First boot at install does not work, EFI problem on HP Pavolion?

Trying to intsall openSUSE 13.1 on a new HP Pavilion 500-301nd.

Switched off Secure boot in the BIOS.

Added nomodeset to the bootstring else installation hangs after: Detecting Linux console …

Wiped the Windows partitions placed on it by the manufacturer. Result:
sda1: VAT
sda2: Swap
sda3: ext4 for /
sda4: ext5 for /home
sda6: fot future use, no fs on it.

Installation went smooth until first reboot. De system then immediatly starts a network boot (searching for a DHCP server).
When the DVD is in the system, it boots from it (as expected).

I started the rescue system from the installation DVD and inspected the VAT fs by mounting it. It has EFI/opensuse/grub64.efi. That looks OK to me.
The root file system also has the normal contents.

In the BIOS I see in the Boot Sequence screen:
UEFI boot resources
. ATAPI cd-dvd-station
. opensuse

Thus opensuse is seen as such, but nevertheless apparently can not be used.

Any ideas were to change things?

In another thread @dth2 answered to a less extensive description of my problem:

Henk

I think the answer to your problem is as below - as am guessing that when your system boots it is linked to using the HP booting key and can’t find this in the Opensuse efi key settings:

start your p/c and press the delete button constantly to reach the bios options come up

when the bios options come up press esc for the menu

select F10

select the security tab (third along from memory)

select the security settings option (bottom option)

accept the security warning

change the setting use ‘HP key’ to no

then reboot and all should be fine (maybe)

I tried this. The BIOS is in Dutch, thus I try to translate. There is a line “Key Owning”. It is at HP-keys. It can be switched to “Adapted Keys”. Thus there is no “No”" there. I tried the second settiing, but see no difference.

Thanks dth2.

On my UEFI systems, I can hit F12 during boot (while the manufacturer’s logo is showing), and get a boot menu. I have heard that it might be F9 for HP computers.

Check whether something like that works.

On Wed 09 Jul 2014 12:26:01 PM CDT, hcvv wrote:

In anothjer thread @dth2 answered to a less extensive description of my
problem:
> Henk
>
> I think the answer to your problem is as below - as am guessing that
> when your system boots it is linked to using the HP booting key and
> can’t find this in the Opensuse efi key settings:
>
> start your p/c and press the delete button constantly to reach the
> bios options come up
>
> when the bios options come up press esc for the menu
>
> select F10
>
> select the security tab (third along from memory)
>
> select the security settings option (bottom option)
>
> accept the security warning
>
> change the setting use ‘HP key’ to no
>
> then reboot and all should be fine (maybe)
I tried this. The BIOS is in Dutch, thus I try to translate. There is a
line “Key Owning”. It is at HP-keys. It can be switched to “Adapted
Keys”. Thus there is no “No”" there. I tried the second settiing, but
see no difference.

Thanks dth2.

Hi
If you boot into openSUSE, press F9 on booting, select boot from efi
file abd browse to the boot efi file.

Then when you have booted into openSUSE as root user run the efibootmgr
and then set openSUSE as the next boot option;


efibootmgr
BootNext: 0000
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0003
Boot0000* opensuse-secureboot

efibootmgr -n 0000
BootNext: 0000
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0003
Boot0000* opensuse-secureboot

If that works, I have a simple systemd service to run this on boot…


Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.11.10-17-desktop
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Sorry, I am stupid at these things (better at “real” software).

I hit F9 and get a menu:

Select boot device

UEFI boot devices
opensuse
Older boot devices

The latter probably means MBR. I switched those off to get rid of the network boot it reverted to.

When I choose the opensuse item it says:

Boot device not found
Install an operating system on your hard disk
Hard disk - (3F0)

It does not seem to see anything bootable.

Hi
Select option ‘UEFI boot devices’ can you then browse to the openSUSE efi file?

Nothing happens.

It looks as if it is only the paragraph header, were the paragraph has only one entry “opensuse”, which I can select with the above mentioned result.

Hi
Boot from the dvd or rescue cd and run the efibootmgr from there to set bootnext. I find the rescue cd (on usb) is better…

Used Rescue from the install DVD and run your two commands. The second time showed 0000 as next. But it still says Boot device not found, Installl an OS.

Is switching to MBR not an easier solution. When that works with a GPT disk, I am fine.

Hi
Can you post the output from the command efibootmgr -v

I recommend UEFI and secure boot being left on, there are advantages over mbr, easy BIOS updates for one.

So is secure boot off or on?

Rescue:~ efibootmgr -v
Bootcurrent: 0008
Timeout: 2 seconds
Bootorder: 0001,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0000
Boot0000* opensuse      Vendor(do you need those?,)
Boot0001  USB Floppy/CD Vendor (....)..BO
Boot0002 USB Hard Drivve        Vendor (....)..BO
Boot0003*ATAPI CD-ROM drive    Vendor (...)..BO
Boot0004 CD/DVD Drive BIOS(3,0,00)..GO..NO do you need al of that?
Boot005 USB Floopy/CD Vendor (....)..BO
Boot006 Hard Drive    BIOS(2,0,00)..GO..NO.......
Boot0007  Realtek PXE B02 D00   BIOS(6,0.00)..BO
Boot0008* UEFI: hp       CDDVDW SH-26DB       ACPI(....)..BO
Rescue:~ #

I hope this is enough, all typing :wink:

You say there are advantages. I never update BIOSes because IMHO you need Windows for it, which I do not have.

Secure boot is switched off BTW (I told somewhere in my first post IIRC).

Hi
If UEFI booting, BIOS updates on HP’s are via a hp boot entry and
structure in /boot/EFI no windows needed which is the bees knees. If
you BIOS also gets corrupted, HP systems can recover from being bricked
as well from a USB device… all good stuff IMHO.

ok so where is the entry pointing too;


Boot0000* opensuse

Did you install in secure boot mode? If so it maybe that grubx64.efi
won’t work… So lets create a new entry or two…

Boot in rescue mode and run;


efibootmgr -b 0 -B 0
efibootmgr -c -L "opensuse" -l "\\EFI\\opensuse\\grubx64.efi"
efibootmgr -c -L "opensuse-secureboot" -l "\\EFI\\opensuse\\shim.efi"
efibootmgr -n <whichever number opensuse-secureboot is>

Reboot and press F10 for the BIOS and turn on secure boot and see if
that works.

Typed all that. No protesting.

It now says:

>>Checking Media Presence…
>>Media Present…
>>Start PXE over IPv4.

And then hangs.

Also with the DVD present.

Tried with F9. There is an entry opensuse-secureboot, bit it ends up in the
Boot device not found
Install an OS

Another entryy in F9 is \EFI/opensuse\grub64.efi and this onee gives the same results.

Forgot o answer your question. I did not check the Secure boot mode during the install.

Hi
So you set the bootnext option for the secure boot? And enabled secure boot in the BIOS?

OK, then disable secure boot again and try the openSUSE entry again…

Is there a BIOS update available for the system?

Is my assumption correct that setting a 000x number for next boot with efibootmgr does the same as using F9 and then selecting that entry?. Because the latter is faster, no need to first boot into Rescue.

In all those cases, the same as earlier. For some reason the boot from network item was on again and I got that one first. Switched it off again and now get the No operating system as before.

Hi
Yes and no, it’s just ensuring that the efi variable is set.

Last option is to use the windows version (label as Windows Boot Manager), so boot into rescue mode;


cd /boot/efi/EFI/
mkdir -p Microsoft/Boot
cp opensuse/grubx64.efi Microsoft/Boot/bootmgrfw.efi

Now, use efibootmgr to create a new entry pointing to the above. The last option would be to try copying the grub.efi one to grubx64.efi (make a backup of grubx64.efi first :wink: )

Else, boot into rescue mode, clear the openSUSE efi entries, use gdisk to setup the disk, reinstall and use secure boot on.

I would also ensure the mbr is gone via gdisk then press x then z then w and yes to blank the mbr, then back into gdisk and create your partitions and ensure sda1 is set to type ef00. Also put the swap at the very end of the disk if you have 8GB of RAM…

Ok not clear. Did yo wipe th old efi/boot partition?

If so be sure that the efi/boot is formatted FAT and marked as EFI/boot. I forget the code but it is obvious and should not be a MS or Linux code

It looks like that the BIOS is having problems finding the boot partition. The BIOS flash seems to be set right and the efi/boot partition seems to be structured right but we don’t know the format

I only used the installer. Also for the partitioning. I told it to use the whole disk. It then came with a proposal that included the EFI boot one (sda1), and the normal other three. I edited this because it took (as usual) all space not allocated to efi boot (sda1, 15M), swap (sda2 7G), and / (sda3, 20G)for /home (sda4 the rest). I decreased the /home partition to 200G and added a partition (sda5 20G) to be able to install a new openSUSE version in the future, no fs there, no mountpoint of course).

Thus I assume that that efi boot partition is done correct. When the installer does it wrong then how can any innocent newbie install any more?

And when I use Rescue and mount it, it is mounted as vfat.