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exuberantmonkey
n00b
Joined: 09 Apr 2023
Posts: 19
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 Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 3:02 am Post subject: grub-install hangs (2006 iMac, intel core 2 duo) |
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First time gentoo user.
I've been following the amd64 install handbook to install linux on my 2006 intel iMac. Not looking to multi-boot -- I repartitioned the drive per the handbook. Everything went smoothly until grub-install. I did some homework before this stage and read that the UEFI boot loader image for these Macs needs to be 32-bit. Hence, one deviation from the handbook was to include efi-32 in my GRUB_PLATFORMS var in /etc/portage/make.conf, i.e.
| Code: | | GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-32 efi-64" |
Then after emerge, for grub-install I tried
| Code: | | grub-install --target=i386-efi --efi-directory=/boot |
but it seemed hung with no apparent progress. After 10 min or so I hit ctrl-C, tried the 64 bit install which also hung. Then alt-F2 to another terminal session to check some directories and it hung. So I just hard powered down. I can reboot from the USB stick and mount / chroot to get to this stage again but I'm not sure what to try.
I know i CAN work on this hardware. I have a MacBook Pro from the same year, and back in 2008 I was triple booting OS X / Windows / Linux for work and compiling our project on all three platforms. For that install I used Unbuntu. I think I used refit for multi-boot support.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've been scanning forum and wiki but so far no luck. |
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alamahant
Advocate
Joined: 23 Mar 2019
Posts: 3879
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| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 8:17 am Post subject: |
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Try runnining
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grub-install -v ......
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see if it gives you more info.
If not working have you considered plain grub-pc?
But for that you will need to do extra work on your drive?
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sMueggli
Guru
Joined: 03 Sep 2022
Posts: 374
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| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 11:20 am Post subject: |
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What shows
| Code: | | cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size |
? |
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exuberantmonkey
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Joined: 09 Apr 2023
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 6:24 pm Post subject: |
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got past this step
fw_platform_size is 32 (I confirmed this before attempting the grub install)
When I rebooted / chrooted, it looked liked files had been copied to /boot by the session that hung.
To be sure, I ran grub-install again, with -v option and also with --removable options (after finding https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1147524-highlight-grub+mac.html). This time it ran quickly and exited.
I rebooted, and my gentoo install boots, but gets stuck after "Checking local filesystems ..." |
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exuberantmonkey
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Joined: 09 Apr 2023
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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added nomodeset to the kernel boot options and now it boots to console
yay! |
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Hu
Administrator
Joined: 06 Mar 2007
Posts: 21708
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| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2023 1:06 am Post subject: |
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| On most hardware, nomodeset will ultimately cause you more problems, because it disables KMS, and modern display servers expect to use KMS. It might be necessary for very old hardware where no KMS support was ever developed, but if you run into problems with a display server, my first guess would be to blame nomodeset. |
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sMueggli
Guru
Joined: 03 Sep 2022
Posts: 374
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| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2023 6:50 am Post subject: |
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This will install the bootloader to \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI. That is used as a fallback path and for removable devices. If you have more than one bootloader installed, it is very likely that the binary will be overwritten from time to time by other bootloaders.
Please check the existing bootloader entries in the NVRAM with
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exuberantmonkey
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Joined: 09 Apr 2023
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2023 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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I was being concise. When I ran with -v option, I entered this:
| Code: | | grub-install -v --target=i386-efi --efi-directory=/boot --removable |
When I mount my boot partition, I see:
/boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTIA32.EFI
/boot/EFI/BOOT/grub.efi
/boot/EFI/gentoo/grub.efi
/boot/EFI/gentoo/grubia32.efi
(plus some files in /boot and a /boot/grub directory with more files and subdirectories, none of which contain .efi files)
From efimanager, I only have one entry, BOOTFFFF, which references /File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.EFI). I removed the stale mac OS entries after install and set BootOrder to FFFF.
Thanks for the help!
Last edited by exuberantmonkey on Thu Apr 13, 2023 11:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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exuberantmonkey
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Joined: 09 Apr 2023
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2023 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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oh I understand now what you meant by the fallback path
so I ran this to create a Boot0000 entry referring to \EFI\gentoo\grubia32.efi:
| Code: | | efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -L "Gentoo Linux" -l '\EFI\gentoo\grubia32.efi' |
but when I reboot and run efibootmgr, it still reports BootCurrent as FFFF.
The efibootmgr wiki page shows use of both \EFI\Grub\grubx64.efi and \efi\boot\bootx64.efi, so it is unclear which to use for the official boot entry.
I delete the Boot0000 entry just created, and ran this to create a Boot0000 entry referring to \EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.efi.
| Code: | | efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -L "Gentoo Linux" -l '\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.efi' |
And now when I boot, BootCurent is 0000.
Should I copy that BOOTIA32.efi to the gentoo folder and use that? |
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sMueggli
Guru
Joined: 03 Sep 2022
Posts: 374
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2023 9:05 am Post subject: |
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Without the output of
it is a bit hard to follow you.
You can try to change the boot order with
| Code: | | efibootmgr -o 0000,FFFF,0005,0003 |
But you should check the boot order again after a reboot. If the boot order is not persistent, then you should go inside the UEFI settings and find a way to modify the boot order from the UEFI settings.
No, you should not copy around files (you can copy the file into your home folder to always have a working efi binary at hand). If you start with manual interactions, you have to reexecute the actions again in a few months.
Both binaries (\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.efi and \EFI\gentoo\grubia32.efi) should have the same sha256sum, so copying files around does not change the behaviour. If the checksums are different, we can further investigate.
You can check that the timestamp of \EFI\gentoo\grubia32.efi changes after a successful "grub-install". |
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exuberantmonkey
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Joined: 09 Apr 2023
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2023 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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This is the efibootmgr output:
| Code: | BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 5 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,FFFF
Boot0000* Gentoo Linux HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.EFI)
BootFFFF* PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(2,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.efi)
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When I reinstall, using
| Code: | | grub-install -v --target=i386-efi --efi-directory=/boot --removable |
the timestamp of /boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTIA32.efi changes, but the timestamp of /boot/EFI/gentoo/grubia32.efi does NOT change.
I confirmed that both these efi binaries have the same sha256sum (as do the copies just named grub.efi in both directories).
When I create an additional boot entry for grubia32.efi, it is added as Boot0001 and placed first in the boot order. And yet, after I boot, BootCurrent is still 0000, the BOOTIA32.efi entry. I do not get a boot menu for these options -- the iMac firmware presumably chooses.
| Code: | BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 5 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,FFFF
Boot0000* Gentoo Linux HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.EFI)
Boot0001* Gentoo Linux HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\gentoo\grubia32.efi)
BootFFFF* PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(2,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.efi)
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sMueggli
Guru
Joined: 03 Sep 2022
Posts: 374
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| Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:49 am Post subject: |
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| exuberantmonkey wrote: | This is the efibootmgr output:
| Code: | BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 5 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,FFFF
Boot0000* Gentoo Linux HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.EFI)
BootFFFF* PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(2,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.efi)
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When I reinstall, using
| Code: | | grub-install -v --target=i386-efi --efi-directory=/boot --removable |
the timestamp of /boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTIA32.efi changes, but the timestamp of /boot/EFI/gentoo/grubia32.efi does NOT change.
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That is to be expected. Without the "--removable" it should be the other way round.
| exuberantmonkey wrote: |
When I create an additional boot entry for grubia32.efi, it is added as Boot0001 and placed first in the boot order. And yet, after I boot, BootCurrent is still 0000, the BOOTIA32.efi entry. I do not get a boot menu for these options -- the iMac firmware presumably chooses. |
I do not have any noticeable experience with Mac. But you are not alone with the problem: https://davidjb.com/blog/2015/06/configuring-refind-boot-manager-as-your-startup-disk-on-a-mac/ |
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exuberantmonkey
n00b
Joined: 09 Apr 2023
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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After rebuilding the kernel to change some settings, I ran grub-install without the --removable option. Worked without issue this time (during the original install it hung, perhaps a system glitch after hours of building linux?). And now Boot0000 points to \EFI\gentoo\grubia32.efi.
| Code: | BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 5 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,FFFF
Boot0000* gentoo HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\gentoo\grubia32.efi)
BootFFFF* PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(2,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,06dafb9e-6289-ce46-880b-f16c64d24911,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTIA32.efi)
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Still cannot boot without disabling mode setting in the kernel startup flags. Now I'm trying to rebuild the kernel with firmware for ATI X1600 included to see whether it makes a difference to enable mode setting. |
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Installing Gentoo
