Bug#1033678: installation-reports: Unbootable install: MBR partition unusable with UEFI
On Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 09:12:05AM -0700, Dima Kogan wrote:
>Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> writes:
>
>> On 30/03/2023 at 01:21, Dima Kogan wrote:
>>> I had to turn off
>>> secure-boot and UEFI in the BIOS.
>>
>> Why ? What happens if UEFI boot is enabled ?
>
>If UEFI was enabled, the USB device isn't seen by the machine in its
>list of valid boot devices
Ugh, that sounds like a *particularly* crappy firmware bug then :-(
What boot options does the firmware list in that case?
Hmm, checking:
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/latitude-14-5420-laptop/lati_5420_om/uefi-bios?guid=guid-892bb204-aa23-43e3-aa1f-0c2b66c0ddc3&lang=en-us
the "Important Information" section looks like it might be relevant?
>> How did you prepare the USB drive ? What installation image did you
>> use (full file name and URL please) ?
>
>>From yesterday's email:
>
> I downloaded this:
>
> debian-bookworm-DI-alpha2-amd64-netinst.iso
>
> from here:
>
> https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/bookworm_di_alpha2/amd64/iso-cd/
>
> and I wrote that .iso to /dev/sde
>
>I did "cp debian-bookworm-DI-alpha2-amd64-netinst.iso /dev/sde"
OK, that all sounds fine.
>>> I'm not 100% sure of the exact cause. But I suspect strongly is that
>>> booting the install media without UEFI broke installing to an UEFI-only
>>> disk.
>>
>> If the installer was booted in BIOS/legacy mode, it installed GRUB for
>> legacy boot.
>
>Was this a choice the installer made, or was it the only option? I don't
>actually have a workaround yet. And if the installer had a check box to
>ask for a GPT even though the install media was booted without UEFI,
>then I could at least get this working after some fiddling.
This *might* help you:
* partman:
If the system is booted in EFI mode, partman defaults to GPT for
disk partitioning. If not, it will default to MSDOS.
In partman, hitting <enter> on the raw disk will allow you to
create a new blank partition table; this will take thd default type
normally, and you won't be asked.
*If* you switch to expert mode from the main menu (i.e. drop
question priority), then go back into partman, you can choose to
use a different partition type. By all means try GPT here, and
create an EFI system partition (ESP) too.
* grub-installer:
This depends on the system being booted in EFI mode to do the right
thing. If you're not, you *might* be able to make things work by
editing the script /usr/bin/grub-installer and replace the line
ARCH="$(archdetect)" with ARCH="amd64/efi". I've not tested this,
but you *might* be able to progress here.
The installer is *very* much designed to only set up EFI-relevant
stuff if you're booted in EFI mode.
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com
Google-bait: https://www.debian.org/CD/free-linux-cd
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