https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi en a blog about Debian and self-hosting Mon, 30 May 2016 01:53:00 +0000 PluXml https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1464573223-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1464573223-1 The best way to get Kali Linux 2.0 Sana working on EFI Systems is explained in this very easy to follow YouTube Video: http://y2u.be/XC7yyov8ZmI Mon, 30 May 2016 01:53:00 +0000 phoenix6142 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1426505265-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1426505265-1 Unfortunately it didn't work for me. First i installed rEFInd BootManager onto a SD Card and disabled CSM Boot in the BIOS. rEFInd boots and i can select my Debian Jessie Installation from a MBR Disk. '/sys/firmware/efi' returns useful values so i'm definitely booted in EFI mode. On a (new) GPT-based Disk (protective MBR) i've created the EFI-System partition (FAT-32 formated) and mounted on '/boot/efi'. I've checked the Boot Flag via Gparted. I removed 'grub-pc-*' and installed 'grub-efi-*' packages. I used grub-install on my boot disk (same new disk that contains EFI-SP) and efibootmgr to create the NVRAM boot entry. I've tried it with and without an extra BIOS boot partition. It just doesn't work although rEFInd on my SD card boots fine but no grub boot at all. Without the rEFInd-SD card I just get a message from the BIOS to reboot and to select a proper boot device ... like there is no start partition at all although i can see my NVRAM boot entry in the BIOS. My Gigabyte UEFI BIOS doesn't offer disabling secure boot but i can't tell anyway if it's used. The only difference i see is the rEFInd efi executable is signed while debian's grubx64.efi isn't? Switched back to MBR for now ... Any other hints? (PS@UEFI: "Now ... let's use a boot procedure so error prone that a single cough breaks it and so complicated like explaining a three-year-old the theory of relativity is easy.") Mon, 16 Mar 2015 11:27:00 +0000 3ronco https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410765286-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410765286-1 @Chavoux : In UEFI mode, you should be able to boot from optical discs that have an ElTorito boot code for UEFI and not for BIOS. Now for Ubuntu, as for Debian, the fact that it installs GRUB to the EFI System Partition (mind that “ESP Partition” is a case of RAS Syndrom, the redundant acronym syndrome syndrome) is the expected behaviour if you start the installer in UEFI. Also, the fact that GRUB detects and offers you to boot the other operating systems if finds is the expected behaviour, only it cannot cross the BIOS/UEFI barrier (i.e. GRUB for UEFI cannot offer you to boot a BIOS-based OS). Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:14:00 +0000 Tanguy https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410719814-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410719814-1 Thanks for all the info. At the end of the day I got it working with all my distros installed in a round-about way. First off, to install some of the distro's I had to boot in legacy mode since booting in UEFI mode did not even pick up the DVD/CD (even though the boot order was set to start from DVD drive before the hard-drive). So I installed all my distros (including Debian) in legacy mode. I did install the grub-efi-amd64 package. Then I installed Ubuntu (the only DVD that I could start from UEFI mode) and set it to install GRUB to the /dev/sda drive. Somehow it automatically installed to the ESP partition and added all the distros installed in legacy mode as well. All of them except for one, now boots in UEFI mode and all of them (except Windows8.1) can boot in legacy mode as well. So I never had to do the last step from the article... :-) In my case the UEFI firmware allowed me to choose either UEFI mode or legacy mode, the harddrive already had an ESP FAT32 partition (with the Windows boot loader) as well as a small (1 MB) unformatted space in the beginning (where I assume the legacy MBR is stored). Maybe this could be useful for somebody else. Sun, 14 Sep 2014 18:36:00 +0000 Chavoux https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410439504-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410439504-1 @Chavoux : With a GPT, you get a protective or a compatibility MBR. But remember that GRUB cannot fit in the 512 byte-long space that is dedicated to boot code in MBR, where it only places a small code that jumps to another place where it has stored its core image. In pure MBR, that would be the space left between the end of the MBR and the first cylinder, but in GPT there may not be such a space, so you should create a (very small, as will onl hold GRUB's core image, so 1MB would be sufficient) unformatted partition dedicated for that, that you will tag as “bios_grub” (this is in fact a specific partition GUID) so GRUB knows it can put its core image on it. You cannot chainload an EFI system partition, what you can chainload is some code the current firmware (BIOS or UEFI) can run. In the UEFI case, that would be an EFI program, which would be some file.efi located on the EFI system partition. “Normal” UEFI implementations should offer a boot-time menu, called the boot manager, to let the user choose the operating system he wants to run; in your case it would offer you a choice between Windows and Debian, but it may not since many UEFI implementations are just crap. Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:45:00 +0000 Tanguy https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410430914-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410430914-1 @Tanguy : Thanks a lot! I have one more (theoretical) question: I see in GParted that my first partition (NTFS recovery)starts on sector 2048. So I assume that the MBR is still on the first part of the hard-drive like normal (old style) disks (and will be used in legacy mode)? The second partition is then my ESP partition (fat32) marked as bootable and what UEFI boot normally use? So the two should not interfere with each other at all? Can I chainload +1 from the MBR to the ESP drive? Or do I have to switch between the two modes every time in the firmware? I installed the MBR with the default GRUB2 that came with Kali Linux (Debian based) and then changed GRUB2 to the UEFI version as described in your article. I just wanted to be sure that if I stuff up anything during the installation of the UEFI bootloader, I could fall back to legacy mode (and I might still need legacy mode for some of my older non-UEFI-enabled distros). But since Debian is my main OS and Windows my gaming OS, it would be nice to have them both booting in UEFI mode without needing to enter the firmware settings every time. Thu, 11 Sep 2014 10:21:00 +0000 Chavoux https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410381180-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410381180-1 @Chavoux : There is no theoretical incompatibilities between an UEFI system partition and a functional MBR boot code on the same device, actually I am already using that combination on live USB sticks. Using them requires a motherboard firmware able to let you choose between them, and able to boot both. Now about Windows, I really have no idea, but for Debian, I know that it can be booted either in BIOS or UEFI mode, and that GRUB 2 is currently designed so it is possible to install it for BIOS and for UEFI on the same operating system and storage device, although the corresponding Debian packages are still declared to be in conflict. Wed, 10 Sep 2014 20:33:00 +0000 Tanguy https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410379824-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi/#c1410379824-1 Just one question: I already have a Debian system booting fine in legacy mode. If I change it to boot from the UEFI partition, will my legacy boot (MBR) stop working? I know I cannot boot Windows 8 when booting in legacy mode. Will this also be true for Debian afterwards? (I still have some other OS's that I will probably boot in legacy mode, so will like not to have to switch to UEFI mode everytime I want to boot Debian). Wed, 10 Sep 2014 20:10:00 +0000 Chavoux