On Thursday 20 Apr 2017 19:32:54 Alan Mackenzie wrote: > Hello, Mick. > > On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 20:11:33 +0100, Mick wrote: > > On Thursday 20 Apr 2017 18:26:43 Alan Mackenzie wrote: > > > Hello, Gentoo. > > > > > > The saga of my new AMD Ryzen machine: I've installed Gentoo onto > > > (mdadam) RAID-1 on two MVMe Samsung 960 EVO M.2 SSDs, one of them being > > > plugged into the motherboard, the other in a carrier card plugged into > > > the second PCIe x16 slot. > > > > > > At least, I've got as far as the point where I need to boot into the > > > newly installed system. The machine doesn't boot. In its attempts, it > > > displays an underline cursor on a blank 80 x 25 screen, flips this > > > cursor nearer the middle of the screen once or twice, then hangs. > > > > > > The SSDs are partitioned with GPT. The boot loader is grub2. I've > > > taken care to follow the instructions in the Gentoo handbook to try to > > > avoid missing out some little detail. However, I've never used grub2 > > > before, so quite possibly I have missed something out. > > > > > > It's also possible that the motherboard's BIOS is still too buggy to > > > support booting from an NVMe drive. (It's an Asus Prime X370-Pro: I've > > > already had to upgrade the BIOS once (to version 0604) to get the > > > installation CD to be recognised at all.) > > > > > > Asus doesn't have email support, they merely have an http site where one > > > can register and ask for help, if one doesn't mind their obnoxious > > > ambiguous "privacy" policy. I do mind, particularly after having paid > > > good money for a product which is only partially working. > > > > > > The BIOS boot sections are puzzling. If I disable what they call > > > "OPROM" booting (i.e. MBR), the BIOS no longer displays the three drives > > > (two SSDs + DVD) as booting options. There is an ostensible setting > > > called "secure boot" which is enabled, and I haven't found any way of > > > disabling it. > > > > If you cannot find a way to disable Secure Boot you will need to use a > > kernel image which has been digitally signed by RHL, or Microsoft. Have > > a look here (random page on Google search): > > > > https://www.howtogeek.com/175641/how-to-boot-and-install-linux-on-a-uefi-p > > c-with-secure-boot/ > > > > If you obtain the necessary key you should be able to sign your > > kernel/initrd and then use these to boot your PC without disabling secure > > boot. Some binary distros RHL/Ubuntu et al probably provide digitally > > signed images to try. > If I can't boot Gentoo, the motherboard goes back to the shop (or into > the dustbin). I'm not going to be installing anything which uses a > signed image. Still, the CD booted without a signature. Could it be > that it will boot from MBR normally, but requires a signature for GPT? > > > > When I booted from the minimal CD, did it boot in MBR or GPT mode? How > > > do I tell? > > > > Check you've disabled your Compatibility Support Module so the MoBo will > > not try to use legacy BIOS boot mode with MBR, rather than UEFI. > > If I disable the CSModule, the BIOS doesn't show the CD drive at all, so > I can't boot that way. > > > After it boots check if you can list the directory /sys/firmware/efi. > > If you get a result like this: > > > > $ ls -la /sys/firmware/efi > > ls: cannot access '/sys/firmware/efi': No such file or directory > > > > you have booted in BIOS mode. > > That settles it. I've been booting in MBR/BIOS mode. Thanks. > > > However, if you get a message like this: > > > > $ ls -la /sys/firmware/efi > > total 0 > > drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Apr 20 17:28 . > > drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 0 Apr 20 17:28 .. > > -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 config_table > > drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Apr 20 17:28 efivars > > -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 fw_platform_size > > -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 fw_vendor > > -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 runtime > > -r-------- 1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 systab > > drwxr-xr-x 134 root root 0 Apr 20 20:07 vars > > > > then you have booted a UEFI system. > > > > > Can anybody suggest ideas to get this machine booting? Would > > > partitioning the drives with MBR, and trying to boot that way help, for > > > example? I really don't want to do that, though, though if it's the > > > only way to get my machine booting, I'd do it. > > > > Have you tried booting with one disk only? This should confirm if your > > set up and drivers are appropriate for your hardware. > > I have tried taking the "secondary" SSD out. It fails to boot in this > case exactly as when both SSDs are installed. However, once booted (from > the CD), the installation system can read and write the SSDs without > problem. There's a setting in the BIOS booting section, where one can > indicated whether booting from NVMe is in GPT or MBR mode, so it seems > the Asus's intention is to allow booting from an NVMe SSD.
I am not cropping the above thread for other posters to refer to it in their responses, but this is how I suggest you proceed. Boot with a LiveCD or LiveUSB which offers UEFI booting capability; e.g. sysrescuecd. Make sure your kernel has been configured and built for the boot system you will be using. Prepare a UEFI boot partition/fs and copy there your kernel image if you want to boot without a boot manager, or GRUB/rEFInd/etc., if you want to keep using a boot manager. Reboot without the LiveCD/USB and as long as you configured your system correctly it should boot up. HTH. -- Regards, Mick
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