Bug#788532: grub-efi-ia32-bin should be shipped on install DVD
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 07:27:26PM +0200, Gregor Riepl wrote:
>Hi Steve
>
>>> This is actually the responsibility of the debian-cd package,
>>> reassigning.
>
>I did not know that, thank you.
>reportbug has a "debian-installer" flag, I assumed it was for this purpose.
>
>> I'm the guy who's done the work for the mixed-EFI case here. How did
>> you get the amd64 installer DVD to boot on your 32-bit UEFI system in
>> the first place? That's an important (and harder) part of this. It's
>> the reason why I explicitly only added support for mixed-EFI to our
>> multi-arch i386/amd64 CDs and DVDs in the first place...
>
>Actually, that was the easy part. Except for a custom built
>grub-efi-i386 and some manual fiddling to find the install disc, I
>didn't need to do anything.
Right, OK. Not exactly a common trail, then. :-)
>I've been experimenting with a bunch of Intel Bay Trail tablets
>lately, and they all come with a full-featured (as far as Atom goes)
>64bit Atom CPU. However, since the manufacturers usually only fit 1
>or 2 GB of RAM into their devices, they ship with a 32bit Windows 8,
>and consequently, only a 32bit UEFI BIOS.
Yup, I know - I wrote
http://blog.einval.com/2015/04/23#ready_for_Jessie and the code
described there. I've been hacking on Bay Trail systems for a
ehile... :-)
>All those UEFI BIOSes I've seen so far will boot any 32 or 64 bit Linux kernel
>just fine, provided that:
>- you have a 32bit EFI bootloader (like grub-efi-ia32)
>- you disable Secure Boot or register the bootloader as trusted
>- the 32bit bootloader will load a 64bit kernel (which grub-efi-ia32 does)
>
>When building grub-efi, you also need to make sure that all necessary
>modules are compiled in, as grub will refuse to load external modules
>in Secure Boot mode.
Yup.
>I should note though that not everything is running smoothly yet. On one
>particular device, the installed system only boots occasionally, usually just
>hanging at the Loading initrd... prompt. Further research is necessary.
Right. If you'd just tried the multi-arch Debian CD netinst or DVD
you'd probably have found that the installation just worked for you
without having to fight with your own grub-efi-ia32 build etc.!
I'm *not* planning on adding the 32-bit grub binary packages to our
amd64 CD images just yet. I'll want to add installer build code to get
them booting easily in 32-bit first. Until then, please stick with the
multi-arch images. OK?
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com
Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky,
Tongue-tied & twisted, Just an earth-bound misfit, I...
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