How do I get past EFI?

[wmrobins]

I just bought a Lenovo V570. It comes with EFI. So, I can boot and run Kubuntu on a live CD, install Kubuntu as a dual boot. But I can't run Kubuntu off the hard disk. (Grub never shows up.) It goes straight to Windows. I've looked around and have seen some hacks for getting around it but nothing looks recent.

Does anybody know the latest or "official" Kubuntu best way for getting around EFI?

[abear]

Did you check your cmos, you might be able to turn off EFI in cmos. To enter cmos either hit the delete key or F2, you will see which to do on the screen during boot up.

[GreyGeek]

Apparently you can turn off EFI in the BIOS.

There are many examples on Google of folks runing Linux on the V570.

One had a problem with the wireless, even though the bezel switch wsa on. A BIOS firmware upgrade from Lenovo's site fixed it:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu...uestion/169971

#4
Ahem, after having the same issue with my V570 Lenovo. Even the wireless did not work on windows saying the capacity was turned off *it was not turned off*. My solution was to download and run the bios driver from the lenovo website. Worked like a charm, didn't check if I got wireless on ubuntu, but really it should... I didn't like my first look at ubuntu, and it messed up my wireless >.> anyways, try the bios driver, if you follow the instructions it cannot hurt your computer, and it solved the problem for me.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...o-v570-922617/

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Di...70/td-p/539681

http://forum.mandriva.com/en/viewtop...?f=21&t=136183

[SteveRiley]

(U)EFI frustrates the hell out of me. It was enabled on both my new ThinkPads and the first thing I did was disable it. But it's still doing something...these PCs refuse to boot GPT disks even when the UEFI is supposedly not running. Grrr!

[ardvark71]

It was enabled on both my new ThinkPads and the first thing I did was disable it. But it's still doing something...these PCs refuse to boot GPT disks even when the UEFI is supposedly not running.

Hi Steve...

I haven't had the occasion yet to deal with this type of partitioning system.

I'm not sure if this will help and you may have already seen it but does this article offer any assistance?

Regards..

[wmrobins]

steveriley,

Are you able to boot a live CD?

GreyGeek,

Not all V570s have EFI. There is no place in my bios to turn it off.

[GreyGeek]

....
GreyGeek,
Not all V570s have EFI. There is no place in my bios to turn it off.

mmm... that's not a good sign. I suspect that even if you use a WUBI the EFI would block its attempt to modify Win7 menu system.
Steve played with an UEFI system last fall but was unable to get the LiveCD to boot. He'll reply if he's added any info to that challange.

[sithlord48]

installing on my UEFI based system was simple , just had to set the boot order and the installer (usbstick) came up just like it would normally, i will say this i was not to thrilled that my server box needs a mouse to change some stuff in the UEFI . i think my hard drive thats booting is MBR still (i can't remember if i had changed it to GPT or not)

have you varified that you are booting the correct device and that your disk is working,perhaps on another machine if possible

[SteveRiley]

I'm not sure if this will help and you may have already seen it but does this article offer any assistance?

Yes, ardvark... I've read that entire set of articles a couple times.

Are you able to boot a live CD?

I typically don't use the regular LiveCD but instead the mini.iso or the alternate CD. See below for more info.

Steve played with an UEFI system last fall but was unable to get the LiveCD to boot. He'll reply if he's added any info to that challange.

Yeah, the tablet PC from Microsoft's //build event. No status update on that one. My son has it now because he wanted to experiment with it a while.

have you varified that you are booting the correct device and that your disk is working,perhaps on another machine if possible

Disk is fine. Here's what I've discovered on my ThinkPad X1 so far:

* UEFI off, BIOS on; MBR partition scheme -- install succeeds, system boots.
* UEFI off, BIOS on; GPT partition scheme -- install succeeds, system fails to boot. UEFI's built-in boot manager appears, the disk is in the list, but the OS won't start. (Why does the boot manager appear when UEFI is supposedly off?)

PartMan, the tool Ubuntu's installer relies to partition a drive, isn't smart enough to allow me to align partitions exactly on 4K boundaries. I've relied on a GParted USB to create my partitions before I install Ubuntu. It could be that I haven't yet mastered the intricacies of manually configuring a UEFI install. I won't give up yet. Next steps:

* Try with UEFI on, see whether the installer detects correctly and configures GRUB2-EFI rather than GRUB-PC
* Learn ELILO, which appears to be a less complicated bootloader than GRUB2

What bugs me about UEFI is that it ties the OS too closely to the hardware. If I'm correctly understanding it so far, each UEFI-capable OS you install on a PC writes some information into the UEFI's firmware. Well, what if you want to port that install to a different machine? Is that even possible? I don't know.

Consider the simplicity of my T410-to-T520 migration:

0. Disable UEFI in the T520
1. Pull the drive out of the T410 and mount in an external eSATA enclosure connected to the T520
2. Boot the T520 with GParted
3. Run dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda
4. Reboot
5. Fix graphics driver (T410 was nVidia, T520 is Intel)
6. Reboot

And that was all. If the T410 were UEFI and the OS installed on its drive was "tied" (whatever that means) to the T410's firmware, what sort of machinations would be required to replicate the migration process? I suspect it would have been more complicated.

[sithlord48]

OOHHH that was what i had to do with the server post install i had to install grub2-efi . because the machine installed grub-pc instead. i also had to use 11.10.

[wmrobins]

Yahooooo! I found an easy work around! It seems the 32 bit kubuntu 11.10 version installs okay with efi, but the 64 bit version does not. I was, of course, trying to install the 64 bit version. That does not mean you can't have your 64 bit version. Simply install the 64 bit, then install the 32 bit beside it with minimal space. On reboot grub comes up with both.
[SOLVED] (Well sort of.)