Mailing List Archive

On 23:21 Sun 11 Oct 2020, peter@prh.myzen.co.uk wrote:
>I'm still wrestling with my system and its not booting.
>
>Can anyone please tell me precisely where 'efibootmgr -c ...' writes a boot record, or whatever it's called? My machine seems unable to store what I give it, and I suspect that the BIOS ROM has failed. Big expense if so.
>
>TiA.

You might give it a shot like this :

https://github.com/unixbhaskar/UEFI_Linux_Boot_Process_From_Userland


Good luck!
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If you followed the handbook /dev/sda2 would be where the boot record
lives. On Sun, 11 Oct 2020, peter@prh.myzen.co.uk wrote:

> Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 19:21:49
> From: peter@prh.myzen.co.uk
> Reply-To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> Subject: [gentoo-user] UEFI booting again
>
> I'm still wrestling with my system and its not booting.
>
> Can anyone please tell me precisely where 'efibootmgr -c ...' writes a boot record, or whatever it's called? My machine seems unable to store what I give it, and I suspect that the BIOS ROM has failed. Big expense if so.
>
> TiA.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

--

In gentoo in order to make a uefi system is it necessary to use douefi as
a boot parameter when starting the install? If so, it wasn't in the
handbook I read. If not, my guess would be gentoo discovers this
information for itself.



--

On 10/11/20 7:37 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> If you followed the handbook /dev/sda2 would be where the boot record lives.

I don't think so, but the terminology is certainly confusing. Peter
asked where efibootmgr writes something.  What is on /dev/sda2 could be
grub.cfg if it were mounted at /boot, and the grub booting stub (I
forget the correct name, but grubx64.efi) might be on /dev/sda2 if it
were mounted at /boot/EFI.  However, efibootmgr doesn't mess with either
of those.  It deals with what is stored in the UEFI boot firmware.  That
entry, which is read by the UEFI at boot time, runs the entry in the EFI
disk partition (usually under /boot/EFI), which then runs the kernel
(and possibly initramfs) in /boot.  Unfortunately, "boot record" is
probably too general a term.

Jack

> On Sun, 11 Oct 2020, peter@prh.myzen.co.uk wrote:
>
>> Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 19:21:49
>> From: peter@prh.myzen.co.uk
>> Reply-To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
>> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
>> Subject: [gentoo-user] UEFI booting again
>>
>> I'm still wrestling with my system and its not booting.
>>
>> Can anyone please tell me precisely where 'efibootmgr -c ...' writes a boot record, or whatever it's called? My machine seems unable to store what I give it, and I suspect that the BIOS ROM has failed. Big expense if so.
>>
>> TiA.

On Sunday, 11 October 2020 23:21:49 -00 peter@prh.myzen.co.uk wrote:

> Can anyone please tell me precisely where 'efibootmgr -c ...' writes a boot
> record, or whatever it's called? My machine seems unable to store what I
> give it, and I suspect that the BIOS ROM has failed. Big expense if so.

I have a bootable system again.

In one line: I need Windows as part of my system maintenance.

Yes, I did mean to write that. Let me explain.

Every attempt of mine to write bootable images failed. I still don't know why,
but while I was trying everything I could think of, I ran Windows (on /dev/
sdb) to restore a system image (from /dev/sda; /root is on /dev/nvme0n1). On
rebooting, lo! and behold! there was a boot menu! It was an old one, dating
from when I created the system image in Windows, but after booting from USB
and adding the right kernels and /boot/loader/ structure, and running 'bootclt
update', a reboot showed me the proper boot menu.

A kernel upgrade arrived today, so after installing it and updating the /boot/
loader config, I ran Windows again to create a new system image.

So on my machine, efibootmgr is no use. I have to use bootctl from systemd-boot
to manage my bootable images. And Windows to preserve them.

I've attached a shot of the boot menu I've been referring to in this thread.
It's not pretty, but there's only so much I can do with a curved screen and a
hand-held phone.

--
Regards,
Peter.

On Monday, 19 October 2020 13:08:35 BST Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Sunday, 11 October 2020 23:21:49 -00 peter@prh.myzen.co.uk wrote:
> > Can anyone please tell me precisely where 'efibootmgr -c ...' writes a
> > boot
> > record, or whatever it's called? My machine seems unable to store what I
> > give it, and I suspect that the BIOS ROM has failed. Big expense if so.
>
> I have a bootable system again.
>
> In one line: I need Windows as part of my system maintenance.
>
> Yes, I did mean to write that. Let me explain.
>
> Every attempt of mine to write bootable images failed. I still don't know
> why, but while I was trying everything I could think of, I ran Windows (on
> /dev/ sdb) to restore a system image (from /dev/sda; /root is on
> /dev/nvme0n1). On rebooting, lo! and behold! there was a boot menu! It was
> an old one, dating from when I created the system image in Windows, but
> after booting from USB and adding the right kernels and /boot/loader/
> structure, and running 'bootclt update', a reboot showed me the proper boot
> menu.
>
> A kernel upgrade arrived today, so after installing it and updating the
> /boot/ loader config, I ran Windows again to create a new system image.
>
> So on my machine, efibootmgr is no use. I have to use bootctl from
> systemd-boot to manage my bootable images. And Windows to preserve them.
>
> I've attached a shot of the boot menu I've been referring to in this thread.
> It's not pretty, but there's only so much I can do with a curved screen and
> a hand-held phone.

I am confused ...

Are you saying calling 'efibootmgr -v' lists a different UEFI boot menu? o_O

On Monday, 19 October 2020 14:08:05 -00 Michael wrote:

> Are you saying calling 'efibootmgr -v' lists a different UEFI boot menu?

No, I'm saying that I appear to be able to create a BIOS entry using
efibootmgr, but when I reboot and enter BIOS setup, the entry often isn't
there. Or if it is, either the kernel won't boot, or it does but the resulting
system is incomplete.

When I bought this system I failed entirely to install grub - I followed the
instructions slavishly and received much help from those more knowledgeable on
this list at the time, but never got the system to boot. Then, groping about
trying to understand efibootmgr, bootctl and UEFI generally, I may have done
some combination of things that prevented those tools from ever working again.
For me. On this machine.

So the summary is: I can preserve the ESP using Windows's system image
creation and recovery tool, but not with those two Linux tools.

I've wasted several months wrestling with this, and I've finished up with what
I've described.

--
Regards,
Peter.

On Monday, 19 October 2020 17:10:57 BST Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Monday, 19 October 2020 14:08:05 -00 Michael wrote:
> > Are you saying calling 'efibootmgr -v' lists a different UEFI boot menu?
>
> No, I'm saying that I appear to be able to create a BIOS entry using
> efibootmgr, but when I reboot and enter BIOS setup, the entry often isn't
> there. Or if it is, either the kernel won't boot, or it does but the
> resulting system is incomplete.
>
> When I bought this system I failed entirely to install grub - I followed the
> instructions slavishly and received much help from those more knowledgeable
> on this list at the time, but never got the system to boot. Then, groping
> about trying to understand efibootmgr, bootctl and UEFI generally, I may
> have done some combination of things that prevented those tools from ever
> working again. For me. On this machine.
>
> So the summary is: I can preserve the ESP using Windows's system image
> creation and recovery tool, but not with those two Linux tools.
>
> I've wasted several months wrestling with this, and I've finished up with
> what I've described.

I see. What you describe is interesting, because the UEFI firmware GUI,
efibootmgr, and MSWindows are all meant to be accessing the *same* database of
editable entries on the firmware, using the UEFI API. I have not looked into
bootctl more than once to know what it does with any clarity.

However, I don't think anyone would argue against empirical repeatable
outcomes. :-)

On Monday, 19 October 2020 18:08:53 -00 Michael wrote:

> However, I don't think anyone would argue against empirical repeatable
> outcomes. :-)

:)

--
Regards,
Peter.