Hello.

I'm having issues to get elilo to work properly.

I have a ASUS P8P67 PRO. Slackware was installed just fine on a gpt disk, and elilo was installed normally on the EFI partition.

http://s7.postimg.org/6cb4et6a3/efi_boot.jpg


However, when I reboot the system and choose the EFI entry called "Slackware", nothing happens, I hit enter, the screen flashes, and it goes back to the UEFI interface.

There are two more UEFI entries, Windows 7 and kubuntu (another hard drive though) and they both work fine, but I simply cant get elilo to work on this system.

This is what I did: left only one HD plugged on the system and installed Slackware through a USB hard drive. The system asks me if I want to install elilo for this is a EFI system. I say yes and it proceeds normally. The setup process finishes and I reboot the system. Then I try to select Slackware and it doesnt work.

This is what the elilo.conf file in the EFI partition looks like,
I can boot with the USB stick Slackware setup creates, and then I run eliloconfig, it recreates the EFI entry but the sympton persists.


Any ideas?

What is the output of:
and
The file in that last command may need adjustment... it's the closest I can tell looking at your pic.

This is most likely the cause of the problem: What does the slackware /etc/fstab look like and the layout of the slackware partition? Are you booting Slackware with the other hard drive connected or disconnected? Did you try to install slackware with both hard drives connected.

@colorpurple21859:
Thanks for stating it so plainly. This is what I was trying to investigate. By seeing the verbose listing output of efibootmgr, we would be able to see the actual device being accessed for the efi bootloader. By seeing which hard drive partition that the Slackware boot entry is pointing at, we would verify whether these match the efi boot entry. I think that you are right, that this is the most likely cause... UEFI is not finding the SLackware elilo files because drive ordering has changed since the Slackware boot entry was made.

Thanks @j_v and @colorpurple21859 for posting.



A solution appeared before I could try the efibootmgr --verbose suggestion.

As far as I can tell there was some kind of problem with the nvram storage area
and such problem caused an issue with the loading of elilo.

I found the problem this way: a few days ago I was testing the program easyUEFI
which is meant for editing UEFI boot entries and no problems or error messages
appeared.

Then, after the attempt to install Slackware the EFI problem appeared (actually
this is the second time around installing a efi bootable Slackware, but the
first time elilo would work fine but I just kept messing the system). At this
point easyUEFI, when entering its graphical interface so I could manipulate the
entries, would give me the message "Cannot find the EFI/UEFI boot item specified
(0x00CB00B901B70000)".

Then I tried deleting the non-functional Slackware entry, adding it again, and
attempt to boot Slackware through the efi entry. It wouldn`t work, but other
entries easyUEFI could manipulate normally and they worked. So I thought perhaps
if I could delete the contents of the nvram area and re-enter the boot entries
the problem would dissapear. It did. Now I can add Slackware efi boot entries
and it works normally.

And as it seems changing the order of the drives doesnt really stop the efi boot
loaders from working. I tried doing that and all boot loaders launch normally,
but Slackware gets confused because elilo.conf points to a partition for
mounting root that is not there and the system doesnt finish booting, elilo
launches normally however.

Glad you got it sorted out. Don't forget to mark this thread as solved.