Package: debian-cd
Version: 3.0.2
Debian CD Team,
Problem:
I am trying to produce a proper Debian Install CD (NETINST)
to work with an i386 EFI Based system.
The NETINST CD should contain both the Legacy boot image and
the EFI files needed to install Linux.
Also the install process should determine it is on an EFI
Based system and install the appropriate packages as well as using the proper
‘parted’ and ‘elilo’ methods of partitioning the hard
drive and installing the boot system.
Background:
I am part of a team making an i386 EFI BIOS for an Intel
Core 2 Duo platform.
Today our BIOS meets the EFI Spec and includes the optional
ACPI, SMBIOS, and MPS tables pointed to by the EFI System Table. We are having
a minor bug with efivars when we attempt to call set_variable which is a separate
issue.
Although this is not an Apple MiniMAC type platform, it is similar
in the major chipset components.
CPU: Intel Mobile L7400 Core 2 Duo with 64-bit extensions
(our BIOS is currently only i386)
NorthBridge: Intel Mobile 945GM (PCIe port is used as a
DVI-I port to run dual monitor)
SouthBridge: Intel
Mobile ICH7M
SIO: None (no serial, parallel, floppy, keyboard, etc)
Keyboard: None (USB Ports only)
NIC: Intel Mobile 82573L
1394: TI PCIe XIO2200AZHH
TPM: Atmel AT97SC3203
Sound: IDT STAC9200 (HD Audio)
Bluetooth: TI LMX5452
ICH7 I/O: 2 Sata (one eSATA, one internal SATA), SPI (BIOS),
LPC (TPM), PCIe (ePCIe), 6 USB
Workaround:
1. Take the i386 Debian NETINST install CD and extract the
initrd and vmlinuz files from the install.386 directory on the CD to a USB Key.
2. Copy elilo.efi (i386 version) which I previous downloaded
from the Internet to the USB Key.
3. Boot to EFI Shell. EFI Shell sees the USB Key as a file
system and assigns a FS# to it.
Note:
Though EFI sees the CD, it doesn’t assign a File System to either the El
Torito image or ISO-9660 areas.
4. Change to the USB Key’s file system using fs0:
5. Execute this command to start the install:
elilo –i initrd vmlinux ro
root=/dev/ram0
Note: The install will proceed as
normal up to the Partition point.
6. Use the manual method to create an EFI, Swap, and Linux
partitions.
Note: Continue the install as normal
to the “Install GRUB” step.
7. Switch to a tty session and manually mount the EFI
Partition
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
8. Copy the /target/initrd.img and /target/vmlinuz files to
the EFI Partition (/mnt)
cp
/target/initrd.img /mnt
cp
/target/vmlinuz /mnt
9. Do not allow GRUB or LILO to write to the disk.
10. Finish the install and reboot to EFI Shell
11. Copy elilo.efi from the USB Key to the EFI Partition on
the hard drive.
12. Remove the USB Key and remap the file systems
map -r
13. Create an EFI Boot Manager entry or a startup.nsh script
to boot Linux.
You can manually boot Linux with:
elilo -i initrd.img vmlinuz ro
root=/dev/sda3
Suggested Fix:
Instead of an El Torito boot image on the CD in no emulation
mode, there could be a hard drive emulation with the original boot image as a file
in the FAT File System and the EFI install files startup.nsh, elilo.efi,
elilo.conf, initrd, and vmlinuz in the same directory. The “MBR” of
the hard drive emulation of the El Torito CD section would indicate a single
bootable partition and the Boot Sector in that partition would load the original
boot image file.
So when a legacy system boots the CD, it still boots the
same file as it would have before but now when the CD is booted on an EFI
system, a File System number is assigned to the directory which contain the
files listed above.
The StartUp.nsh file would contain the following lines:
fs0:
elilo -i initrd
vmlinux ro root=/dev/ram0
(or simply elilo if the elilo.conf
file contains the command line parameters)
The parted should determine it is an EFI based system and
create the GPT and the EFI Partition.
The Installer also needs to determine it is running on an
EFI Based system (efivars.ko will be loaded) and install the packages elilo and
efibootmgr.
The efibootmgr program produces elilo.conf file and the
elilo package contains the elilo.efi program. These files along with the
compiled initrd.img and vmlinuz files should be copied to the EFI partition by
the install process.
Finally the efibootmgr program should create an EFI Boot
Manager boot entry for Linux. (this is currently broken on our system probably
due to a BIOS bug)
Summary:
Almost all these pieces exist in the i386 Linux build
process today but there are some small changes needed to the build and install processes
and the Install CD needs to have the El Torito section setup differently to
work with both Legacy and EFI systems.
I am trying to create a NETINST CD which meets the
suggestion above to verify it would work with both and I would be happy to work
with the individuals working on this to help refine the process and test it
out.
Thank you,
Charles Abdouch