UEFI LiveCD Boot and installation hurdles

[dpwrussell]

Hi,

I'm trying to install my new Dell T7600 Workstation. It has UEFI, but seems to be capable of booting in some sort of legacy BIOS mode. I'd like to get a handle on UEFI though as I'm sure that'll be the norm before too long.

First hurdle:I can't boot the KUbuntu or KUbuntu alternate boot CDs in UEFI mode.

I get to the grub menu, then when I try and boot (might be typos as it's flashing past on screen when I try and transcribe):

udevd[114]: timeout: killing `/sbin/modprobe -bv pci:v00001000d00000073sv00001028sd00001F78bc01sc04i00' [182]

Then:

udevadm settle - timeout of 120 seconds reached, the event queue contains:
  /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:06:00.0 (1588)
  /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:06:00.0/host6 (1588)
  /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:06:00.0/host6/scsi_host/host6 (1588)

Then will print the udevd error for ever more.

On the alternate CD it displays the timeout message, kernel panics and shutsdown.


If I boot the CDs in the legacy bios mode, then....

Second hurdle (This my be caused by the CD knowing it isn't booted in EFI mode?): Doesn't know to install EFI style grub

If I use the standard installer, it simply decides to use MBR and not EFI.
If I use the alternative installer and expert mode, goes ok until I get to the install grub step. It doesn't seem to have any knowledge of EFI, it just wants to write to the MBR as per old-style. I'm a bit stumped. I pretty much followed the instructions here: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...conquered-UEFI, but I'm unsure if my booting as non-EFI is causing me not to enjoy the same automatic grub-EFI install.

I'm happy to try any suggestions out to get past this issue.

Some extra info (Again, ask and I'll happily provide any information required):

It's a Dell T7600
It has a 2 GB NVIDIA Quadro 4000 card in it
It's using a PERC H310 Controller for the disks

Thanks.

[GreyGeek]

According to the T7600 manual I just looked at there is a boot option of either "Legacy" or "UEFI".

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...n/OM/OM_en.pdf

[B]Boot Sequence[/B]
Boot Sequence allows you to bypass the System Setup‐defined boot device order and boot directly to a specific device
(for example: optical drive or hard drive). During the Power-on Self Test (POST), when the Dell logo appears, you can:
•
 Access System Setup by pressing <F2> key
•
 Bring up the one-time boot menu by pressing <F12> key
The one-time boot menu displays the devices that you can boot from including the diagnostic option. The boot-menu
options are:
•
 Removable Drive (if available)
•
 STXXXX Drive
NOTE: XXX denotes the SATA drive number.
•
 Optical Drive
•
 Diagnostics
NOTE: Choosing Diagnostics, will display the ePSA diagnostics screen.
The boot sequence screen also displays the option to access the System Setup screen.
...
[B]System Setup Options[/B]
NOTE: Depending on your computer and its installed devices, the items listed in this section may or may not  appear.


[B]Table 2. General[/B]
[B]Option [/B]                                 [B] Description[/B]
System Board                                This section lists the primary hardware features of 
                                                     your computer.
                                                    •System Information
                                                    •Device Information
                                                    •PCI Information
                                                    •Memory Information
                                                    •Processor Information




Date/Time                                    Allows you to set the date and time. The changes to the 
                                                   system date and time takes effect immediately.


Boot Sequence                           Allows you to change the order in which the computer 
                                                 attempts to find an operating  system.


Boot List Option                          Allows you to change the boot list option.
                                                 • Legacy
                                                 • UEFI

[HalationEffect]

Did you partition your boot drive as GUID Partition Table, aka GPT?

If you didn't, that'll probably be why grub is installing itself in MBR rather than EFI.

However, UEFI motherboard firmware shouldn't have any issues using MBR, and the only real reason (that I'm aware of) to choose GPT is if you have a particular need to have more than 4 partitions on the drive. When I set up my new machine (the motherboard of which has UEFI firmware) recently, I went with MBR rather than GPT. I'm booting in UEFI mode from an MBR partitioned drive, without problems.

[dpwrussell]

According to the T7600 manual I just looked at there is a boot option of either "Legacy" or "UEFI".

Yes, I can just just use the legacy boot, but the point in the exercise is to get a grip on UEFI. I am attempting to boot in UEFI mode to that end.

[dpwrussell]

Did you partition your boot drive as GUID Partition Table, aka GPT?

If you didn't, that'll probably be why grub is installing itself in MBR rather than EFI.

However, UEFI motherboard firmware shouldn't have any issues using MBR, and the only real reason (that I'm aware of) to choose GPT is if you have a particular need to have more than 4 partitions on the drive. When I set up my new machine (the motherboard of which has UEFI firmware) recently, I went with MBR rather than GPT. I'm booting in UEFI mode from an MBR partitioned drive, without problems.

I partitioned my drive as GPT almost exactly like in the link. I'm trying to get a grip on UEFI with GPT so just giving up and booting with MBR isn't really the point.

[SteveRiley]

A couple things come to mind.

If your installation media doesn't have a /boot/efi directory, then it can't boot a computer into UEFI mode. I know you mentioned you were trying the alternate CD. Usually these CDs do contain this directory. Would you double-check yours?

I searched on "udevd timeout killing /sbin/modprobe -bv pci" and there were a number of results, usually having to do with an inability to load a module. Which Kubuntu release are you attempting to install? You also might want to search on "perc h310 ubuntu," as I noticed some posts indicating a few extra steps were required to get that thing working.

When working with GPT, I've found it easier to partition the drive before installing (K)ubuntu. Burn a GParted USB drive, which includes the gdisk utility. Boot from that and create your partitions. Remember to create an EFI system partition (type EF00). Then run the (K)ubuntu installer, and when the partitioning step comes, don't repartition but simply put the appropriate filesystems on the partitions you created earlier. The EFI system partition should be formatted as FAT32.

As an example, here's my partition layout:

steve@x1:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 250069680 sectors, 119.2 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): C803B5C9-5912-4046-9F23-E39B626CEEFC
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 250069646
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 13 sectors (6.5 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40         1048615   512.0 MiB   EF00  
   2         1048616        63963175   30.0 GiB    8300  
   3        63963176       231735335   80.0 GiB    8300  
   4       231735336       250069639   8.7 GiB     8200

[dpwrussell]

Yeah, I'd googled the problem of the modprobe error myself, but couldn't definitely identify what the problem was. It only occurs when I attempt to boot the live CD in UEFI mode though, I can boot from it fine in legacy BIOS mode.

I am attempting to install KUbuntu 12.04. The /boot/efi directory is present. I believe this must be working as I get to grub and beyond when UEFI booting the liveCD only to get stopped by the modprobe error.

I basically copied your thread about using UEFI and GPT when I first got stuck, so I booted the livecd in legacy BIOS mode, installed gdisk there and then formatted the disk like so:

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 7890ED30-1D83-4AEB-B9A5-B493449B4AE9
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 1499491693 sectors (715.0 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         1050623   512.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2         1050624       420481023   200.0 GiB   8300  Linux filesystem
   3       420481024       454035455   16.0 GiB    8200  Linux swap

Do you know if booting in legacy BIOS mode will cause the installer not to try to install UEFI grub?

EDIT2: I've found some evidence that unless I can boot in UEFI mode, ubuntu will not install in UEFI mode. E.g. http://sdnalloh.com/installing-ubunt...uefi-computer/
So solving the modprobe problem looks like the way to proceed. Any ideas?

EDIT: Oh, and also, I did some googling about the PERC H310, as I can install fine in legacy + MBR mode, I don't think this is the problem.

[SteveRiley]

Well, your modprobe error has me stumped. But perhaps you might try a BIOS/MBR to UEFI/GPT conversion. You might need to use rEFInd, too, which I link to.