Problems booting Fedora 19 with UEFI

[Edward Quick]

Hi,

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 5721 which came with Windows 8. I 
would like to dual boot this with Fedora but am having problems running 
the Fedora Install. I have Fedora-19-x86_64-DVD.iso on usb, and whenever
 I boot with UEFI (secure on or off), the
boot process hangs at the line, Reached target Basic System:

[   12.650116] localhost systemd[1]: Started Dispatch Password Requests to Console Directory Watch.
[   12.650553] localhost systemd[1]: Starting Paths.
[   12.650962] localhost systemd[1]: Reached target Paths.
[   12.651376] localhost systemd[1]: Starting Basic System.
[   12.651829] localhost systemd[1]: Reached target Basic System.

And then bails out after a few minutes and starts up the Dracut Emergency Shell:

[   35.729286] localhost multipathd[108]: sdc: add path (uevent)

[   35.915042] localhost multipathd[108]: sdc: update path write_protect to '0' (uevent)

[   36.008982] localhost multipathd[108]: sdc: update path write_protect to '1' (uevent)

[  197.571596] localhost dracut-initqueue[395]: Warning: Could not boot.

[  197.574126] localhost dracut-initqueue[395]: Warning: /dev/root does not exist

[  197.578383] localhost systemd[1]: Starting Dracut Emergency Shell...

I have pasted the full sosreport.txt at http://pastebin.com/4stUgUDN

Please note that if I install in basic graphics mode, I still get the 
same result. The only way I can get the install to work, is if I boot in
 legacy mode. Unfortunately after doing this, I can no longer boot up 
Windows.

If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd be really grateful for some help :-)

Many thanks,

Ed

[Edward Quick]

> Hi,
>
> I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 5721 which came with Windows 8. I 
> would like to dual boot this with Fedora but am having problems running 
> the Fedora Install. I have Fedora-19-x86_64-DVD.iso on usb, and whenever
>  I boot with UEFI (secure on or off), the
> boot process hangs at the line, Reached target Basic System:
>
> [   12.650116] localhost systemd[1]: Started Dispatch Password Requests to Console Directory Watch.
> [   12.650553] localhost systemd[1]: Starting Paths.
> [   12.650962] localhost systemd[1]: Reached target Paths.
> [   12.651376] localhost systemd[1]: Starting Basic System.
> [   12.651829] localhost systemd[1]: Reached target Basic System.
>
> And then bails out after a few minutes and starts up the Dracut Emergency Shell:
>
> [   35.729286] localhost multipathd[108]: sdc: add path (uevent)
>
> [   35.915042] localhost multipathd[108]: sdc: update path write_protect to '0' (uevent)
>
> [   36.008982] localhost multipathd[108]: sdc: update path write_protect to '1' (uevent)
>
> [  197.571596] localhost dracut-initqueue[395]: Warning: Could not boot.
>
> [  197.574126] localhost dracut-initqueue[395]: Warning: /dev/root does not exist
>
> [  197.578383] localhost systemd[1]: Starting Dracut Emergency Shell...
>
> I have pasted the full sosreport.txt at http://pastebin.com/4stUgUDN
>
> Please note that if I install in basic graphics mode, I still get the 
> same result. The only way I can get the install to work, is if I boot in
>  legacy mode. Unfortunately after doing this, I can no longer boot up 
> Windows.
>
> If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd be really grateful for some help :-)
>
> Many thanks,
> Ed

Just resending to see if I can get any help. Thanks.

[T.C. Hollingsworth]

Hi!

Sorry for the lack of response; UEFI gives *all of us* nothing but grief.  ;-)

On Sun, Sep 22, 2013 at 2:11 AM, Edward Quick  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 5721 which came with Windows 8. I
> would like to dual boot this with Fedora but am having problems running
> the Fedora Install. I have Fedora-19-x86_64-DVD.iso on usb, and whenever
>  I boot with UEFI (secure on or off), the
> boot process hangs at the line, Reached target Basic System:

<snip output>
> [  197.574126] localhost dracut-initqueue[395]: Warning: /dev/root does not exist

Hmm, so the boot process can't find the root image on the USB drive.
This could be because whatever made the USB drive didn't set the
kernel command line arguments properly.

How did you make the USB drive?  With liveusb-creator, unetbootin, dd,
or something else?

If it was anything but liveusb-creator, it might not have done the
necessary magic to make UEFI boot work properly.  Grab it from
https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/ and try remaking the USB
drive with it, and see if it works.
> Please note that if I install in basic graphics mode, I still get the
> same result. The only way I can get the install to work, is if I boot in
>  legacy mode. Unfortunately after doing this, I can no longer boot up
> Windows.
>
> If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd be really grateful for some help :-)

-T.C.

[Edward Quick]

> From: [e-mail]
> Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 01:40:29 -0700
> Subject: Re: Problems booting Fedora 19 with UEFI
> To: [e-mail]
>
> Hi!
>
> Sorry for the lack of response; UEFI gives *all of us* nothing but grief.  ;-)
>
> On Sun, Sep 22, 2013 at 2:11 AM, Edward Quick  wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 5721 which came with Windows 8. I
> > would like to dual boot this with Fedora but am having problems running
> > the Fedora Install. I have Fedora-19-x86_64-DVD.iso on usb, and whenever
> >  I boot with UEFI (secure on or off), the
> > boot process hangs at the line, Reached target Basic System:
>
> <snip output>
> > [  197.574126] localhost dracut-initqueue[395]: Warning: /dev/root does not exist
>
> Hmm, so the boot process can't find the root image on the USB drive.
> This could be because whatever made the USB drive didn't set the
> kernel command line arguments properly.
>
> How did you make the USB drive?  With liveusb-creator, unetbootin, dd,
> or something else?
>
> If it was anything but liveusb-creator, it might not have done the
> necessary magic to make UEFI boot work properly.  Grab it from
> https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/ and try remaking the USB
> drive with it, and see if it works.
> > Please note that if I install in basic graphics mode, I still get the
> > same result. The only way I can get the install to work, is if I boot in
> >  legacy mode. Unfortunately after doing this, I can no longer boot up
> > Windows.
> >
> > If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd be really grateful for some help :-)
> -T.C.

Thank you TC, that was spot on! I was trying to install fedora with a usb created from unetbootin. The usb created by liveusb-creator booted fine though and now I can see Windows in the grub menu. Oddly (and not a major issue), I can only boot Windows if secure mode is off. Fedora boots fine if secure mode is on or off.

[T.C. Hollingsworth]

On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 6:15 AM, Edward Quick  wrote:
> Thank you TC, that was spot on!

No problem; glad it's working for you now!
> I was trying to install fedora with a usb
> created from unetbootin. The usb created by liveusb-creator booted fine
> though and now I can see Windows in the grub menu.

Yeah, the unetbootin folks are primarily concerned with Ubuntu so
Fedora installs made with it tend to break from time to time.  I
reported it to them so they can fix it for other folks in the future:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/unetbootin/+bug/1232455
> Oddly (and not a major
> issue), I can only boot Windows if secure mode is off. Fedora boots fine if
> secure mode is on or off.

That's rather ironic.  :-D

-T.C.

[Bob Holtzman]

On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 01:40:29AM -0700, T.C. Hollingsworth wrote:

.......snip.......
> If it was anything but liveusb-creator, it might not have done the
> necessary magic to make UEFI boot work properly.  Grab it from
> https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/ and try remaking the USB
> drive with it, and see if it works.

.........snip.........

Will this liveusb-creator work with other OSs, specifically debian?

[Joe Zeff]

On 09/28/2013 02:30 PM, Robert Holtzman wrote:
> Will this liveusb-creator work with other OSs, specifically debian?

Not as far as I know.  I tried to use it recently to make a live USB 
version of Xubuntu for a friend of mine and failed.  AFAIK it's designed 
to work with Fedora only.  UnetBooten, however worked fine.