On 12/03/2015, Bret Busby <bret.bu...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 11/03/2015, David Wright <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote: >> Quoting Bret Busby (bret.bu...@gmail.com): >> >>> I have now found that, against my wishes, the Linux installations were >>> done as "legacy BIOS" installations, instead of UEFI/GPT >>> installations, so I now have a system that (after repairing the nasty >>> PC-BSD installation damage) kind of works, but, the UEFI/GPT part of >>> the system, is not seen by the Linux part of the system. >> >> How did you express your wishes, and how did Debian contradict them? >> It would help to file a bug report if there's a genuine problem, >> especially at this time when the installer is having its problems >> ironed out before its release. >> > > A problem with this, is that the Debian 7 installation on the UEFI?GPT > system, was done some months ago, and it was not until the last day or > so (today and the last immediately previous, couple of days), that I > have come to realise that the Debian 7 installation was, apparently, > done as a "legacy BIOS" installation. > > A thread about this, is on the GRUB-HELP mailing list. > > I do not know exactly what actions I took, in the course of the > original Debian 7 installation, but I had, as it now appears, > erroneously, assumed that the installation would automatically proceed > as a UEFI/GPT installation, in the absence of me directing it to do > otherwise. > > So, as it is some months now, between the installation, and my finding > that the installation did not proceed as I had believed, I believe > that, unless I do a complete rebuild of the system (which would, I > believe, be a sod of a thing to attempt, with the lack of any > installation physical media having been supplied with the computer, > for the dreaded MS Win8), and log each step, I would not be able to > create any kind of worthwhile bug report, "due to the effluxion of > time". > >>> Does Debian Linux 7 amd64, install as a UEFI/GPT operating system, or, >>> is it strictly a "legacy BIOS"/FAT/MBR system, and, if Debian Linux 7 >>> amd64 can install and/or operate as a UEFI/GPT system, can my >>> apparently "legacy BIOS" installation of Debian Linux 7 amd64, be >>> converted to a UEFI/GPT installation, or, otherwise, interface with >>> the UEFI/GPT system, so that the bootloader, GRUB 2, can find the MS >>> Win8 installation within the UEFI system? >> >> Googling debian installer uefi returns as hit #2 >> https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstall >> Is this of help to you? >> > > In going to that web page, it seems to be, primarily, about the > scenario "If your EFI based PC is not booting debian". > > The scenario that I have, is that I can boot Debian, and, Ubuntu, and > those two operating systems are all that I can boot, from the HDD, on > that system, but, the being able to boot either Debian or Ubuntu > Linux, is apparently, via BIOS and not UEFI, with the UEFI boot system > (if that is the correct terminology), being apparently hidden from the > GRUB bootloader that allows me to boot either Debian Linux or Ubuntu > Linux. > > For the UEFI component, as I had posted to the GRUB-HELP list, when > all that I could get to function, on that system, was the GRUB CLI > from within the broken PC-BSD system, in addition to the "dummy > installation" mentioned below; > > " > > Now, with what you have said about MSWin8 being installed in EFI mode > and Linux being installed in BIOS mode, in the course of a dummy > installation process (taking the installation process to the > particular point, and then aborting it) for PC-BSD, after the bad > installation (the one that sabotaged the system), at the stage of > "Disk Selection", using > > <Customize> > > Setup mode -> slected "Advanced" (for use of GPT partitioned HDD) > > "Selected disk" - ada0 - selected (only physical HDD present) > > "Selected partition" (to list the available partitions; to select one > for the installation of PC-BSD) > > " > Use entire disk > ada0p1 400MB bios-boot) > ada0p2 300MB efi) > ada0p3 128MB ms-reserved) > ada0p4 95367MB ms-basic-data) > ada0p6 95367MB efi) > ada0p7 95367MB ms-basic-data) > ada0p8 30518MB linux-swap) > ada0p9 95367MB ms-basic-data) > ada0p10 95367MB freebsd-zfs) > ada0p11 95367MB ms-basic-data) > ada0p12 100000MB ms-basic-data) > ada0p13 100000MB ms-basic-data) > ada0p5 17409MB 1de94bba4-06dt) > " > > which shows two partitions; partitions 2 and 6, as apparently EFI. > > Now, using the GRUB CLI on that computer, > > " > grub> ls (hd0,gpt6) > Partition hd0, gpt6: Filesystem type ext* - Last modification time > 2015-02-05 05:03:11 Thursday, UUID <UUID> - Partition start at < > number of KiB> - Total size 97655808KiB > > grub> ls (hd0,gpt6)/ > lost+found/ var/ data1-ext4/ data2-ext2/ home/ etc/ media/ vmlinuz > sbin/ usr/ lib/ lib64/ selinux/ bin/ proc/ dev/ mnt/ sys/ tmp/ root/ > boot/ run/ srv/ opt/ initrd.img seamonkey-2.26.1.tar.bz2 > > grub> ls (hd0,gpt12) > Partition hd0,gpt12: Filesystem type ext* - Last modification time > 2015-03-09 07:43:22 Monday, UUID <UUID> - Partition start at <number > of KiB> - Total size 102400000KiB > > grub> ls (hd0,gpt12)/ > lost+found/ home/ etc/ media/ bin/ boot/ dev/ lib/ lib64/ mnt/ opt/ > proc/ root/ run/ sbin/ srv/ sys/ tmp/ usr/ var/ vmlinuz initrd.img > cdrom/ initrd.img.old vmlinuz.old > " > > I assume that partition 6, apart from being designated as being an EFI > partition, by the PC-BSD installation process, Disk Setup stage, is > the partition ionto which Debian 7 was installed, and that partition > 12 is the partition into which Ubuntu 14.04, was installed. > > Now, for the partition 2, from the GRUB CLI; > > "grub> ls (hd0,gpt2) > Partition hd0,gpt2: Filesystem type fat - Label 'ESP' UUID <UUID> > Partition start at <number of KiB> - Total size 307200KiB > > grub> ls (hd0,gpt2)/ > efi > > grub> ls (hd0,gpt2)/efi > Microsoft/ Boot/ oem/ > > grub> ls (hd0,gpt2)/efi/Boot > bootx64.efi > > grub > cat (hd0,gpt2)/efi/Boot/bootx64.efi > <machine code> > " > > (So, that is not something that I can edit, to reconfigure) > > But, whilst, at the start of the boot process, is displayed > > "GRUB Loading > Welcome to GRUB" > > No reference to Microsoft, or, to MS Windows, as a boot option, is > displayed. > " > > So, I am assuming that I need some GRUB kind of utility, that will > create the machine code for the (hd0,gpt2)/efi/Boot/bootx64.efi file, > that will find each of the UEFI/GPT installation of MS Win8, and the > BIOS/MBR installations of Debian and Ubuntu, and, offer each of them > as bootable options in a (GRUB, hopefully) bootloader menu. > > The man on the GRUB-HELP list, had advised me that the particular > utility that I need, if it is available, would need to come from an > operating system source (eg, for Debian, the Debian Project people, > or, for Ubuntu (which is the source of the current GRUB bootloader > that I am using, as the last usable OS installed), from, I assume, > Canonical) - from the GRUB-HELP list; > > " >>>>> Maybe, as Debian Linux, and Ubuntu Linux, have different versions, >>>>> according to the CPU upon which they are to run (eg, x386, and amd64), >>>>> they should also have different versions, to run on the different >>>>> platforms, of UEFI/GPT and BIOS/MBR/FAT? >>>>> >>>> >>>> That's possible. As you can use your installed system now - do you have >>>> anything under /sys/firmware/efi/efivars or /sys/firmware/efi/vars? >>>> >>>> >>> >>> I am replying from the Ubuntu 14.04 installation on the particular >>> computer; I have found Ubuntu 14.04 to be not user-friendly, and to >>> have considerably reduced functionality (compared to Debian 6 and >>> Ubuntu 12.04). And, Ubuntu 14.04 is difficult to use, but, it allows >>> me to use an external monitor, wheras Debian 7 does not. >>> >>> On this platform, both commands return "No such file or directory", >>> using >>> sudo ls <path> >>> . >>> >> >> And, in using the Debian 7 installation, and a root terminal, I get >> the same responses. >> >> In the Debian 7 installation, if I go up a level; in the root terminal, >> running >> ls /sys/firmware/efi/ >> I get the same response. >> >> In the root terminal, I get >> >> " >> # ls /sys/firmware >> acpi memmap >> " >> > > Which finally confirms that all your systems are installed and booted > in legacy BIOS mode. You will need to find some way to boot any Linux > media in EFI mode before you can consider next steps. I cannot tell > how to do it - every vendor of consumer product has own > (re-)implementation of EFI firmware, or at least user interface. > > " >
So, now, what happens when one operating system is installed via UEFI/GPT, and two are installed as BIOS/MBR, in terms of wanting to be able to select any one of the three operating systems, to boot? If I try to do something, to fix it, from one of the BIOS/MBR systems, will that eradicate the UEFI/GPT system, or, do other harm, and, conversely, if I do something from the UEFI/GPT direction, what will that do, to the BIOS/MBR systems? And, can UEFI/GPT systems, see BIOS/MBR installed opperaimg systems, and, can BIOS/MBR installed operating systems, see UEFI/GPT operating systems? -- Bret Busby Armadale West Australia .............. "So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means." - Deep Thought, Chapter 28 of Book 1 of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy In Four Parts", written by Douglas Adams, published by Pan Books, 1992 .................................................... -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/CACX6j8NvUFwUGZyE=r8ymyt-5ulzrt+d0u+zq3ndyhbvypv...@mail.gmail.com