Slackware on UEFI

volkerdi · 03-01-2013, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Do you actually mean that the VGA text console won't be usable/enough any more to display the output of rc.S, 'setup' & friends? I really hope I misunderstood...

I really wish that you had misunderstood, but you didn't. I ran into a debugging issue here that took days to figure out, but would have taken one minute if I'd had an early boot console.

volkerdi · 03-01-2013, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erik_FL

Putting the boot-loader directly on the DVD in "/efi/boot" does not make the DVD boot-able. However, you can run the boot-loader manually from a UEFI command shell if that is supported on your computer. This also works if the boot-loader is on the disk in some other place besides "/efi/boot".

Unfortunately, my testing here shows that this does not work. While UEFI can boot a properly prepared EFI disk image that's on an ISO9660 disk (through el torito), it does not actually support the ISO9660 filesystem. The UEFI implementations that I've seen support FAT and FAT only. ISO9660 disks cannot be browsed from the UEFI command shell.

astrogeek · 03-01-2013, 04:13 PM

The new dark age is upon us...

Didier Spaier · 03-01-2013, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by volkerdi

I really wish that you had misunderstood, but you didn't. I ran into a debugging issue here that took days to figure out, but would have taken one minute if I'd had an early boot console.

So, as IIRC many people complained here of display problems occurring at handover and you will need to make that happens *really* early in the boot process, I'm afraid we won't lack "black screen of death" reports in the future...

Erik_FL · 03-01-2013, 04:58 PM

Thanks for answering my questions so specifically.

Quote:

Originally Posted by volkerdi

It needs to be a GPT disk image with a FAT partition containing the \EFI\BOOT\ directory with an EFI loader such as elilo that will load the kernel and initrd.

The UEFI specification is quite confusing. I didn't get the impression that a GPT was in the boot image from reading the UEFI specification. It refers to the boot image as a "system partition" not a "GPT disk".

kabamaru · 03-02-2013, 04:18 AM

I just wanted to post these links to articles written by Roderick W. Smith (both gdisk and rEFInd are his projects). The rEFInd link has already been posted by rkelsen. Hope this helps :

GPT fdisk Tutorial
The rEFInd Boot Manager

and most importantly:
Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux (a series of articles about setting up Linux for UEFI)

volkerdi · 03-20-2013, 05:58 PM

Howdy! I've been hearing reports that the ability of UEFI to understand ISO9660 has been underestimated, and that it's just the early versions that only understand FAT. Of course, the Tianocore UEFI that I've been testing with is one of these.

VirtualBox's UEFI is not, though; the latest version of that seems to handle ISO9660 just fine. I've made an ISO here with the EFI directory and was able to boot it.

So... I'd like a little feedback from people who have real UEFI machines and are willing to help test this. I've updated the -current directories to include the /EFI/BOOT directory containing elilo, the kernel, and the initrd. If anyone can make an ISO from this and try booting it on a UEFI machine, I'd like to hear how it goes. Reports of either success or failure are welcomed (and please mention the model of the computer or motherboard, too).

Thanks!

AlleyTrotter · 03-21-2013, 08:13 AM

Downloaded current using Eric's mirror-slackware-current script
Now burning that iso with growisofs
my intent is next to boot the DVD by selecting it in the UEFI manager boot screen.
Then install to a spare partition sdb3

After that should I add sdb3 to my elilo.conf?
Or are you just interested to see if the DVD boots?
Either way I will report back later today.
john

volkerdi · 03-21-2013, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlleyTrotter

After that should I add sdb3 to my elilo.conf?
Or are you just interested to see if the DVD boots?

I'm mostly just interested in finding how roughly what percentage of the UEFI machines out there will boot the disc, but feel free to add it if you like!

brobr · 03-21-2013, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by volkerdi

Howdy! I've been hearing reports that the ability of UEFI to understand ISO9660 has been underestimated,...
So... I'd like a little feedback from people who have real UEFI machines and are willing to help test this. I've updated the -current directories to include the /EFI/BOOT directory containing elilo, the kernel, and the initrd. If anyone can make an ISO from this and try booting it on a UEFI machine, I'd like to hear how it goes. Reports of either success or failure are welcomed (and please mention the model of the computer or motherboard, too).

I just bought a CLEVO-W550EU laptop (intel HD4000 graphics, i7 quad core processor, 16G memory) with a 500 gb HDD drive (designated SATA0) and a 128 GB mSATA SSd disk I put in myself (designated SATA 4 by the BIOS) and I want to install Slackware on. Currently, it has Windows 8 on the 500 gb drive for testing purposes by the manufacturer of the machine (and currently useless by lack of a required activation key) and a DVD drive, so in theory I could try this out but my DVD burner on my up-to-date Slackware machine is playing up and I cannot burn an iso. Further, many ultrabooks etc, do not come with a DVD-drive any longer so this might not be the most optimal way of testing this...

I am trying to install via PXE-booting, especially as there is no USB-boot option in the BIOS (so the idea of creating USB-install/boot stick might not be that practical after all). Normally my machine is always a client but, via a cross-over cable, I can use it as a PXE-server (but need to use eth0 ip-address 192.168.0.0 instead of 192.168.0.1 as 'next-server' address for tftp in the /etc/dhcpd.conf of README_PXE.txt)

Anyway, it might be an idea to work out a more specific use-case for PXE-boot than the one now described for LANs where the slackware machine is the server. If it would be possible to set up PXE boot from some machine (not necessarily the server/router/access-point in most home-LANs but some other computer on the LAN), this would
a) attract home/mobile-users to keep installing linux on their machines
b) provide a means of a mobile 'rescue computer' if need be (where DVD/USB-boot is not possible and one is an 'hostile' environment not providing PXE-booting for a linux machine)
If in the meantime the 'PXE-serving'-computer would be able to stay connected to the internet (via the LAN) to find information for trouble-shooting that would even be better. At the moment I have to get off-line to the internet, to get PXE-booting to work via a cross-over cable...but maybe that is the only possible way.

Instructions/directions how to do this will be very stimulating. At the moment to find out all separate steps for this case in not very encouraging if you just have a new comp and want to go ahead....

Anyway, I will try

AlleyTrotter · 03-21-2013, 09:05 AM

Booting the DVD by selecting it in the UEFI manager boot screen the DVD BIOS booted and installed without a hitch.

My system is homebrew with a
AsRock z77 extreme 4 motherboard
Intel i5-3570K
32 GB ram
Kingston SSD as sda
sdb 2GB WD I think

john

[EDIT]deleted a whole bunch of my comments that were just confusing the issue. Will email Pat directly[/EDIT]

[EDIT]BIOS Information
Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
Version: P2.80
Release Date: 01/17/2013
Address: 0xF0000
Runtime Size: 64 kB
ROM Size: 8192 kB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
BIOS ROM is socketed
EDD is supported
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
Serial services are supported (int 14h)
Printer services are supported (int 17h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported
UEFI is supported
BIOS Revision: 4.6
Thought this clip from dmidecode may be usefull[/EDIT]

brobr · 03-22-2013, 06:56 AM

Quote:

I'd like a little feedback from people who have real UEFI machines

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobr

I just bought a CLEVO-W550EU laptop ....

I got Slackware to boot via PXE but then I found out that the disk with Windows 8 was not recognised as a GPT disk by gdisk. Further, in the BIOS the settings to bypass secure boot were very cryptic. 1) First one has to choose for an OS between "Others" and "Windows 8" and 2) only after choosing "Windows 8" as an OS a second choice became available,namely for "UEFI", which could be "enabled" or "disabled". According to the provided information, when "enabled" secure boot would kick in. This is something I wanted to stay away from. Sorry, but I chickened out here and kept the OS at 'Others' and could not test UEFI.

allend · 03-22-2013, 09:29 PM

I would have liked to test this, but the only UEFI capable computers I have access to have a Gigabyte motherboard with dual UEFI/BIOS ROMs and Windows 7 64bit installed. The only way I could not get the install DVD to boot was to set the computer to boot using only UEFI, where the optical drive was ignored and the only boot option was to boot Microsoft Windows.

Dman58 · 03-23-2013, 10:34 AM

Quote:

volkerdi
So... I'd like a little feedback from people who have real UEFI machines and are willing to help test this. I've updated the -current directories to include the /EFI/BOOT directory containing elilo, the kernel, and the initrd. If anyone can make an ISO from this and try booting it on a UEFI machine, I'd like to hear how it goes. Reports of either success or failure are welcomed (and please mention the model of the computer or motherboard, too).

This is right up my alley! I am making a local mirror now (after fumbling a little).

My machine:

Toshiba Satellite S855-S5164, Windblows 8, core i5, 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, AMD Radeon 7670M HD Graphics

Few quick questions/ concerns

I have the Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 (NDIS 6.30) network interface card --> alx driver is supposed to support this. Should it work out the gate? When I installed Slackware 14 with kernel 3.2 it wasn't recognized.

I have the Realtek RTL8723AE WIRELESS adapter as well which wasn't supported either is this now supported in the -current kernel?

kabamaru · 03-23-2013, 03:02 PM

I followed the instructions in /isolinux/README.txt to create an iso. I burned it successfully with k3b. The dvd boots fine, but not in EFI mode. My motherboard recognizes a media capable of booting in EFI mode and offers two options e.g. "HL-DT-ST GP08LU10" (my optical drive) and "EFI: HL-DT-ST GP08LU10". Only the first one was available which is basically bios emulation. Maybe the iso creating command needs some adjustment for EFI? I have no clue.

If you have any questions, let me know.