Signed bootloader is highly needed...

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dAlexis · Post by **dAlexis** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 5:03 am

I am trying to install on asus sabertooth 990 fx (rev 1, not 2). By the way! If you want to purchace this <several lines are self-censored>, BEWARE! There are no swithces for turning secure boot off. While booting in non-uefi mode, install cd simply hangs on startup, live DVD hangs farther, but final result is the same... Additionally, in non-uefi mode keyboard is not workable during boot. Bootable is only ubuntu with signed installer. How to attach this loader to gentoo?

khayyam · Post by **khayyam** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 6:51 am

dAlexis ....

You should be able to work arround this using rEFInd, see the documentation section on secureboot.

HTH & best ... khay

Post by Hu » Sat Mar 09, 2013 5:06 pm

Does this device come with a "Certified for Windows 8" label? If so, and if it is an x86/amd64 system and if you are correct that it is incapable of disabling Secure Boot, then it is my understanding that the device is in violation of the program rules for the label. See Unified Extensible Firmware Interface#Secure boot.

srs5694 · Post by **srs5694** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 5:10 pm

Hu is correct that Microsoft requires firmware to include the ability to disable Secure Boot on x86/x86-64 systems with Windows 8 certification. See my Secure Boot documentation for a description of how to switch it on or off on an ASUS P8H77-I motherboard. It's probably not identical on your system, but as it's also an ASUS product, the firmware user interfaces may be similar.

dAlexis · Post by **dAlexis** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:48 pm

khayyam wrote:dAlexis ....

You should be able to work arround this using rEFInd, see the documentation section on secureboot.

HTH & best ... khay

Hm... seems to me, that MB have no built-in secure boot. I was preparing to everything, but refind installed w\o any problem. No tricks with keys - simply install from W8 and all.
However, I was trying to boot gentoo minimal install CD - nothing. It's not visible, as uefi-bootable not only in BIOS, but in fefnid too

If legacy non-uefi boot under refind - grub error, and it should be in such condutions...

khayyam · Post by **khayyam** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 4:37 pm

dAlexis wrote:However, I was trying to boot gentoo minimal install CD - nothing. It's not visible, as uefi-bootable not only in BIOS, but in fefnid too :( If legacy non-uefi boot under refind - grub error, and it should be in such condutions...

dAlexis ...

the gentoo minimal install CD's do not support EFI, but you should be able to boot it regardless. Not sure why you might have issues, other than perhaps the iso was not functional and/or the burn wasn't good. You can try with sysrescuecd or some other boot disk. Sysrescuecd supports EFI and so will save you some rangling when it comes to setup efivars.

HTH & best ... khay

dAlexis · Post by **dAlexis** » Fri Mar 22, 2013 4:47 pm

First of all, THANKS to all helpers - SystemResqueCD booted OK. Maybe, refind helps - S...CD was not booting w\o it, maybe, new version... More questions about installation (maybe, not only about Gentoo, but refind, uefi and other related stuff)

1) Is initrd mandatory for successfull uefi boot? I was never using initrd, but it's present in refind sample.
2) Is it mandatory to copy kernel in uefi partition? HERE in sample I found kernel, copied to uefi, but is it really needed? Or my boot partition on primary booting uefi ssd will be found?
3) Mixed UEFI & non UEFI disks - setting uefi support in kernel will be enough?
4) Is it needed to set uefi stuff, related to grub2, in configs, using refind? I think, no, but I remember about possible cross-dependencies...

srs5694 · Post by **srs5694** » Fri Mar 22, 2013 5:13 pm

dAlexis wrote:1) Is initrd mandatory for successfull uefi boot? I was never using initrd, but it's present in refind sample.

I don't think it's absolutely required, but I've been using initrds on all my systems for at least five years -- I've found it's just less of a hassle that way. This is why it's present in the rEFInd documentation, since I maintain rEFInd and wrote that documentation.

2) Is it mandatory to copy kernel in uefi partition? HERE in sample I found kernel, copied to uefi, but is it really needed?

The answer depends on your boot loader and boot manager. For gummiboot, the answer is basically "yes," although if you were to chainload gummiboot from something other than the ESP, you could do otherwise. For ELILO, as a practical matter the answer is also "yes," although in theory it can load a kernel from elsewhere. (The documentation is silent on the details of how to refer to another partition, though, and I've never gotten it to work.) If you use GRUB, the answer is "no"; GRUB can load a kernel from anywhere (including an LVM or RAID setup for GRUB 2). For rEFInd, the answer is "no," but with some caveats -- rEFInd relies on EFI filesystem drivers to read kernels, and those are available for FAT (built into all EFIs), HFS+ (built into Macs' EFIs and available as a separate driver), ext2/3/4fs, ReiserFS, and ISO-9660 (available as a driver with rEFInd).

If you're designing a setup from scratch, the approach that will give you the greatest flexibility is likely to be to create an ESP that's 512MiB or larger in size and mount it in Linux at /boot. This is a bit unusual, but it means you'll be able to use any EFI boot loader with kernels placed (from Linux) in the usual location. If that's impractical, then a separate non-ESP FAT /boot partition makes sense. If you must use a Linux filesystem because you rely on symbolic links in /boot, then use ext2/3/4fs or ReiserFS on a /boot partition. If you move away from those filesystems or put /boot on a Linux filesystem in a RAID or LVM setup, you'll be limiting your choice of boot loaders and boot managers a great deal.

Or my boot partition on primary booting uefi ssd will be found?

I'm sorry, I'm afraid I just don't understand what you're asking by this.

3) Mixed UEFI & non UEFI disks - setting uefi support in kernel will be enough?

There's no such thing as a "UEFI disk" or a "non-UEFI disk." If you're referring to GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks, then you can mix those along with Master Boot Record (MBR) disks (or other disk types) all you like; you just need to be sure that the kernel supports all the partition table types you use. Partition table support is independent of EFI support in the Linux kernel.

4) Is it needed to set uefi stuff, related to grub2, in configs, using refind? I think, no, but I remember about possible cross-dependencies...

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this, but if you use rEFInd to launch GRUB 2, then the options passed to the kernel are set entirely in GRUB 2's configuration, not in rEFInd's configuration. rEFInd simply launches GRUB 2, which loads its own configuration file. In most cases, though, it will be simpler and easier to bypass GRUB 2 and have rEFInd launch the Linux kernel directly. This eliminates the need to configure GRUB 2, although you will then need to set kernel options in rEFInd, normally by creating a /boot/refind_linux.conf file. This is normally much easier than dealing with GRUB 2's arcane configuration. See the rEFInd documentation on launching Linux for details of how to do this.

dAlexis · Post by **dAlexis** » Sun May 19, 2013 5:09 am

OK, finally I managed to install! Short manual for Asus 990FX rev 1 and Windows onboard

1. First of all, plug your keyboard in USB slot near DIN keyboard slot. It's the first time I see not equal USB slots on mainboard

2. Install refind , as written HERE http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html#windows
3. Use system rescue CD to create the partitions. Remember and Beware! about which disk are you preparing - GPT or not. On GPT use gdisk, not fdisk
4. Install stage3 & other stuff in handbook. Remember about EFI options in kernel - look HERE http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub_kernel
5. Make a label on /boot filesystem, it will be required later.
6. The best way to try - name kernel & initrd files to bzImage.efi and initrd.efi, place the files on /boot fs and try to reboot. If visible in refind - rename the files w\o efi, and customize refind.conf, something like this

menuentry Gentoo {
icon EFI/refind/icons/os_gentoo.icns
# volume label
volume boot
loader bzImage
initrd initrd.img
options "root=/dev/sdc6"
#disabled
}

schorsch_76 · Post by **schorsch_76** » Sun May 19, 2013 6:42 am

I have the same mainboard (Asus sabertooth 990 Fx) and installed in bios mode. No uefi stuff needed for booting my maschine. I bought it seperatly not bundled with a PC. Maybe i have an older BIOS/EFI...

Bye
schorsch

dAlexis · Post by **dAlexis** » Sun May 19, 2013 9:52 am

schorsch_76 wrote:I have the same mainboard (Asus sabertooth 990 Fx) and installed in bios mode. No uefi stuff needed for booting my maschine. I bought it seperatly not bundled with a PC. Maybe i have an older BIOS/EFI...
Bye
schorsch

The key was plugging the keyboard in special USB connector. W\o this keyboard was not working in BIOS mode. UEFI was catching it, but not all loaders.