I’ve been using openSUSE for years now, but this is the first time I’ve had to do it on a UEFI system. If I run the network install disc in non-UEFI mode, everything works fine: the welcome screen appears, and then the installer, and they all work like they always have done. But obviously upon reboot, the BIOS cannot find anything to boot, and I can’t turn off UEFI in the BIOS.
If I run the network install disc in UEFI mode, ELILO runs, the kernel loads, initrd runs (I should add that there are no nice graphics here like there is in non-UEFI mode, it’s all raw console). After some console scrawl, Linuxrc appears with a dialog box saying: “Make sure that CD number 1 is in your drive.” And that’s it, game over.
Switching back to the console revealed this as the last entry:
cd:/content: signature ok
instsys missing: boot/x86_64/root
disk: mount ok but test failed
url mount: cd:/?device=disk/by-id/usb-TSSTcorp_CDDVDW_SE-208AB_R8KN6GAC2029YG-0:0 failed
repository: not found
no openSUSE repository found
setfont linuxrc-16.psfu
RAM size: 4096 MB
And sure enough, if in Linuxrc I try to start an installation and point it to the disc, it says: “No repository found.”. But this is same disc as the non-UEFI install, which runs the installer fine!
After doing a bit more research, it seems that a bug with similar symptoms has been reported before, and it was due to the SATA mode being IDE instead AHCI - but my laptop is already set to AHCI so it’s not that.
I also found that this message is shown when the online repositories cannot be accessed by the network installer. On a non-UEFI install I only see Linuxrc when asked for WiFi connection information, but I don’t get asked this by the UEFI installer, and sure enough I noted this when in RAM disk:
/ # iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down
Thanks Mike, although I never found out the cause of the issue, I now have perfectly healthy system after installing from the DVD.
I have no idea if the 64bit network installer I was using (the one from openSUSE’s download page, this isn’t something I made myself…), supports UEFI - it does boot from the disc differently depending on which mode you use for the drive which hints that it’s aware.
Out of all the openSUSE testing crew and the people who beta tested it, I’m quite certain that one of them would have tried it on a UEFI system, the only possible scenario that I think may not have been tested is: Booting from an external USB UEFI DVD drive, which is what I was doing. Why this would affect the network only is beyond me but it’s only thing I can think of that would be a slightly unusual setup and be affected by UEFI/non-UEFI modes.
Hi
No AFAIK, you need the full DVD iso for UEFI. It is being looked at
for the other spins, but probably won’t happen until secure boot is
finalized.
On a side note I use UEFI multi booting fine, but have had a rethink on
this notebook and will be removing the dvd drive and putting a HDD caddy
in with my OCZ 60GB SSD and running in conjunction with the installed
250GB drive. So I will be doing an install from USB and using UEFI, but
will only boot into openSUSE…
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) Kernel 3.4.6-2.10-desktop
up 2 days 21:01, 5 users, load average: 0.08, 0.14, 0.15
CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU
Hi
OK, system has been rebuilt, and it failed using the dvd in a usb
connected dvd drive to boot in UEFI mode.
I wound up moving the SSD into the primary location, attach the
rotating drive via usb and popped the dvd drive back into the notebook
before it would boot the dvd in UEFI mode… all in all interesting.
Once it was installed remove the dvd drive, installed the usb
connected drive into the HDD caddy and booted up the system, all
working fine via UEFI booting.
Will need to investigate further…
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.2 (x86_64) Kernel 3.4.6-2.10-desktop
up 1:16, 2 users, load average: 0.07, 0.08, 0.23
CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU