Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick

Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick

[John Frankish]

I'm not sure if this is possible, but I've been trying to boot a dell laptop (latitude e6220) in uefi mode from a usb stick without success.

Using:

$ sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --boot-directory=/mnt/sdc1/efi --removable
Installation finished. No error reported.

..but on booting the dell in uefi mode, no bootable device is found. Needless to say, it will boot from a usb stick in legacy bios mode.

Does anybody know if the above is possible?

RE: Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick

[Stuart_Hayes]

On a USB stick, the grub executable might need to be at exactly /EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.EFI (and the partition must be FAT of course).  See section 3.4.1.1 of the UEFI 2.1 spec.  You could probably just copy the grub executable to that location from wherever it is.

Stuart

> -----Original Message-----
> From: grub-devel-bounces+stuart_hayes=dell.com@gnu.org [mailto:grub-
> devel-bounces+stuart_hayes=dell.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of John Frankish
> Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 8:38 PM
> To: grub-devel@gnu.org
> Subject: Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick
> 
> I'm not sure if this is possible, but I've been trying to boot a dell
> laptop (latitude e6220) in uefi mode from a usb stick without success.
> 
> Using:
> 
> $ sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --boot-directory=/mnt/sdc1/efi
> --removable
> Installation finished. No error reported.
> 
> ..but on booting the dell in uefi mode, no bootable device is found.
> Needless to say, it will boot from a usb stick in legacy bios mode.
> 
> Does anybody know if the above is possible?
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Grub-devel mailing list
> Grub-devel@gnu.org
> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel

Re: Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick

[Jordan Uggla]

On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 6:38 PM, John Frankish <j-frankish@slb.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure if this is possible, but I've been trying to boot a dell laptop (latitude e6220) in uefi mode from a usb stick without success.
>
> Using:
>
> $ sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --boot-directory=/mnt/sdc1/efi --removable
> Installation finished. No error reported.

This list is for grub development, user support questions should be
sent to help-grub (which I've CCd in my reply).
grub-install's --boot-directory option is for specifying the boot
directory, grub-install's --efi-directory option is for specifying the
directory which is the mountpoint for the EFI System Partition. Since
this is a removable device, you probably don't want it as a semi
permanent EFI boot entry, and you probably want other machines to be
able to boot from it, so you should add the "--removable" option as
well.

Assuming that sdc1 is a proper EFI System Partition, mounted at
/mnt/sdc1/, that gives you something like "sudo grub-install
--target=x86_64-efi --boot-directory=/mnt/sdc1/boot/
--efi-directory=/mnt/sdc1/ --removable". The --efi-directory option
requires grub 2.00 beta6 or newer.

-- 
Jordan Uggla (Jordan_U on irc.freenode.net)

RE: Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick

[John Frankish]

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: grub-devel-bounces+stuart_hayes=dell.com@gnu.org [mailto:grub-
> > devel-bounces+stuart_hayes=dell.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of John
> > devel-bounces+Frankish
> > Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 8:38 PM
> > To: grub-devel@gnu.org
> > Subject: Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick
> >
> > I'm not sure if this is possible, but I've been trying to boot a dell
> > laptop (latitude e6220) in uefi mode from a usb stick without success.
> >
> > Using:
> >
> > $ sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --boot-directory=/mnt/sdc1/efi
> > --removable Installation finished. No error reported.
> >
> > ..but on booting the dell in uefi mode, no bootable device is found.
> > Needless to say, it will boot from a usb stick in legacy bios mode.
> >
> > Does anybody know if the above is possible?
> >
> >
> On a USB stick, the grub executable might need to be at exactly
> /EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.EFI (and the partition must be FAT of course).  See
> section 3.4.1.1 of the UEFI 2.1 spec.  You could probably just copy the grub
> executable to that location from wherever it is.
> 
> 
In fact the issue seems to have been that the usb stick was partitioned with fdisk.

When I used gdisk to partition the usb stick, grub automatically created BOOTX64.EFI, rather than grub.efi, and the
usb stick was recognized in uefi boot.

Thanks for the suggestion

RE: Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick

[John Frankish]

> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: grub-devel-bounces+stuart_hayes=dell.com@gnu.org
> [mailto:grub-
> > > devel-bounces+stuart_hayes=dell.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of John
> > > devel-bounces+Frankish
> > > Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 8:38 PM
> > > To: grub-devel@gnu.org
> > > Subject: Boot dell in uefi mode from usb stick
> > >
> > > I'm not sure if this is possible, but I've been trying to boot a
> > > dell laptop (latitude e6220) in uefi mode from a usb stick without success.
> > >
> > > Using:
> > >
> > > $ sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi
> > > --boot-directory=/mnt/sdc1/efi --removable Installation finished. No
> error reported.
> > >
> > > ..but on booting the dell in uefi mode, no bootable device is found.
> > > Needless to say, it will boot from a usb stick in legacy bios mode.
> > >
> > > Does anybody know if the above is possible?
> > >
> > >
> > On a USB stick, the grub executable might need to be at exactly
> > /EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.EFI (and the partition must be FAT of course).  See
> > section 3.4.1.1 of the UEFI 2.1 spec.  You could probably just copy
> > the grub executable to that location from wherever it is.
> >
> >
> In fact the issue seems to have been that the usb stick was partitioned with
> fdisk.
> 
> When I used gdisk to partition the usb stick, grub automatically created
> BOOTX64.EFI, rather than grub.efi, and the usb stick was recognized in uefi
> boot.
> 
> Thanks for the suggestion

Just to confirm, the following copies the required files:

$ sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --boot-directory=/mnt/sdb1/EFI/BOOT --efi-directory=/mnt/sdb1 --removable

$ cat /mnt/sdb1/EFI/BOOT/grub/grub.cfg

menuentry "core" {
  linux (hd1,gpt2)/boot/vmlinuz quiet noswap tce=sdb2 tz=GMT-4 blacklist=bcma blacklist=ssb blacklist=b43 text
  initrd (hd1,gpt2)/boot/core.gz
}

In the F2 dell menu, you need to change from legacy (bios) boot to uefi, create a boot entry and navigate to /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI

Then things work :)   (with a 3.0.21 kernel)