Hello, this is the first time I participate in a mailing list.
Today I attempted installing Fedora Workstation on a friend's computer and there were some peculiar quirks to the process. - Anaconda-installer asked me for a 2MB boot partition - the resulting install had no /sys/firmware/efi. Fedora was supposed to share the machine with an existing Windows10 install thru UEFI not BIOS.
Turns out, his EFI partition is on /dev/sda2, while /dev/sda1 is some ms recovery system bloat. This makes scripts like os-prober unhappy (according to logs) and makes the system believe it's MBR because the fiilelsystem format of assumed /dev/sda1 does not match. We discovered this when we realised that Windows won't show as a grub entry no matter what.
Now I could alter the partition table with sfdisk(8), to make /dev/sda1 point at the EFI partition, but I'm hoping you guys know a less hacky way (with grub itself maybe).
altering Windows partitions is not something he's comfortable with, while reinstalling Fedora is not a problem (he still hasn't made it his own).
Thanks!
On Thu, 7 Nov 2019 23:41:51 +0200 Kad Zayar via users users@lists.fedoraproject.org wrote:
altering Windows partitions is not something he's comfortable with, while reinstalling Fedora is not a problem (he still hasn't made it his own).
You will have to re-install Fedora to get a UEFI install. I don't think there is a way to boot the windows EFI partition from an MBR grub.
When the install media is booting, press the key that opens the machine firmware (used to be called BIOS, but it isn't really any more), usually F2 or Del. Then look at the boot menu provided, and select the UEFI version of the install media to boot. That will boot it in EFI mode, and it will install in EFI mode. Then you will be able to boot windows from the same menu, as they will both be EFI. Fedora can only install in the mode that the installer was booted in.
On Thu, 2019-11-07 at 14:59 -0700, stan via users wrote:
On Thu, 7 Nov 2019 23:41:51 +0200 Kad Zayar via users users@lists.fedoraproject.org wrote:
altering Windows partitions is not something he's comfortable with, while reinstalling Fedora is not a problem (he still hasn't made it his own).
You will have to re-install Fedora to get a UEFI install. I don't think there is a way to boot the windows EFI partition from an MBR grub.
There isn't. See https://www.happyassassin.net/2014/01/25/uefi-boot-how-does-that-actually-wo...
When the install media is booting, press the key that opens the machine firmware (used to be called BIOS, but it isn't really any more), usually F2 or Del. Then look at the boot menu provided, and select the UEFI version of the install media to boot. That will boot it in EFI mode, and it will install in EFI mode. Then you will be able to boot windows from the same menu, as they will both be EFI. Fedora can only install in the mode that the installer was booted in.
Coincidentally I did exactly this today, so I can confirm that it works.
poc
On 07/11/2019 23:59, stan via users wrote:
press the key that opens the machine firmware (used to be called BIOS, but it isn't really any more), usually F2 or Del. Then look at the boot menu provided, and select the UEFI version of the install media to boot. That will boot it in EFI mode, and it will install in EFI mode.
Does that mean that the install media should appear in my uefi boot menu as (at least) two entries? Or are we talking about the grub menu that appears *after* booting from the flash drive?
After booting I can confirm whether the install media is in uefi mode by checking if /sys/firmware/efi exists, right?
On 11/8/19 2:36 PM, Kad Zayar via users wrote:
On 07/11/2019 23:59, stan via users wrote:
press the key that opens the machine firmware (used to be called BIOS, but it isn't really any more), usually F2 or Del. Then look at the boot menu provided, and select the UEFI version of the install media to boot. That will boot it in EFI mode, and it will install in EFI mode.
Does that mean that the install media should appear in my uefi boot menu as (at least) two entries? Or are we talking about the grub menu that appears *after* booting from the flash drive?
If you have legacy (CSM) mode enabled, then likely you will see an entry for both, one UEFI and one legacy. This is the system boot menu, not grub. Once you get the grub menu, the mode has already been determined.
After booting I can confirm whether the install media is in uefi mode by checking if /sys/firmware/efi exists, right?
Yes.
On Sat, 9 Nov 2019 00:36:04 +0200 Kad Zayar via users users@lists.fedoraproject.org wrote:
Does that mean that the install media should appear in my uefi boot menu as (at least) two entries? Or are we talking about the grub menu that appears *after* booting from the flash drive?
Yes to the first question, an EFI entry and an MBR entry. No to the second, this is the firmware boot menu that is present when the firmware is UEFI.
After booting I can confirm whether the install media is in uefi mode by checking if /sys/firmware/efi exists, right?
I don't know the answer to your question. On my system that secure boots EFI that directory is present, for what it is worth. I think the correct way to do this is to use efibootmgr. I'm not sure because I always turn off rhgb and quiet in the kernel boot options, have a delay enabled, and then there is a message something like 'EFI stub. Secure boot enabled' displayed, before the grub menu comes up. You can get to a menu to edit the install menu boot stanza by hitting space while the media is booting. I think the new default for Fedora is to have no wait in order to make the boot pretty, so it is tricky and you have to continually hit space in order to hit the window when it is looking for input.
As root, if you type efibootmgr -v you should show the currently booted device, and if it is EFI there should be something like 'EFI/FEDORA/shim64.efi at the end.
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Kad Zayar -
Patrick O'Callaghan -
Samuel Sieb -
stan