Dubious EFI boot manager entries

Hi all,
After attempting to install Fedora on my computer via Boot Camp I ended up with 4 "windows" volumes in the boot manager, all of which give me the "missing operating system" error. I'm not sure how or why, but I imagine somewhere along the line boot camp added all these entries that pointed to incorrect or nonexistent volumes. I used to have Ubuntu installed in the same place as Fedora but had to install it a number of times before I succeeded. Perhaps that has something to do with the problem.
My question is, is there a way to safely edit the boot manager entries (boot.efi?), or, if not, is there a way short of re-installing OSX that I can reset it somehow?
-poddus

Hi,
What you are seeing might be a result of the number of UEFI enabled devices (all sources) on your PC. Windows 7 in not a UEFI system.
On my PC, the residual Windows Boot Manager entries from previously installed UEFI enabled devices can be eliminated by resetting the BIOS entries to the defaults.
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

Similar Messages

Adding boot manager entry for multi-user.target in stock configs

How about adding an entry to the stock conifgs of grub and syslinux that append "systemd.unit=multi-user.target" to the kernel parameters and removing the autodetect hook by default?
So then have one boot option for standard hooks without autodetect.
And another which appends "systemd.unit=multi-user.target" (replacing the current fallback)
If never really noticed any difference between using and not using the autodetect hook on any of my 3 computers.
Although I guess just editng the parameters from the boot anger isn't that hard...

Thank you for the reply!
vm-mouse and mesa were necessary for starting the x-server. So startx works now, whereas LightDM still produces an error.
Besides the resolution can´t be adjusted to 1920x1080 in the System Settings. I tried to solve this with the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf, which I took from the wiki.
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "xf86-video-vmware"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1920x1080_60.00"
EndSubSection
EndSection
As you can see, I just replaced the lines with comments, because I didn´t know what to do with the others.
Perheaps this is the reason that startx doesn´t work using this configuration ("Failed to load xf86-video-vmware" and "no screens found").
Last edited by superuser (2015-02-14 14:44:22)

Efibootmgr & gummiboot replaced UEFI entry for Windows Boot Manager

TLDR
I am now in Windows 7 and dual boot with Arch is working fine.
But before I update Arch, I would like to understand what happened, as in why adding an efibootmgr entry for Arch replaced/deleted the Windows Boot Manager entry although I followed the BG.
The status of my UEFI boot menu was, before the installation of Arch:
Windows Boot Manager
AHCI HDJ... (hard drive 1)
AHCI ST... (hard drive 2)
While working through the BG, I decided to use gummiboot=> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … #Gummiboot. So:
pacman -S gummiboot
gummiboot install
pacman -S efibootmgr
gummiboot install
[some error ocurred, as mentioned in red box]
efibootmgr -c -L "Gummiboot" -l /EFI/gummiboot/gummibootx64.efi
nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=/dev/sdb3 ro
[CTRL + X, Y, Enter]
exit
umount /mnt/{boot,home,}
reboot
I then saw a new list of the UEFI boot order:
Gummiboot
AHCI HDJ... (hard drive 1)
AHCI ST... (hard drive 2)
Chose Gummiboot and it brought up a gummiboot menu with entries
Arch Linux
Windows Boot Manager
EFI Shell something
Selected Arch Linux and it went to a message something along "boot device ' ' not found" and I was in a shell which was, I think, rootfs.
I rebooted via the button on my desktop and out the Arch Linux USB drive back. After mounting the partitions:
gummiboot remove
efibootmgr
[0000: Windows Boot Manager
[0001: Arch Linux
[0002: AHCI HDJ...
[0003: AHCI ST...
exit
umount /mnt/{boot,home,}
reboot
Now I booted into a black screen with white text which said something "Reboot and select proper Boot device"
=> Inserted Win 7 64-bit DVD, repaired the boot sector. Rebooted, saw I had these entries again:
Windows Boot Manager
AHCI HDJ... (hard drive 1)
AHCI ST... (hard drive 2)
The boot into Windows worked fine. Rebooted, chrooted into my install again and:
efibootmgr
[0000: Arch Linux
[0001: Windows Boot Manager
[0003: AHCI HDJ...
[0003: AHCI ST...
efibootmogr -b 0 -B
Then I used the EFISTUB method:
efibootmgr -c -L "Arch Linux" -l /vmlinuz-linux -u "root=/dev/sdb3 ro initrd=/initramfs-linux.img"
efibootmgr
[0000: Windows Boot Manager
[0001: Arch Linux
[0002: AHCI HDJ...
[0003: AHCI ST...
exit
umount /mnt/{boot,home,}
reboot
On reboot, 'Windows Boot Manager' was again replaced by 'Arch Linux'.
=> Inserted Win 7 64-bit DVD, repaired the boot sector.
Rebooted, I have now Windows Boot Manager + Arch Linux and dual boot works now.
My questions:
What is going on with efibootmgr replacing/deleting the Windows entry? Is there something wrong with my UEFI menu?
In connection with 1., I would like to sync the EFISTUB Kernel (wiki entry) before I run pacman -Syu. Can I do that now?
Can I uninstall gummiboot now?
Last edited by jones (2013-07-11 12:30:55)

henrik wrote:So in light of your post, I decided to ditch EFISTUB + gummiboot and try out GRUB. Thanks for clearing it up a bit. Which is what confuses me a great deal more, as GRUB/gummiboot obviously do not meddle with Microsoft's EFI files. Right?
EFI relies on two things to boot:
Boot loader program files on the ESP (or occasionally elsewhere).
NVRAM entries pointing to the boot loader files.
Your own problems seem to be with the NVRAM entries, not with the boot loader files themselves. Unfortunately, managing those NVRAM entries has proven to be problematic because of bugs in specific EFI implementations, bugs in efibootmgr and other tools that manipulate the NVRAM entries, poor documentation, and other factors.
To answer your question, though, no boot loader should mess with another's files. Such things can happen, though. The number of bugs that cause Microsoft's boot loader (EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi) to be treated deferentially have provoked some tools to use it as a target location for other boot loaders. (Ubuntu's Boot Repair tool does this in a rather overzealous way. So does my own rEFInd installer script, but only under certain narrow circumstances.) Also, the EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi file is a special case; it's the fallback bootloader that's used when NVRAM entries are missing or don't work, and various boot loader installation procedures place copies in that location, so it can be overwritten and could contain just about anything.
However, the whole thing happened again with GRUB. So I did the whole "repairing Boot problems" with the Windows DVD rescue thingy again and deleted all non-Microsoft files from the EFI partition, /dev/sda1.
Then I formatted / (root) and installed arch again and followed the Beginners' Guide which suggest mounting /dev/sda1/ to /mnt/boot (in contrast to the GRUB entry where the ESP should be mounted to /mnt/boot/efi).
I strongly advise against doing a complete re-installation just to overcome a boot loader problem. Instead, figure out what the problem is and fix it. Doing a complete re-installation is not likely to fix anything, and depending on precisely how you do it, you could end up with a more complex problem. The reason is that the re-installation is not likely to erase the NVRAM entries from the old installation, so you could find that you've got additional stray NVRAM entries. If you do happen to fix the problem by re-installing (say, because you selected a different installation option), you're not likely to know what changed to fix the problem, so you could end up in the same boat should you need to re-install again in the future.
But it did not show this line
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1
... how come??
I've given up trying to understand GRUB's configuration scripts. You could try creating an entry manually by editing /etc/grub.d/40_custom; or you could forget about using the GRUB scripts and create a hand-crafted grub.cfg; or you could forget about using GRUB at all. I'm not a fan of GRUB, so my personal choice is the final one.
So for all the headache and time ... should I delete the EFI partition and recreate it maybe? I think it's possible using the Windows 7 DVD.
But somehow using efibootmgr on my UEFI list somehow invalidated the Windows entry.
Reviewing your posts, it seems that you want to use the EFI stub loader directly, but you're having problems with that because when you add it to the NVRAM entries, Windows drops off your boot manager's boot options. The obvious solution to this problem is to forget about adding the EFI stub loader directly to the NVRAM entries, and instead add a boot manager that can handle either a Linux kernel or the Windows boot loader. (IMHO, this is the superior solution anyhow; I disagree with the Arch wiki's emphasis on using the EFI stub loader "raw.") It seems you were trying to do this with GRUB but had problems booting Windows. Earlier you tried gummiboot but had problems booting Linux. My suggestion is to either go back to gummiboot and fix its problem or try rEFInd. The "device not found" error you reported with gummiboot is usually caused by either a missing (or incorrectly-specified) initrd file or by an incorrectly-specified "root=" option passed to the kernel. Check those possitilities, and if you need help, report what happens in more detail. If necessary, take a digital photo of the screen and post it here. (Make sure it's legible, though!)
You can try rEFInd with minimal disk by using a CD-R or USB flash drive image. Boot with that and your NVRAM and ESP won't be affected at all. If you can get rEFInd working from the flash drive, you can then install it to your hard disk and it should continue working. Note that you probably won't be able to boot Linux directly from rEFInd with your current configuration without adding a "root=" specification to the kernel command line. You can do this by hitting F2 or Insert twice rather than launching Linux by pressing Enter. Alternatively, you can create a refind_linux.conf file in the directory that holds your kernel. That file's contents are described in the rEFInd documentation.

Satellite L650-10H - Multiple Win 7 entries in boot manager

I have Toshiba Satellite L650-10H and i recently reinstalled my Win 7 64-bit.
There is no problem at all except that at the notebook start i get this [http://tinypic.com/r/se7uja/6] .
3 Win 7 entries in the boot manager
I have to always choose the first one and everything is fine.
Its like the old copy of win didnt remove although a i have formated the discs...
Is there any option to get rid of it?
I dont mind reinstalling again if i know it will help .

> Just wonder if i remove the program after i made the changes, will it stay or it will pop up again at startup?
No, the changes will stay.
> And the second problem is that it solved my problem just partially.
>I would like to somehow remove the 2 copies of Win that i dont need if it is possible.
>This program just "hide" them.
I assume you installed both OS on different partitions right?
In such case just remove/delete the partition where the other Win 7 systems are installed.
You can do that in Disk Management (right click on My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management)

Finding the explanation of all entries of the Windows Boot Manager and Windows Boot Loader sections

Hi
Where can I find the explanation of all entries of the Windows Boot Manager and Windows Boot Loader sections that appear when I write the /store /v options of bcdedit command?
Thanks
Bye
Balubeto

All the BCEDIT command line options are described here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709667%28v=ws.10%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
Jerry
Actually, I wanted to find the explanation of all entries (as inherit or
device or osdevice) of the Windows Boot Manager and Windows Boot Loader sections
that appear when I write the /store /v options of bcdedit command?
Thanks
Bye
Balubeto

"An error occured with the boot selection verify media is present and retry" from OS Boot Manager

So I'm trying get my HP ProBook 6550p to boot Linux in UEFI mode.
Some sources say that OS Boot Manager points to \EFI\Microsoft\BOOT\bootmgfw.efi in your ESP, I've placed my EFI Shell there as a PoC test, which of course fails and errors out with the above message.
What am I doing wrong here?

That path would be for the Windows UEFI boot manager, which reads the \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD database to get the boot configuration. In order to boot that path, the UEFI firmware has to be configured with that as the default.
If the computer firmware is not configured to boot efi, it will be trying to load the MBR and boot record.
A ufi shell would be in a path such as \EFI\Boot\ShellX64.efi. To get that to work there has to be a shell entry available at boot time. I have only gotten that to work once--and that was NOT on my g7-1117cl laptop.
I have been looking into this for my Pavillion g7-1117cl laptop, so far with no luck. I can boot into the diagnostics on the HP_TOOLS partition under the path \Hewlett-Packard\SystemDiags. This program has the name of SystemDiags.efi or SystemDiags32.efi. Since it can load that efi file it should be able to load bootmgrfw.efi. But it still needs to be configured in the firmware to boot to that file.

MacBook Pro does t start I turned it off during start up I've tried a lot of stuff. When I hold startup my hard disk says efi boot instead of Macintosh hd

MacBook Pro does t start I turned it off during start up I've tried a lot of stuff. When I hold startup my hard disk says efi boot instead of Macintosh hd

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
If this does not work, then you will have to erase and reinstall Mountain Lion:
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

How can i remove a hybrid mbr from my system drive so that Efi booted windows will install.

Hi,
i have just clean installed OSX lion on a freshly wiped drive in my macbook pro, using a bootable lion installer usb i used disk utility to partition my drive into a mac and a windows partition under the GPT/GUID partition scheme, i then proceeded to install lion onto the mac partition, and completed the set up, All Good...
so i plug in my Windows 8 EFI Boot USB stick (Notice, EFI boot here, NOT BIOS EMULATION BOOT), shutdown and power on the mac and proceed to the boot picker by holding option, So far so good, the usb key is recognised and the system boots into the Windows Setup in EFI mode, Enter product key, accept terms and so on, Now i select my Windows partition and windows Says That it cant install to Partition 4 (EFI Partiton, OSX Lion, Lion recovery, Windows), It says that it can only install to a GPT / GUID based disk as expected...
Why is there a protective MBR on my drive when i didnt add one, and i have not even touched bootcamp assistant...
How can i remove this Protective MBR from my drive so that my disk is PURE GPT so windows can install?
hours of googling has turned up nothing...
System:
Macbook Pro 13 inch Mid 2009
Mac os: OSX Lion
Version of windows trying to install: Windows 8 Release Preview 64 bit in EFI Mode

Alexander, I would like to apologize for the TERRIBLE answers you have been given so far. I too had this question, and so here is what my thoughts are, as maybe they might provide insight in leading you towards the answer.
I am a *nix user in general, and thus own a mac and a thinkpad. In fact I just got my thinkpad not too long ago. As such, I transfered my faster hard drive to my faster computer, which made logcal sense to me. Ergo, I moved my Mac drive to my lenovo. On this drive I have a hybrid mbr which is no longer needed. So my thoughts are this:
From what I gather, the UEFI standard indicates that there is to be a protective MBR on all GPT systems. This is so that when you use programs that are not GPT aware, they will see a presumably "full" drive and not think that they have the right to destroy your existing data in what it thinks is free space. For instance, fdisk or other MBR only partitioning systems. Thus, if your system has only a MBR with a single EE partition, it would be my guess that it was in fact not put there by installing Windows, but rather for the protection of your system.
If you are in my situation, where you do indeed have a hybrid MBR with written out partitions, it would be my guess that the only way to rid yourself of it is to do it manually. The way I would recommend, is using gdisk (gpt fdisk). It is command line only, but the syntax is pretty easy:
$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk0
Assuming you are using your mac partition and your primary hdd is disk0. That will put you into an interactive session of gdisk. Enter "?" for command options. What you need is the "recovery and transformation" section which is the "r" I think. From there I would say you probably want to create a new hybrid mbr (you will be using this to delete it). When it asks you for the partitions you would like to include, just hit enter. It should then ask you if you would like to create a protective entry for the remainder of the empty space. This is what you want so tell it to do that. After you are done, "w" will write and exit. You may want to first use the "p" to print and ensure that you have what you want. You can proabably check your work by using fdisk as so:
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/disk0
I hope this helps you, and if you find that there is a better way, I hope you might enlighten this thread.
Cheers!
PS The command examples, the $ is to indicate it is a bash/shell command as a non-root user, do not include it in the command.

Windows 8.1 not booting : "Boot manager failed to find OS loader"

Hello all,
I know this question came up before, but I have being trying to fix this for many days now, without luck and I feel I need some new ideas...
The short story:
My Windows 8.1 is not booting, and gets trapped in cycle of Boot Manager until I tell the UEFI to boot from disk or USB
I can boot up from external CD or USB Windows RE, from which I can get to prompt line
In the log file in C:\Windows\System 32\LogFiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt I read:
Boot manager failed to find OS loader
Repair Action File Repair à Failed (err code 0x4001)
Repair Action Boot Config Data Store Repair à Failed (err code 0x2)
4. My disk is GPT partitioned, with UEFI Bios
5. I tried the typical Bootrec commands: FixMbr, FixBoot, ScanOs, RebuildBCD but I always get the error:
Identified Windows install:0
6. I tried Bcdedit but I get:
the boot configuration data (BCD) store could not be opened
7. I tried to create a new BCD store in the FAT32 partition (temporarily named "v:\") with
bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-gb /s v: /f ALL
but I get:
Failure when attempted to copy boot files
8. Finally, I noticed that in
C:\Windows\System32\
I DO NOT have the file winload.efi
while in: ESP\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\
I DO have the file Bootmgfw.efi
One question I have is: Is it possible to copy a "healthy" winload.efi from somewhere in my PC into C:\Windows\System32\ ?
Where (which path) could I find it?
Any other ideas? Please help !!!!
Many thanks!! This is literarily driving me crazy because I really don't want to reinstall windows....

Hello Kermit_70,
What is your current situation?
Please try the suggestion as aw00t mentioned.
Additionally, please try to use Automatic Repair to fix problems that keep Windows from loading.
For more information, please take a look at the following article.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2269-system-recovery-options-boot-windows-8-a.html
Please note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Best regards,
Fangzhou CHEN
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Windows boot manager boots almost fully into windows 8 before letting me select windows 7, at which point it reboots my computer

Hi,
I haven't used my slow HDD with windows 7 on it in a while, but today my SDD with windows 8 on it died. I have kept my old OS in a dual boot setup exactly for this rare possibility. I in fact successfully revived my SSD from windows 7.
During the restore procedure I had to boot into both OSes (7 and 8) several times before I managed to get 8 working. I tried a lot of things before one of them struck. (Is that how the phrase goes?
Me Hungary, no good speak English some times...) I am surprised to have found the following unexpected behavior of the new windows 8 branded boot loader:
The new windows boot manager boots almost fully into windows 8 before letting me select an OS.
If I select windows 7, it reboots my computer and loads windows 7, wasting a lot of time... on the windows 8 portion of the boot process, which is simply thrown away if I happen need windows 7 and not 8.
"This is highly inefficient!" — I almost exclaimed aloud... A boot manager should load just enough of itself so that a simple OS selection menu can be presented to the user with minimal keyboard interaction. Only when a selection is made should
it load an OS. I have no use for the new boot manager's mouse control support, and having it appear on the second screen in my dual screen setup is just plain scary. Use the main laptop monitor where the BIOS messages were displaying, and keep the secondary
off until the OS is done booting! By the time my secondary screen turns on, the boot selection menu disappears anyway.
Yes, I only noticed this problem now because I haven't booted into windows 7 for a long time. (300 MB worth of Windows updates were waiting for me indeed.) My boot selection menu timeout is set to 3 seconds instead of 30 so I don't have to pick windows 8
every time.
I am going to wait at least a week for the forum's input before I switch on my own to a faster, minimalist boot manager. I don't know what to use, I'm familiar with:
some minimalist bootstrap loaders
coreboot/linuxbios (recently learned of it)
bootcamp (not really)
acronis OS selector (discontinued before windows 8 came out, probably doesn't support it)
syslinux/isolinux (Linux only, I think)
old Windows bootmgr
more recent Windows ntldr
then this new "inefficient for dual booting" Windows 8 boot manager
and finally grub
Grub feels like the best option as it keeps the windows boot manager intact and supports mac, windows, and linux. All 3 of which will at one point — or has already — come up as a subject or prerequisite in my university.
I don't know how or why I was able to access windows 8's boot loader while my SSD was dead. Was it installed on the HDD, overwriting the windows 7 boot loader? That too is inefficient. I want to completely boot from my SSD. Don't spin up my HDD while I'm
booting my laptop on the go! The shaking of the vehicle I'm in could seriously damage the disk if I run into a pothole (common in my country) with just the right timing, data could be damaged. The entire reason windows 8 is on an SSD is so that it can boot
without accessing my HDD with all its moving parts. My goal with buying an SSD was for the HDD to remain safely offline while I'm in a shaky environment with potholes! Also, what if I want to disconnect the old HDD in the future... Or what if it dies? Will
the windows 8 boot loader die with windows 7? I want the two kept separately and completely independent from each other for exactly this reason.
In summary:
How can I stop windows 8 from almost fully booting before offering the dual boot OS selection menu? Do I need a better Boot loader?
Why was the boot loader that came with windows 8 still working OK while the SSD with windows 8 on it wasn't accessible? Did it sneak its way onto the old HDD? I want a 100% SSD-based boot process. What is the boot loader doing on a different drive? Its
place is on the SSD, with the operating system it belongs to. Not on the HDD of a different OS. Can I move it?
Sincerely,
Daniel "3ICE" Berezvai
p.s.: For windows 7 I only have a repair disk and hidden RECOVERY partition which I kept (came with the laptop, would rather not use it.) The Windows 8 pro DVD (purchased last year) is fine, but I had it moved to a bootable pendrive so I could remove my
optical drive and replace it with an SSD on which windows 8 is installed now. (I also have a vista ultimate DVD, as they were giving them away for free on a Microsoft conference. Funny story.)
p.p.s.: I am subscribed (☑ Alert me) to this topic and will respond to all questions and try all recommended actions right away.
http://3ice.hu/

Hi,
Thank you for your post.
From your description, I see the issue you are facing is there is no menu to choose OS when booting dual boot(Windows 7 & Windows 8). Please let me know if I have misunderstood anything.
It seems that the Windows 7 entry is missing, currently, we can use a tool –
EasyBCD to get it back. After downloading it, choose the Add/Edit panel item, select the OS you're missing and let the program detect it. Then simply click the Add button to add the missing OS entry.
At the meantime, here is a related link which demonstrates how to keep Windows 7 as the default OS in dual boot, you may use it for a reference.
How to Dual-Boot Windows 8 While Keeping Windows 7 As Your Default OS
http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-dual-boot-windows-8-while-keeping-windows-7-as-your-default-os
[Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy
of this information.]
Regarding your second questions in your first post, you can refer to the following link to know more about dual boot.
Dual
Booting Explained: How You Can Have Multiple Operating Systems on Your Computer
http://www.howtogeek.com/187789/dual-booting-explained-how-you-can-have-multiple-operating-systems-on-your-computer/
[Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy
of this information.]
Hopefully the information is helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for your time.
Best Regards,
Sophia Sun
Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

[SOLVED] Two Grub boot menus on Macbook pro 7.1 efi boot

Hello
This is my first Arch post and I feel a bit of a fool for making the error I'm going to describe but here we go....
A couple of weeks ago I installed Arch as dual boot on my Macbook pro 7.1 and I'm generally quite happy with the result. I boot as EFI using Grub2 having followed instructions to make a standalone boot.efi and boot from the mac's bootloader. The boot.efi file is placed on a small macosx journaled partition that has been made bootable with "bless". I've been able to boot between the two systems using 'alt' at startup or, more generally, just leave the pc to boot into Arch.
When I generated the boot.cfg file I didn't specify ro or rw but grub added ro. So I've had the "root mounted as ro" warning since upgrading to 3.10.3-1 (I don't subscribe to the testing repository) although it was obviously an issue from the start and I was aware of it. After reading some of the forum posts today I thought I'd have a go at changing the boot parameters at startup and edit the boot menu to include rw. This worked and I didn't get the read only warning. I decided to try to generate a new grub.fcg and specify rw before generating a new boot.efi. On inspecting the new boot.cfg I noticed it had both ro and rw entries. I decided to think about what to do (thinking of removing the ro) before making the standalone file.
Anyway, I had to boot into osx for something else but when doing so noticed that I now have 3 efi boot options in the mac bootmanager. Two are grub and one boots osx. I've had a look in the forums and on the internet in general but can't find out how to remove the second entry. My guess is I've installed grub on my Arch /boot partition but can't figure out how to remove it.
Although I can boot into Arch as normal as the pc defaults to the original grub menu, I'd like to remove the additional entry if possible and would be grateful for any help.
Dylan
Last edited by youngdm (2013-08-06 21:00:37)

These are the instructions I followed
grub-mkconfig -o boot/grub/grub.cfg grub-mkstandalone -o boot.efi -d usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi -O x86_64-efi -C xz boot/grub/grub.cfg
Then in osx:
sudo bless --device /dev/disk0s4 --setBoot
I think that on initial installation I ran the command above as one and then last night ran it as two. Like this:
grub-mkconfig -o boot/grub/grub.cfg
grub-mkstandalone -o boot.efi -d usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi -O x86_64-efi -C xz boot/grub/grub.cfg
The instructions were from:
http://codylittlewood.com/arch-linux-on … tallation/
From the apple discussion forums..
This one is a bit more tricky, surely there is another way but this one is simple and not so risky
1- burn a GParted Live CD iso
2- boot on the GParted live CD (press alt on boot and wait for the CD boot option to appear) and choose the first boot entry
3- during the boot process accept every option with its default value
4- in GParted select the EFI partition and somewhere in the menus select the "flags" entry and uncheck "boot"
5- exit GParted Live CD and boot in Mac OS
6- a new volume has appeared "/volumes/efi"
in the finder go to "/volumes/efi/EFI" and delete the "ubuntu" folder
7- repeat steps 2/3 and step 4 but check "boot" instead of unchecking it
8- exit GParted live CD and reboot
I have found the instructions above on the apple discussion forums but as noted above I'm a little wary about following them. I guess though that I need to remove the entry in the mac EFI partition which is hidden in osx but shows as sda1 in Arch.
Do you think I could mount sda1 in Arch and have a look at what's on there? From the instructions above it looks like there should be a directory for Arch that could be deleted. I presume that Arch is booting from the blessed partition on sda4. Is this correct?
Last edited by youngdm (2013-08-06 11:46:09)

Is there any chance in the near future that BootCamp will support EFI booting of Windows?

I realise it may take a firmware update to achieve this but it really goes against the grain to add a hybrid mbr to a GPT system just to boot Windows in bios compatibility mode - especially when Windows 64 bit can boot natively in EFI mode now.
It's a dangerous setup and automatically limits the number of partitions available to the user, without jiggery pokery.
Things would be so much simpler for users.
I have requested the same through Apple feedback. More than once and will continue to ask.

I've read a lot of posts from people that got this to work without a problem..
I've been trying to get Windows 7 installed in EFI mode for several days now, I keep getting a (not common so it seems) problem where the Boot Manager (hold Option during boot) hangs with graphical problems.
I'm burning a Windows 7 64bit DVD right now that should be the best I can do to get it to go into Windows Installation mode. I'll let you know how that works out
A few links to keep you busy reading:
Win7 x64 booting natively via EFI (no bios emulation) @ Macrumors
Tutorial] Install Windows 8 on a mac via native EFI @ The Tech Erra
Dual booting Windows 8 and Mountain Lion natively using EFI @ insideTheAsylum

My Macintosh HD replaced by EFI boot

On the finder page, I clicked get info of Macintosh HD and set permission to read only and no access. The next thing i noticed was that my machine froze and I was unable to click anything. I restarted my MacBook Air but it wouldn't boot again. When I held down shift button on start up, I saw disk labelled EFI boot instead of Macintosh HD.
When I clicked on the EFI boot disk, the apple logo appears with the spinning star under it. After about 30 seconds, the apple logo changes to a crossed circle .
Please can anyone help gain access to my MacBook again?

Are you trying to erase the drive from the Recovery HD? Were you running Yosemite? If you were, then from the Recovery HD open Disk Utility. Take a screenshot of the Disk Utility window after selecting the out-dented disk entry in the sidebar that is your hard drive. Click on the Partition tab in Disk Utility's main window. Now take the snap and post it here:
To post screen shot do this:
Press COMMAND-SHIFT-4 which will change the cursor to crosshairs.
Hold down the mouse button and use the crosshairs to select the part of the screen you wish to capture.
Release the button and the image will be saved to your Desktop.
Click on the Camera icon in the toolbar of the forum message editor.
Drag the image onto the Choose File button and click on the Insert button.

Macbook Pro 6,2 EFI Boot rEFind

I have been using Linux for a while, but I am not very familiar with the booting process of Linux.
First, I have managed to get Arch booting using grub2-efi, however I would like to use the Linux Kernel EFISTUB.
I have placed the initramfs-linux.img and vmlinuz-linux.efi in the /EFI/Arch/ (which happens to be mounted on /boot) and a linux.conf in the same place containing
initrd=\EFI\Arch\initramfs-linux.img root=/dev/sda5 ro quiet
When I try to boot Arch using rEFInd (not rEFInd to Grub2 to Arch) I see that rEFInd attempts to use the settings found in the linux.conf then I get the following:
[ 0.592308] i8042: No controller found
:: running early hook [udev]
:: running hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents....
[ 0.673673] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: Found HC with no IRQ. Check PIOS/PCI 0000:00:1a.0 setup!
[ 0.673739] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: init 0000:00:1a.0 fail, -19
[ 0.673793] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: Found HC with no IRQ. Check PIOS/PCI 0000:00:1a.0 setup!
[ 0.673849] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: init 0000:00:1a.0 fail, -19
ERROR: device '' not found. Skipping fsck.
ERROR: Unable to find root device ''.
You are being dropped to a recovery shell
Type /exit/ to try and continue booting
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
I am not sure what most of it means, however my research tells me that the uhci_hcd is some device that the kernel cannot use correctly and the two that start with ERROR: are related to the EFI booting. Since I specified the device in the linux.conf should it be looking there and not in ''?
Can someone guide me along the correct path?
Comment reguarding the "uhci_hcd" and "No controller found" messages are welcome as well.
Last edited by raisdead (2012-09-15 19:32:29)

Hello raisdead.
I'm using an iMac (mid 2010, with i3 processor and AMD 4670 graphics).
I also have been trying to get EFISTUB boot to work and I've got it running now. I prefer it to grub.
Your log reports are OK (like mine) until the ERROR comes up.
I think you may not have got the correct UUID for your disk in the refind_linux.conf file.
If you can boot with another linux, maybe a live install disk, and run
sudo blkid /dev/sda7 (or whatever the number is for your arch disk partition)
you will get the UUID to put in your refind_linux.conf file.
In the refind_linux.conf file, the menu line I use to boot with is
"Boot default" "root=UUID=e5ead341-2bea-4933-969c-09ba528e9729 ro nosplash nomodeset init=/bin/systemd"
You might use the same but with your own UUID value, and maybe no init= value, if you are not using systemd yet (despite initial problems I recommend it).
The nomodeset is to avoid a black screen problem with the radeon video module.
My boot files are under EFI/arch353/ on the first partition on my mac. The files there are
refind_linux.conf
vmlinuz-linux
initramfs-linux.img
initramfs-linux-fallback.img
To keep this up to date when the kernel changes I mount the EFI partition (do this before the new kernel is installed, otherwise you might lose the ability to mount)
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/uefi
make a new folder arch354 (say)
and copy over the new vmlinuz, initramfs files, together with a copy of the original refind_linux.conf
When one version isn't needed just delete its folder.
refind seems to find anything that might be bootable.
Good luck.

T540p firmware ignores Linux EFI boot

This post is for just a suggestion for anyone who is installing Linux on their Lenovo. The firmware in my new T540p (arrived from the factory 2014-12-19) does not recognize Linux EFI boot entries, at least not the way they are installed by Ubuntu 14.10 (which may be a bug in the Ubuntu installer). My bootloader would only look for one absolute path EFI/boot/bootx64.efi. If you install Linux, you will not necesarily get this file--it may instead be EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi, and the corresponding boot catalog entry may not be installed for you. In this case, your Lenovo will silently refuse to boot your Linux. If you have this problem. try this:
boot to Linux via LiveUSB or LiveCD
mount the boot partition
sudo mkdir /mnt/deadboot; sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/deadboot
copy grubx64.cfg to bootx64.cfg into the magic directory:
sudo mkdir /mnt/deadboot/EFI/boot
sudo cp /mnt/deadboot/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /mnt/deadboot/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
unmount and reboot
Also make sure your boot partition is an "EFI System" partition:
sudo fdisk /dev/sda
p
your boot partition should be listed as "EFI System" type
--if so, stop here
--else continue and fix it:
t
select the boot partition
select parition type 1
w
writes the change to disk and issues a warning that you can ignore
reboot
Notes: (1) your boot drive may not be /dev/sda1. Google for various ways to find it. (2) If your liveUSB or liveCD won't boot either, try switching the BIOS between legacy and UEFI boot. Recently downloaded 64-bit Ubuntu images will only boot UEFI.

These forums are not really your best choice to find an answer. Either the Mint tech support or forums can help you or you might try the Ubuntu forums. Macs are not the only computers that have and use EFI. Your issue may simply be one of configuring GRUB.

Dubious EFI boot manager entries

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