the initrd in the main folder:

The main items updated on new kernel releases are in the main folder; the EFI/BOOT remains the same.

Maybe you could try whether this stick works for booting (it should behave as the installer dvd although won't have the packages for installation); maybe the usb is not fast enough.....

Further, booting is not necessarily instantaneous. If I remember correctly, some posts about booting macs said that they had to wait for minutes.... (before the apple bootloader found the kernel on the boot partition). Please again read the posts of khronosschoty, he has a Mac as well and also suggests as all the stuff I've been reading, to create a boot-partition, that is the EFI or ESP, that is separate from the main partition. Having your swap a little smaller (4G to 3.7G) might not be a big deal in order to get your system to boot. That the REfind USB did not work/stop might be the result of the absence of a /boot partition or folder it can scan (although it normally works because it comes with the drivers to scan the various filesystems) as well. But I think you have to decide on a strategy. At the moment it seems that things have been attempted that might not help each other.... (read the rodbooks site back to front and start over again to understand what is going on; people advising you here have done that as well)

A lot of times you do indeed have to wait a minuet or two (maybe less but it is a wait). The only way I'm aware of removing that wait is to properly setup refind or refit or to use the bless command from within OSX to 'bless' elilo or grub. Making a refit boot cdrom is probably the easiest thing to do. The issue then remains, that you need to put a kernel on an efi partition and boot it directly with refit or refind, or put elilo on the efi partition as well. If you do this correctly then refit and refind will automatically find the kernel and boot it; or it will boot elilo or grub etc. Err what I mean by automatically find it and boot it is, it will find it and show you options for booting it. You can do a lot of customization with refind and refit, but refit is a lot more basic (and in certain situations less of a pain).