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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 12:28 am    Post subject: Bootloader Issues (Grub and rEFInd) Reply with quote

Hi, I'm installing Gentoo on my new laptop. I've used Gentoo on and off again over the past few years and really never had any trouble installing it, but I'm seeing some strange behavior here.

My preferred bootloader is rEFInd, however it outright fails to find my kernel. Every time I attempt to boot, it gives an "Invalid Loader File" error then complains about not finding my kernel. This rEFInd installation was actually installed from Antergos a while back, so all I should have needed to do was modify the Boot Stanza, but it looks like I must be missing something. Here is the relevant boot stanza:

Code:
menuentry "Gentoo Linux" {
    icon     /EFI/refind/themes/rEFInd-sunset/icons/os_gentoo.png
    volume   2f290df2-cb53-4256-bb08-307573a9b4e6 # Root Partition's PARTUUID
    loader   /boot/vmlinuz-4.19.23-gentoo
    options  "root=PARTUUID=2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6 initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img rw add_efi_memmap" # Points to root partition
    submenuentry "Boot to terminal" {
        add_options "systemd.unit=multi-user.target initrd=intel-ucode.img"
    }
}


Here is the important part of blkid:

Code:
/dev/sda1: LABEL_FATBOOT="ESP" LABEL="ESP" UUID="2C0C-91F9" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="9d55ca45-1b56-4508-825f-8b7efa02ac18"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="Gentoo-Root" UUID="6020735d-d19c-422f-8b34-d8caece285de" UUID_SUB="d57cadd3-cd20-4765-a6b2-7060db50c7c8" TYPE="btrfs" PARTLABEL="Gentoo-Root" PARTUUID="2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6"


And here is how my partitions are mounted:
Code:
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 119.2G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0 190.8M  0 part /boot/efi # VFAT
├─sda2   8:2    0  59.5G  0 part / # BTRFS
├─sda3   8:3    0    16M  0 part
└─sda4   8:4    0  59.5G  0 part
sdb      8:16   0 931.5G  0 disk
├─sdb1   8:17   0     8G  0 part [SWAP]
├─sdb2   8:18   0    10G  0 part /var/tmp/portage # XFS
├─sdb3   8:19   0   600M  0 part
├─sdb4   8:20   0 457.7G  0 part
└─sdb5   8:21   0 455.2G  0 part /home # XFS
(this was obtained from a chroot from System Rescue CD)

I was getting fed up with having to chroot into my system to work on this, so as a temporary measure I tried installing GRUB. There is a very slight improvement, it does (seem to) load my kernel successfully, but then I get left with just a blank screen. A quick Google search indicated that this may be related to my kernel config (specifically my GFX drivers, my card is an Intel 620 UHD for reference), so I double checked those options and tried enabling the Alpha setting (the wiki said older versions of the kernel needed it, though my version should have been fine without it). After that didn't work, I remembered that the Gentoo Minimal ISO booted fine, so I tried just using genkernel, then making the needed adjustments for my bootloaders. Nothing changed (the boot stanza above is a little older than this attempt, I can provide the newer one but I'm not sure it'll help since nothing changed). At this point, I'm not really sure what else to try. Does anyone have any ideas? I can post more information as needed.
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Tony0945
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 2:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Icronos, can you post the results of:

Code:
grep ^# /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf

Code:
cat /boot/refind_linux.conf

and
Code:
efibootmgr -v
?
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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 2:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sure thing.

grep ^# /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf:
https://pastebin.com/C45pBeDm

cat /boot/refind_linux.conf:
Code:
"Boot with standard options"  "root=PARTUUID=2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6  rw add_efi_memmap quiet splash"
"Boot to single-user mode"    "root=PARTUUID=2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6  rw add_efi_memmap quiet splash single"
"Boot with minimal options"   "ro root=UUID=62306fce-2fc4-43a7-8d74-fe7d47d6d1b3"


efibootmgr -v:
Code:
BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,3000,0001,0004,2001,2002,2004
Boot0000* rEFInd Boot Manager   HD(1,GPT,9d55ca45-1b56-4508-825f-8b7efa02ac18,0x800,0x5f5e1)/File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi)
Boot0001* gentoo   HD(1,GPT,9d55ca45-1b56-4508-825f-8b7efa02ac18,0x800,0x5f5e1)/File(\EFI\gentoo\grubx64.efi)
Boot0002* USB Hard Drive (UEFI) - SanDisk Cruzer Glide (SanDisk Cruzer Glide)   PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)/HD(1,GPT,7820bfbd-7c1d-4d0f-b98d-ed5fb50d7a7e,0x800,0x1d1c800)RC
Boot0004* Windows Boot Manager   HD(1,GPT,9d55ca45-1b56-4508-825f-8b7efa02ac18,0x800,0x5f5e1)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................
Boot2001* EFI USB Device   RC
Boot3000* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk   RC
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Cuong Nguyen
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 6:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is that you laptop is HP or any brand with non-100% compatible UEFI?

I used rEFInd well on my old laptop IBM ThinkPad with non-secure UEFI and Legacy CSM . But the same configuration does not work on my new HP Probook although I disabled Secure Boot and Legacy. Fastboot also disabled. I guest refind_x64.efi cannot load drviers to read from EFI FAT32 Partition and it stucks there.

I searched around and found that rEFInd author recommends to replace file /EFI/Boot/BOOTX64.EFI with REFIND_X64.EFI (renamed to BOOTX64.EFI, moved refind.conf over there). I dont want to alter the default EFI bootloaders by HP that may chainload diagnostics tools and messed up ESP partition, so I turned back to GRUB2 with and grub-customizer set my grub.cfg manually.

The other weird thing with HP BIOS is it will pass grub menu and go directly to very first menu entry of grub.cfg if you are making a warm reboot or turn on from sleep hibernation. It allows you to choose grub menu only when you are making a cold boot with F9 pressed. I asked about this on IRS channels but still can't find how to fix it.
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Tony0945
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 2:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gah!My fault. I meant "grep -v^# /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf" But I'm assuming that you only have menuentrys in there.

The other files look good. I think Cuong Nguyen is on to something there and it's a BIOS problem.

An easy thing to try is to rename refind.conf to refind.conf.old and try this as a refind.conf:
Code:
timeout 20

showtools shell, gdisk, memtest, about, reboot, exit, firmware

scanfor internal, external,optical,manual

fold_linux_kernels false

default_selection vmlinuz
This will give you a penguin for every kernel found with the latest dated kernel pre-selected. Try each one and see if it works.
I'm running latest ~amd refind -> 0.11.3 from the portage.
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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see why you might think it's a BIOS problem, however I don't think that's the case, simply because just a couple days ago I had an Antergos install working perfectly with rEFInd.

I'll try out your suggestion, while I'm doing so I'll also post the output you wanted.

While I'm working with this, do you have any ideas on what could be going on with Grub? It seems odd that Grub would work fine for the Gentoo minimal ISO but not work on my system, even with genkernel.

EDIT: Here's the output of the grep command:
Code:
timeout 5

resolution 3840 2160

enable_mouse

use_graphics_for linux, windows

scanfor manual

menuentry "Windows 10" {
    icon   EFI\refind\themes\rEFInd-sunset\icons\os_windows.png
    loader EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
}

menuentry "Gentoo Linux" {
    icon     /EFI/refind/themes/rEFInd-sunset/icons/os_gentoo.png
    volume   2f290df2-cb53-4256-bb08-307573a9b4e6
    initrd   /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-4.19.23-gentoo
    loader   /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-4.19.23-gentoo
    options  "root=PARTUUID=2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6 initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img rw add_efi_memmap dobtrfs"
    submenuentry "Boot to terminal" {
        add_options "systemd.unit=multi-user.target initrd=intel-ucode.img"
    }
}

include themes/rEFInd-sunset/theme.conf


EDIT:

Progress! It gets me into the boot process, but finds the wrong block device. I am able to boot completely if I give it "/dev/sda2". So now that leaves me wondering what is wrong with my boot stanza.
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nick_gentoo
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:36 pm    Post subject: Re: Bootloader Issues (Grub and rEFInd) Reply with quote

lcronos wrote:

menuentry "Gentoo Linux" {
...
volume 2f290df2-cb53-4256-bb08-307573a9b4e6 # Root Partition's PARTUUID
...
}
}
/dev/sda2: LABEL="Gentoo-Root" UUID="6020735d-d19c-422f-8b34-d8caece285de" UUID_SUB="d57cadd3-cd20-4765-a6b2-7060db50c7c8" TYPE="btrfs" PARTLABEL="Gentoo-Root" PARTUUID="2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6"

Maybe there is just that typo in there?
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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I swear I copied and pasted that using Vim, but you're spot on. Let me try that adjustment and see what happens.

EDIT: Hmm still didn't work. I see more of the error message with my theme disabled though. Here's the full text:
Code:
Starting kernel-genkernel-x86_64-4.19.23-gentoo
Using load options 'root=PARTUUID=2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6 initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img rw add_efi_memmap dobtrfs initrd=\boot\initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-4.19.23-gentoo'
Invalid loader file!
Error: Not Found while loading kernel-genkernel-x86_64-4.19.23-gentoo


EDIT: I feel really really stupid...... For some reason my genkernel stuff was in /boot/efi and not /boot..... Moving them into /boot like where I thought they were causes my manual stanza to work, however I still have to type in my root device every time I boot. If we can just fix that, everything should be good.
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Tony0945
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 7:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This was my saga of a similar problem I don't dual boot with windows (or anything) and no grub, which made it simpler in my case. There are some good links in that thread.

Just a guess but run "blkid" and triple check the PARTUUID.

EDIT: Your boot options have two intrd= assignments. Is this legal? If so, I would guess that only the second one is applied and it probably came from refind_linux.conf.
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nick_gentoo
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 8:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Also, the 2nd initrd parameter is using backslashes instead of forward slashes.
By the way, as I do not use rEFInd: what does it mean that you have to type in your root device: is this a rEFInd feature, do you need to type it before booting the kernel?
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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 8:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
EDIT: Your boot options have two intrd= assignments. Is this legal? If so, I would guess that only the second one is applied and it probably came from refind_linux.conf.

Yes, the two initrd statements are required here to load the intel microcode, then later the initramfs. I could try removing the intel one since I can boot without it, I just get some warnings. I'll take a look at your post and see what applies here though, thank you.

Quote:
Also, the 2nd initrd parameter is using backslashes instead of forward slashes.

rEFInd actually understands both types of slashes.

Quote:
By the way, as I do not use rEFInd: what does it mean that you have to type in your root device: is this a rEFInd feature, do you need to type it before booting the kernel?

It happens while my initramfs is loading. If I change it from
Code:
root=PARTUUID=2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6
to
Code:
root=/dev/sda2
it works, but PARTUUID is safer in the long run since a PARTUUID doesn't change, but the *sd* method can change based on what order the disks are loaded in.
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nick_gentoo
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

lcronos wrote:
Quote:
Also, the 2nd initrd parameter is using backslashes instead of forward slashes.

rEFInd actually understands both types of slashes.

OK. Now I would assume the kernel only recognizes forward slashes in its command line, so rEFInd has to do some translation of that line from its config file. Is there a way to see the actual command line passed to the kernel, maybe by scrolling back at that prompt?
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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll check, though I'm not sure that's the issue since the initramfs does get launched, and changing "root=PARTUIID=..." to "root=/dev/sda2" works.
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Tony0945
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 12:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nick_gentoo wrote:
By the way, as I do not use rEFInd: what does it mean that you have to type in your root device: is this a rEFInd feature, do you need to type it before booting the kernel?

As mentioned in the thread link I posted above. If no other data is available, refind will examine /etc/fstab on the partition that it found the kernel in. That obviously doesn't work with a separate /boot.
Unless, of course, you also have a /boot/etc/fstab for refnd to find, but that's silly. Just specify it in /boot/refind-linux.
There are some good refind homepage links in that thread, which documents how I stumbled my way to a solution.
If refind finds noting it can't pass anything. The kernel will boot and then panic with "can't find root". Believe me, I KNOW!
Yet another way is to build it into the internal kernel comman string, but /boot/refind-linux.conf is easier and just needs a simple edit to change instead of a kernel recompile.

If /dev/sda2 works but PARTUUID doesn't there is either a syntax error or an error in the PARTUUID. Those are long nonsense strings so it is hard to find errors.
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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 1:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tony0945 wrote:
nick_gentoo wrote:
By the way, as I do not use rEFInd: what does it mean that you have to type in your root device: is this a rEFInd feature, do you need to type it before booting the kernel?

As mentioned in the thread link I posted above. If no other data is available, refind will examine /etc/fstab on the partition that it found the kernel in. That obviously doesn't work with a separate /boot.
Unless, of course, you also have a /boot/etc/fstab for refnd to find, but that's silly. Just specify it in /boot/refind-linux.
There are some good refind homepage links in that thread, which documents how I stumbled my way to a solution.
If refind finds noting it can't pass anything. The kernel will boot and then panic with "can't find root". Believe me, I KNOW!
Yet another way is to build it into the internal kernel comman string, but /boot/refind-linux.conf is easier and just needs a simple edit to change instead of a kernel recompile.

If /dev/sda2 works but PARTUUID doesn't there is either a syntax error or an error in the PARTUUID. Those are long nonsense strings so it is hard to find errors.


To ensure everything was right, I created an environment variable containing the correct PARTUUID (obtained from /dev/disk/by-partuuid grep and awk) then searched my refind.conf for it. The two lines that show up both appear to be syntactically correct.

The only thing I can think at this point is my /etc/fstab is using PARTUUID instead of just UUID like my (Artix) desktop does. Could that be it maybe?
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Tony0945
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 1:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is your /etc/fstab using the same value? Mine uses LABEL as I find that more identifiable. refind will use what's in refind_linux.conf if there is something.

Can you type some more of the error message?

To further isolate it, comment out your root line in /etc/fstab and use /dev/sda2 instead. If that works, then fstab is wrong.


Code:
 $ grep -v ^# /etc/fstab


LABEL=CT500MX_EFI            /boot/efi    vfat      relatime   1 2
LABEL=CT500MX_PART2   /       ext4      relatime   0 1
PARTUUID=06f452e6-01   /video       jfs      auto,relatime   0 1
/dev/sr0      /mnt/cdrom    auto      user,noauto,nofail   0 0
tmpfs                   /var/tmp/portage tmpfs          nr_inodes=1M,size=12G 0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts         devpts         defaults        0 0

//gentoo/video   /mnt/samba-gentoo   cifs   noauto,user=guest,password=none,ro   0 0
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 1:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wait a minute, is rEFInd parsing fstab during boot? It actually can read not mounted root filesystem? Or it reads fstab during setup perhaps?
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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tony0945 wrote:
Is your /etc/fstab using the same value? Mine uses LABEL as I find that more identifiable. refind will use what's in refind_linux.conf if there is something.

Can you type some more of the error message?

To further isolate it, comment out your root line in /etc/fstab and use /dev/sda2 instead. If that works, then fstab is wrong.


Code:
 $ grep -v ^# /etc/fstab


LABEL=CT500MX_EFI            /boot/efi    vfat      relatime   1 2
LABEL=CT500MX_PART2   /       ext4      relatime   0 1
PARTUUID=06f452e6-01   /video       jfs      auto,relatime   0 1
/dev/sr0      /mnt/cdrom    auto      user,noauto,nofail   0 0
tmpfs                   /var/tmp/portage tmpfs          nr_inodes=1M,size=12G 0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts         devpts         defaults        0 0

//gentoo/video   /mnt/samba-gentoo   cifs   noauto,user=guest,password=none,ro   0 0


Currently, yes my /etc/fstab is using PARTUUID and has the same value as my refind.conf. I can post the full error message in just a little bit, I'm doing some lengthy merges right now, but they're pretty close to done then I'll change back to using PARTUUID.

I'll try out UUID like on my desktop, then LABEL like your system, then just /dev/sda after that as a last result.

Totally unrelated, but how is JFS performance for you? Fast? I may try that for my /var/tmp/portage if so.

Code:
Wait a minute, is rEFInd parsing fstab during boot? It actually can read not mounted root filesystem? Or it reads fstab during setup perhaps?


It sounds like it reads /etc/fstab only if it has access to it, so this might not be related (since it's failing to mount the partition with /etc/fstab), but eventually you just hit a point where it really is just trying everything and see what works.


EDIT: Here is the error output:
Code:
Scanning for Btrfs filesystems
>> Determining root device ...
!! Block device PARTUUID=2f290df2-cb53-4258-bb08-307573a9b4e6 is not a valid root device...
!! Could not find the root block device in .
!! Please specify another value or:
!! - press Enter for the same
!! - type "shell" for a shell
!! - type "q" to skip...


I just tried having my /etc/fstab use the UUID value instead of PARTUUID and no progress so far. Before messing with /etc/fstab anymore I am going to mess with my /boot/refind_linux.conf. If that fails then I'll try LABEL next, then just /dev/sda. After that, well I'm pretty much out of ideas.

EDIT: So because /boot/refind_linux.conf has a UUID option by default, I went to see if that worked then noticed none of the menu options are loading. My guess is that since it is with my kernel, and my kernel is on my root partition, rEFInd can't see it. This has me questioning if it's even related. For reference, my working desktop set up doesn't even have a /boot/refind_linux.conf. I can keep messing with /etc/fstab though I doubt it will have any impact since rEFInd shouldn't be able to see it right now.
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 7:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

By reading https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/linux.html, I would understand that rEFInd looks into /etc/fstab only if it's doing some autodetection for generating its config file, but not at boot time. Do you guys read that the same way?
lcronos, are you editing by yourself the rEFInd config files? If yes, then I guess the contents of /etc/fstab has no effect here.
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lcronos
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 7:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doing some more research, I came across this post https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-701116-start-0.html. I know I definitely did not use the `--disklabel` option when using genkernel so this is likely the cause. It's pretty late in my timezone now so I'll try it out tomorrow and post back the result. Thank you for the help here. Once I get this working I'll start playing with some alternative setups. I'd like to keep my kernels on the ESP and start using reinfd_linux.conf. We'll see if it actually works or not. Since it can find the kernel on the root partition, it should be able to find it on the ESP too (I hope).
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Tony0945
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

lcronos wrote:
I'd like to keep my kernels on the ESP and start using reinfd_linux.conf.

I would not keep my kernels on a FAT file system. Also, I don't keep a seperate /boot anymore. That was a relic of when BIOS boot couldn't read the entire disk. I ditched that long ago. I only have one system with that layout, an old 32 bit k6-3 booting grub legacy (and an old version of that).

Even with a separate /boot since refind looks for /boot/refind-linux.conf, you can use refind_linux.conf. You don't need a kernel on the efi partiotion. refind is there and refind looks for your kernels, by default even on other disks. No need to store on FAT.
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Tony0945
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 25 Jul 2006
Posts: 5127
Location: Illinois, USA

PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Totally unrelated, but how is JFS performance for you? Fast? I may try that for my /var/tmp/portage if so.

I formatted that drive as jfs long ago because it was touted as better for large files. I regret it. The file system is touchy requiring fsck on avery boot and I haven't found a way to label it. If I buy another drive 2TB or larger, I'll first move all the data temporarily to the new drive then reformat the old drive as ext4. I see a lot of people are using btrfs, but I'm conservative and need to read some technical reviews before I chance it.

It's an interesting subject, perhaps you would like to start a seperate discussion on Gentoo Chat? I'm sure it would quickly grow.

Many years ago I used reiserfs for perfrmance but it is unspported and I switched to ext3/4.
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lcronos
n00b
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Joined: 09 Jun 2014
Posts: 74

PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wonder why my rEFInd isn't finding the refind_linux.conf then. I'll play with it and see what happens. I need to clean up my ESP a little and remove some stuff from my previous Linux install, and remove Grub since that wasn't working properly to begin with. Thanks again for your help here.

Yeah, I think I will set one up for that some time later today. It's a fun topic to discuss.
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nick_gentoo
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 07 Jan 2019
Posts: 140

PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nick_gentoo wrote:
By reading https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/linux.html, I would understand that rEFInd looks into /etc/fstab only if it's doing some autodetection for generating its config file, but not at boot time. Do you guys read that the same way?
lcronos, are you editing by yourself the rEFInd config files? If yes, then I guess the contents of /etc/fstab has no effect here.

Well, it looks like I was wrong, as I found now this at https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/features.html
Quote:
In the absence of a refind_linux.conf file, the ability to pass minimal Linux boot options to a kernel based on the contents of /etc/fstab. This is limited to cases in which the kernel resides on the Linux root (/) filesystem, though, and it won't work if the installation requires any unusual options.

So it's like Tony0945 said, sorry for my confusion. lcronos, from what was written here you do have the kernel on the root filesystem (that /boot/vmlinuz-4.19.23-gentoo) and not on the ESP.
I also plan to have a look at rEFInd now, it sounds interesting and I see many people use it.
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Phoenix591
Guru
Guru


Joined: 17 Sep 2007
Posts: 480

PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 11:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nick_gentoo wrote:
lcronos wrote:
Quote:
Also, the 2nd initrd parameter is using backslashes instead of forward slashes.

rEFInd actually understands both types of slashes.

OK. Now I would assume the kernel only recognizes forward slashes in its command line, so rEFInd has to do some translation of that line from its config file. Is there a way to see the actual command line passed to the kernel, maybe by scrolling back at that prompt?

Nah, actually in EFI mode the kernel understands backslashes, since thats the what EFI paths actually use. (using EFI stub and a command line with backslashes myself)
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