Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-10-25 18:20:53

Note: experimental UEFI-capable ISO images are now available:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=3423

~~~~~~~~~~

As the upstream Debian live ISO images used by BunsenLabs lack UEFI support, the only option for most users is to install with UEFI disabled and "CSM" or "Legacy" mode enabled.

However, it is possible to switch BL to UEFI booting post-install.

Firstly, create an EFI system partition. This should be 512MiB in size, FAT32-formatted and should have the "EF00" partition code (if you use gdisk; the "boot,esp" flag is the gparted equivalent).

Then create /boot/efi and mount it to the ESP:

sudo mkdir /boot/efi
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /boot/efi

You will also have to add a line to /etc/fstab to make this persistent:

sudo tee -a /etc/fstab <<< $(grep sdXY /proc/self/mounts)

In both commands, replace "XY" with the drive letter and partition number of the EFI system partition you have just created.

If you are installing BunsenLabs for the first time, I recommend creating the partitions first -- use a GUID partition table and include a BIOS boot partition ("EF02" in gdisk, "bios_grub" in gparted) as well as the EFI system partition. Mount the EFI system partition to /boot/efi in the partitioning section of the installer.

Now install and configure GRUB:

sudo apt-get install grub-efi
sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --recheck

There will be an error message after the last command as the NVRAM entry cannot be made without /sys/firmware/efi (this is only present when booted in UEFI mode).

To overcome this, simply copy the GRUB .efi loader to the default loader location that should be booted automatically by all UEFI motherboards:

sudo mkdir /boot/efi/EFI/boot
sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/bunsenlabs/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi

It may even be worth copying the loader to the default Windows bootmanager location as well, just in case ©

sudo mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/bunsenlabs/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

Now reboot with "CSM"/"Legacy" mode disabled and UEFI enabled.

*Do Not* follow these instructions if you are dual-booting with Windows -- the Windows-generated ESP should be shared and the Windows bootmanager left untouched.

To use BunsenLabs with Secure Boot enabled, see this guide:
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=393

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2017-03-24 20:28:18)

nobody0 · 2015-10-25 19:06:03

If you are trying to dual boot with Windows 8 or 10, this might be of help, even though it is for Ubuntu/Mint https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux … ct/windows

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-10-25 19:20:15

ostrolek wrote:

If you are trying to dual boot with Windows 8 or 10, this might be of help, even though it is for Ubuntu/Mint https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux … ct/windows

That link just describes how to dual-boot using an ISO image that already supports UEFI.

As I mentioned in the OP, the Debian live ISO images (upon which the BL image is based) will *not* boot in UEFI mode.

Dual-booting with Windows is trivial with Debian these days, it's just the live UEFI support that is lacking.

BLizgreat! · 2015-10-25 21:55:45

Well written ( no surprise there.)

Though overall seriously doubt it'll be employed. People expect instant gratification nowadays and in terms of complete newish type nixers ... nah.

Can't see them bothering to apply this. Am sure it'll be addressed upstream before too long. Here's one such effort. Thanks Steve, btw don't know this fellow at all.

Under the Debian live section of his site, he mentions they've started maintaining weekly live image builds for Jessie and checking his link the images in the directory are fairly recent.

If anyone gets a wild hair and wants to take one for a ride in vm. Easy enough to determine what mode the OS is booted in.

vll!

Edit: Though by iso-hybrid may be no different than whats already in circulation. So not really sure if it supports UEFI boot or just the same ole bios-CMS situation as the official live iso's.

Last edited by BLizgreat! (2015-10-25 21:58:47)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-10-25 22:01:56

BLwillbegreat! wrote:

Under the Debian live section of his site, he mentions they've started maintaining weekly live image builds for Jessie and checking his link the images in the directory are fairly recent.

Interesting, thank you.

I will check those out.

You're probably right anyway but I thought I would provide the method for those who wish to try it

BLizgreat! · 2015-10-25 22:09:38

Your definitely welcome Hoas ...

Had some more babble on this. Have also thought there's no reason ( well other than time and buttpains) BL can't start hosting it's iso's ready to go on github or sourceforge ?

Wonder if that old fiddling with Waldorf iso tute I put up on #! forum would work to fiddle with the live iso's and replace the bootloader used with the grub-efi-amd64 package if it's still a version which only supports CSM-legacy blahblah.

With all the different arch's though can see where it'd be a pain in keeping up with n updating. Edit: Well not so much perhaps, is Debian stable base. Might give er a go. Just don't have a lot of time at present.

Never became an expert iso fiddler ( didn't try to alter branding, theme etc so forth.) Just learned enough to get the thing done.

Last edited by BLizgreat! (2015-10-25 22:13:16)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-10-25 22:11:58

Update: the current weekly live image still lacks UEFI support:

empty@ThinkPad ~ % sudo fdisk -l Downloads/debian-live-8.2.1-amd64-xfce-desktop.iso
Disk Downloads/debian-live-8.2.1-amd64-xfce-desktop.iso: 950 MiB, 996147200 bytes, 1945600 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x056b50cf

Device                                              Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
Downloads/debian-live-8.2.1-amd64-xfce-desktop.iso1 *       64 1945599 1945536  950M 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS

BLizgreat! · 2015-10-25 22:17:27

Thanks for update and that sucks.

Guess all the awesome Debian dev's have had hands full lately. Kinda irksome they didn't address this though. Sheesh they're human and prone to the same things all the rest of our species is.

BLizgreat! · 2015-10-25 22:50:31

This looks really promising for the purpose of the topic.

Haven't tried it yet though. Checked out the potential to fiddle with the Debian 8.2 netinstall iso. Layout is different and would likely take much additional learning and experimentation to figure it out.

Though again info on ... this webpg looks promising to me.

Edit: Yep ... info above is a tad dated still relevant. The frickin iso layout hadn't changed, the stupe app I was using to extract the iso wasn't working properly, so was showing me nothing but empty directories !
Went ahead and mounted the sucker and now have access to contents. Appears to be just as the guy in the resource above outlines.

Last edited by BLizgreat! (2015-10-25 23:01:20)

BLizgreat! · 2015-10-26 02:05:46

Upon further reflection about this ...

Really figure it's more expedient just to wait until upstream resolves it. Being aware of the issue and letting folks know about the problem.

Still think can't hurt for BL to slap up some finished install iso's somewhere. Though it's easy to suggest others add to their workload too. Whatever works ... works.

vll!

BLizgreat! · 2015-10-26 05:01:15

Alright hackerish but think I've got it and it's interesting to screw with regardless. Starting a new how to, so don't crap up HOAS's.

Bbl to cross link da suckers. After writing the aforementioned blahblah. Here's the link.

Last edited by BLizgreat! (2015-10-26 05:24:19)

Horizon_Brave · 2015-10-26 15:47:44

I have a question, is this workaround needed due to the nature of UEFI? Or is it needed to the secure boot part of UEFI? What is it about UEFI that prevents some linux from booting, but allows others? (Ubuntu) Is it something based in the OS itself, or is it purely about the Bootloader (grub), not being trusted? Who approves of what is trusted anyway? I've read that Microsoft is mostly the trusted party..but why Microsoft, why should they have the authority to decide what I run on my PC?

Sector11 · 2015-10-26 16:18:22

^ because:

1 $ = power ...
2 power = +$$
3 +$$ = +power
4 +power = +$$$
5 +$$$ = ++power
6 ... ouroboros comes to mind here

get the drift?

I wonder how long it will be before "Secure Boot" is the only way - ie: They drop booting with the legacy bios.

BLizgreat! · 2015-10-26 16:44:34

H_Brave that's a lot of questions for someone who's been awake as long as me + am already drinking heartily ( what ... it's 5 oclock somewhere.)

Mostly this is something it'd be better you take up with google or your favorite search engine fellow. Not an expert but guessing it's due to limitations in the d-i ( Debian installer) used in their live iso's.

The normal install iso's don't have such a limitation and support more features. Other distro's use other installers ie: Ubuntu using casper and it's more feature capable.

Also noted that some distro's just don't make any effort to support UEFI/GPT too. ie: AntiX ... it's intended for older systems so kinda makes sense they don't bother with much effort in the area. Though sure it can be made to boot supporting UEFI/GPT anyway.

You can add ( or delete) self signed secure boot keys or delete existing one's from many systems. For me ... easy answer was to just outright disable secure boot and fast boot as they're just more aggravation than I'd want to deal with. Plus don't really think there's much value to secure boot anyway.

So who approves of who's trusted ? The person who owns the pc if equipped with the appropriate skillset or adequate google-fu. Some system's don't allow secure boot to be disabled in the firmware period ie: ARM.

Lol you really want a secure system with or w/o secure boot enabled. Follow these simple steps.

1. Overwrite any M$ OS's on the pc.

and

2. Install any ( ya can almost choose em at random and be better off. ) gnu/Linux distro.

3. Mission accomplished.

Apologizes to Hoas ... am getting way off topic here. For sure move or delete this sucker fellow nixer. If the offtopicness is annoying you.

Last edited by BLizgreat! (2015-10-26 16:48:02)

Horizon_Brave · 2015-10-26 20:28:11

I'm sorry didn't mean to hi-jack the thread... I appreciate the heck out of the responses though! If it's ok, I can make a new thread about this

Last edited by Horizon_Brave (2015-10-26 20:28:36)

BLizgreat! · 2015-10-27 03:39:58

It's a forum ... purpose of which is to discuss, so if inclined for sure start a new thread(s).

cloverskull · 2016-03-31 10:26:22

Hey HOAS, just wanted to say kudos to you for this write-up. It was a pain in the neck but now things are functioning well. A couple things I noticed:

- Booting the live iso and partitioning from the CLI was the simplest solution. Code to follow [1]
- I created the partitions manually and then booted the installer. The installer didn't like the UEFI partition and I couldn't mount it, so I still had to manually mount the partition after the install completed in the persistent environment and update the fstab. Just wanted to let the thread no so people don't get too hung up on getting it right in the installer.

[1] First, do a

lsblk

to make sure you're partitioning the correct device (/dev/sda in this case). Then:

sgdisk -Z /dev/sda -o /dev/sda -a 2048
sgdisk -n 1:0:+512M -t 1:ef00 -c 1:"EFI"  /dev/sda
sgdisk -n 2:0:+100M -t 2:ef02 -c 2:"BIOS" /dev/sda
sgdisk -n 3:0:+4G   -t 3:8200 -c 3:"SWAP" /dev/sda
sgdisk -n 4:0:0     -t 4:8300 -c 4:"HOME" /dev/sda

AndyMender · 2016-04-05 15:10:24

One of the simplest ways to circumvent the UEFI requirement, at least on a MacBook (which by the by has a crappy EFI implementation), is to install from a current Debian Stable netinstall .iso image and apply the BunsenLabs install script from GitHub (available from main BL website).

Works like a charm and thanks to it I now have a perfectly stable installation of BunsenLabs on my old MacBook 5.1 .

Horizon_Brave · 2016-04-18 22:54:34

Kind of a random question, but what is stopping te Ma' Deb team from giving their Live image UEFI boot capabilities? I just recently installed Ma' Deb 's netinstall to Virtbox, and I got the UEFI boot, working pretty flawlessy. I even did it through manual setup, and it worked like a charm. So what's their reasoning, and where's the hesitation for them coming from?

pvsage · 2016-04-18 23:29:43

^ Debian's definition of "stable", which happens to agree with the wiktionary definition:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stable#Adjective
UEFI apparently wasn't available for the Live ISO when Jessie entered its freeze shakedown.

#1 2015-10-25 18:20:53

Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#2 2015-10-25 19:06:03

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#3 2015-10-25 19:20:15

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#4 2015-10-25 21:55:45

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#5 2015-10-25 22:01:56

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#6 2015-10-25 22:09:38

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#7 2015-10-25 22:11:58

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#8 2015-10-25 22:17:27

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#9 2015-10-25 22:50:31

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#10 2015-10-26 02:05:46

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#11 2015-10-26 05:01:15

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#12 2015-10-26 15:47:44

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#13 2015-10-26 16:18:22

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#14 2015-10-26 16:44:34

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#15 2015-10-26 20:28:11

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#16 2015-10-27 03:39:58

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#17 2016-03-31 10:26:22

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#18 2016-04-05 15:10:24

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#19 2016-04-18 22:54:34

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

#20 2016-04-18 23:29:43

Re: Convert your BunsenLabs system to UEFI booting

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