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Add support for UEFI installations #53

Merged
merged 7 commits into from
Sep 7, 2018
Merged

Add support for UEFI installations #53

merged 7 commits into from
Sep 7, 2018

Commits on Sep 6, 2018

  1. mxgrub: Add is_uefi_booted() for checking if booted from UEFI 

    [1]: https://askubuntu.com/questions/162564/how-can-i-tell-if-my-system-was-booted-as-efi-uefi-or-bios
    @pmenzel
    pmenzel committed Sep 6, 2018
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  2. mxgrub: Add has_esp() to check if EFI System Partition exists

    @pmenzel
    pmenzel committed Sep 6, 2018
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  3. mxgrub: Support UEFI systems 

    Instead of always mounting the EFI System Partition (ESP), only mount it
when checking if GRUB is installed.

The mount point `/boot/efi` was created on the distmaster.
    @pmenzel
    pmenzel committed Sep 6, 2018
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  4. mxgrub: Output if GRUB is already installed 

    As that’s the common case, maybe it’s just spam, and should be a verbose
option.
    @pmenzel
    pmenzel committed Sep 6, 2018
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  5. mxgrub: Always install GRUB in MBR 

    Contradicting the documentation, that `i386-pc` is the default target,
on UEFI systems it is not.

    $ sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/boot /dev/nvme0n1
    Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
    grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.

So, pass `--target=i386-pc` to install GRUB in the MBR.

    $ sudo grub-install --target=i386-pc --boot-directory=/boot /dev/nvme0n1
    Installing for i386-pc platform.
    Installation finished. No error reported.
    @pmenzel
    pmenzel committed Sep 6, 2018
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  6. mxgrub: Add switch no-nvram to grub-install for UEFI 

    In case a drive with an EFI System Partition (ESP) is put into a system
that boots in legacy mode, running `grub-install --target=x86_64-efi`
will fail, as `efibootmgr` fails to update the NVRAM. Therefore, pass
`--no-nvram` to `grub-install`, which skip running efibootmgr.

    --no-nvram             don't update the `boot-device'/`Boot*' NVRAM
                           variables. This option is only available on EFI
                           and IEEE1275 targets.

As a downside, the administrator needs to go int the firmware menu, and add the
entry in the boot manager manually.
    @pmenzel
    pmenzel committed Sep 6, 2018
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  7. mxgrub/mxgrub: Insert module *all_video* 

    With a system booted from UEFI, starting the Linux kernel from GRUB,
GRUB outputs

    error: not suitable video mode found
    booting in blind mode

and no Linux messages can be seen.

Jordan_U’s answer from #grub@irc.freenode.net:

> Are you using a manually written grub.cfg or one made by
> grub-mkconfig?
>
> If the former, add "insmod all_video" to your grub.cfg. That will
> allow grub to set up a video mode to then pass on to linux. IIRC, the
> text mode for UEFI is only intended for use by bootloaders, and thus
> should not be used by linux. I think that means that if grub doesn't
> pass a video mode to linux (which it needs video modules to be able to
> do) then you won't get early printk from the kernel, messages will
> only be displayed once native graphics drivers and KMS kicks in.
    @pmenzel
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