On Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:50:02 +0000 Joe <j...@jretrading.com> wrote: > So I gave up, and just installed bookworm clean. No bootable OS found. > I'll cut it short: it wouldn't boot because a /boot/efi/EFI directory > did not contain a Microsoft directory containing bootmgfw.efi. > Previously, it had been happy to boot from the Linux EFI file, but > obviously only because this wretched Windows setup was there. Just to > be on the safe side, I copied shim64.efi and renamed it bootmgfw.efi, > all in a directory named Microsoft. No problem now. > > Certainly if the computer firmware is expecting UEFI boot software, > the /boot/efi partition must be occupied i.e. the installer must have > recognised its environment and started in UEFI mode (the splash screen > will say so). It may be possible to force the firmware to legacy mode, > but my netbook doesn't have this option.
Interesting. I have a brand new computer which has never in its life seen hide nor hair of any Microsoft product. I ordered it with no OS, and verified that it came that way before I did any installation. I then installed from "Debian GNU/Linux 12.6.0 "Bookworm" - Official amd64 NETINST with firmware 20240629-10:18". It does not have bootmgfw.efi on it. It does, however, have shimx64.efi and several other files, all in /boot/efi/EFI/debian/. In the debian installer's disk partitioner, there is an option to lay down a file system. Within that, there are several options: ext2, swap, etc.. One of them is for an EFI file system, separate from various FAT options. That is the option I used to manually create my EFI partition. Let that be a lesson: look for and use that EFI option! -- Does anybody read signatures any more? https://charlescurley.com https://charlescurley.com/blog/
