[SOLVED, sort of] Yet another UEFI boot issue

Hello everyone,
Let me start by saying sorry for the long (first) post.
I've ended up with a UEFI boot problem I can't solve. I've searched the forum and internet and I realize I'm not the only one who ran into problems with UEFI. Unfortunately, the problems other have had seem not similar to mine. I've spent almost 2 days now trying to figure this out, and I'm getting nowhere (though I've learnt some more about UEFI, which I guess is good). I was hoping someone here can give me some hints on how to proceed.
So lets start with the background. I recently bought a new computer (Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E530 with Windows 8) and of course I want to run ArchLinux on it (been using ArchLinux for almost 7 years now and no plans on switching). Installation went ok with only a few problems during installation that I managed to solve (or so I thought). I must admit I didn't follow the guide fully. I didn't want to remove the Restore and Windows partitions, so I figured it would be safe to reuse the existing UEFI System Partition, as long as there was enough room, which there was. Anyway, I now have a computer I can boot into ArchLinux and also Windows 8, just the way I want it, almost. There is this one final issue I haven't been able to figure out how to solve.
The problem
Whenever I reset/power on the computer, I must press Enter during the initial screen (showing a Lenovo logo, and a message about pressing Enter to interrupt normal startup). If I don't press Enter before the timeout (a second or so), the screen will go white and that's it. No beep, no message, no nothing but a white screen. A power cycle is the only way to leave this state. Occasionally the screen will be a white bar at the top and random colours below, but I'm guessing this only represents what is in graphics memory at the time (0x00, 0xFF or any other random value).
If i do press Enter however, then I'm presented with a menu where I can select what to boot; rEFInd (which is preselected) along with Windows 8 and some restore and diagnostic entries. Pressing enter will take me to the preselected rEFInd, pressing enter again (or wait for timeout) will boot linux, and I'm in. Nothing weird there. And if I select Windows in rEFInd, then windows boot, just as expected.
There is no difference whether I'm switching from Windows to Linux or Linux to Windows or just reboot the same OS I was using again. The result is the same whatever I choose to boot.
So the question is: Why do I have to select rEFInd manually and go through all these menus? Should I not be able to just power it on and let it boot the preselected rEFInd entry and continue from there, without me helping it?
Trying to solve it
Searching here and on the internet gave me some ideas on what to try, so here is a list of my attempts:
efibootmgr show me there is a rEFInd entry, and that it is the first one in boot order
I copied refindx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi (replacing an existing entry)
I've updated the EFI firmware (from Lenovo) to the latest and greatest
One other guy had almost the same issue, but with a single boot of Windows. He solved it with Microsoft Boot Manager (there is an Automatic Repair, or something). I even dared trying this, though I must admit I was a bit hesitant about letting some Microsoft program trying to repair my computer. Anyway, it said it couldn't repair my problem, nor did it say I had one, so I am none the wiser.
None of the above gave anything.
So, that's it. I guess I can live with having to press Enter on every power up/reset, but it is very annoying having to do so, and even more so when I forget it because then I'm forced to power cycle it. I hope someone reading this can figure out what's going on, because I am clueless.
Best regards,
Johan
Last edited by 6feet5 (2013-01-08 19:03:50)

WonderWoofy wrote:@srs5694, have you thought about filing a bug report/feature request about the naming scheme here?  I would imagine that something coming directly from the upstream developer would be something that they should take into consideration.  Also, I imagine that renaming it to refindx64.efi kind of goes against the whole "vanilla packages" thing we tout around here... so it really makes me wonder why it is done in the first place.
I've just done that:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/33326
It's not been very important until recently; but I've been putting a lot of effort into the ancillary support scripts (install.sh and mvrefind.sh). They necessarily rely on the files having certain names, so installing them under other names robs users of functionality.
6feet5 wrote:I've decided to try and restore the whole unit, thinking it would take maybe an hour or two. It's been running now for almost 3 hours and only completed 20%.
Good luck with that!
FWIW, it seems that the number of EFI-related bug reports on Linux forums has gone way up recently. No doubt this is because EFI is now pretty much universal on new computers, so problems that used to affect one or two people now affect dozens or hundreds, and some of those post about them.

Similar Messages

  • [SOLVED] systemd 207, lvm2 and luks booting issue

    Hi
    i'm using an encrypted lvm (luks) on my notebook.
    /boot on /dev/sda1
    lvm on    /dev/sda2
                 main-root
                 main-home
                 main-swap
    since the systemd 207 upgrade i am unable to boot my system.
    this error appears at startup:
    A start job is running for dev-mapper-main\x2droot.device
    so i'm guessing that systemd is unable to use the encrypted lvm2, since this error is aknowledged on the
    after checking some threads i tried:
    mkinitcpio -p linux
    but there was no effect.
    HOOKS="base systemd autodetect block keymap encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck vbox
    some people tried suggesting downgrading to systemd 204 but i dont have any pkg file and building with abs leads to the following error
    while makepkg -s:
    ==> Starting prepare()...
    patching file src/core/swap.c
    Hunk #1 FAILED at 220.
    1 out of 1 hunk FAILED -- saving rejects to file src/core/swap.c.rej
    ==> ERROR: A failure occured in prepare().
    Aborting...
    am i supposed to remove the patches from the build? i'm not really sure and more of a beginner in this area.
    Can anyone help me solve either the build or the boot issue ?
    i should mention that i am only able to access my system by using chroot from an arch boot stick.
    Thank you so much.
    Kind Regards
    Last edited by ziv667 (2013-10-01 11:27:06)

    https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mk … mmon_hooks
    systemd: This will install a basic systemd setup in your initramfs, and is meant to replace the 'base', 'usr', 'udev' and 'timestamp' hooks. Other hooks (like encryption) would need to be ported, and may not work as intended. As of systemd 207, this hook does not work as intended when combined with lvm2 and may break your boot. You also may wish to still include the 'base' hook (before this hook) to ensure that a rescue shell exists on your initramfs.
    Have you tried keeping udev instead of replacing it with systemd hook?
    Have you tried https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ar … ck_Machine ? It has systemd 204.
    Last edited by karol (2013-10-01 11:16:57)

  • Yet Another P7N Diamond Issue

    Apart from the ongoing problem I am still having in this thread I now have yet another dilemma. I bought a BFG 9800 GT OC2 as a upgrade and installed it the usual way ensuring I connected the 6 pin connector too and the pc does not boot up even after several attempts
    Instead I am getting a strange beeping pattern one long beep then some shorts 
    Please if someone could shed some light I would greatly appreciate it even if its regarding my previous issue.

    http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?language=en&act=detail&tbcate=22&id=2543
    I use the above Cooler Master PSU, zero issues. Has 4 pci-e connectors, so it's ready for quad sli if I ever want to go that route with my P6n Diamond. Has lots of different connection options, highly rated PSU. Not all Cooler Master PSUs underperform, just have to know what you're buying. The above supply also has 2 8 pin connectors so for instance when my GTX 295 arrives I'll have no trouble (card uses 6/8 pin). Reviews also can be helpful.

  • [SOLVED] YASBI (yet another screen brightness issue)

    i feel silly posting this, as there seems to be a lot of documentation about this, but i'm kind of baffled.  if i run
    echo "5" > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
    as root, everything works nicely, my screen turns it's brightness down to half-way (max brightness is 10).
    if i run the same command as sudo, i get a permissions error.  my final goal is to bind this to a key in openbox, but first i need to figure out what i'm doing wrong.  do i need to be part of a certain group?  do i need to edit my sudoers file?
    thanks in advance.
    Last edited by williamkray (2012-02-02 22:49:56)

    i have solved this, and am posting how here for anyone else who might come across this in a search. this is what i came up with:
    added the following to my /etc/rc.local:
    chgrp users /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness && chmod g=+rw /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
    then i came across this script on another forum post, and saved it to /usr/sbin/brightness, made it executable and chgrp users:
    #!/bin/bash
    file="/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness"
    level=$(cat $file)
    if [[ "$#" -eq 0 ]]; then
    cat $file
    elif [[ "$1" = "-" ]]; then
    echo $(( level - 1 )) > $file
    elif [[ "$1" = "+" ]]; then
    echo $(( level + 1 )) > $file
    fi
    then in my ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml i added the following code to bind the commands to my Super+Up and Super+Down :
    <keybind key="W-Up">
    <action name="Execute">
    <command>brightness +</command>
    </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Down">
    <action name="Execute">
    <command>brightness -</command>
    </action>
    </keybind>
    Last edited by williamkray (2012-02-02 22:51:28)

  • [Solved]Yet Another HAL / Mounting issue....

    My issue can be avoided by manually mounting a device, just to get that out there.
    Whenever I transfer a larger file ( > 200mb) onto a removable USB device formated in either FAT or any non-journaled filesystem, Thunar will *pretend* like its unmounting the device but after about 20 seconds it states:
    Failed to unmount "<device name>".
    Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply,
    the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired,
    or the network connection was broken.
    On top of the message, my data written is mostly corrupt.
    What I know:
    ** Thunar uses exo-unmount to unmount devices given a HAL uuid. Maybe this is failing? Any clue how to debug this?
    ** 20-storage-methods.fdi states that all vfat mounted devices have 'flush' and 'async' mount options... could this be an issue?
    ** I'm part of the 'storage' and 'power' groups.
    ** i start XFCE using ck-launch-session startxfce4
    I've made sure that the device has no other handles and is not open in any window. My system(s) all have new and updated HAL and DBUS, as well as every other package. Running 'sync' after writing the files sometimes fixes the issue. Does anyone have a fix for why removable drives aren't "sending a reply" ? Thanks!
    --Anthony
    Last edited by anthonyclark (2010-09-22 17:48:13)

    Alright ... well. I managed to solve this kind of. As per my last post regarding the same exact issue, I must've missed a reply from Inxsible telling me to use the FIRST suggest UDEV rule from the arch udev wiki.
    The result of this is basically...
    *Device inserted
    *Mounted in /media/<device name> automatically
    *(No access via Thunar sidepane since it gets mounted with `mount`)
    *No need to manually unmount
    *just unplug or power off the device and it gets "lazy" unmounted via `unmount`
    Downside:
    *Mounting a drive via TrueCrypt creates a directory in /media that doesn't get automatically deleted.
    *Not a solution to Thunar having response issues with unmounting.
    /etc/udev/rules.d/11-media-by-label-auto-mount.rules
    KERNEL!="sd[a-z][0-9]", GOTO="media_by_label_auto_mount_end"
    # Import FS infos
    IMPORT{program}="/sbin/blkid -o udev -p %N"
    # Get a label if present, otherwise specify one
    ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}!="", ENV{dir_name}="%E{ID_FS_LABEL}"
    ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="", ENV{dir_name}="usbhd-%k"
    # Global mount options
    ACTION=="add", ENV{mount_options}="relatime"
    # Filesystem-specific mount options
    ACTION=="add", ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="vfat|ntfs", ENV{mount_options}="$env{mount_options},utf8,gid=100,umask=002"
    # Mount the device
    ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/mkdir -p /media/%E{dir_name}", RUN+="/bin/mount -o $env{mount_options} /dev/%k /media/%E{dir_name}"
    # Clean up after removal
    ACTION=="remove", ENV{dir_name}!="", RUN+="/bin/umount -l /media/%E{dir_name}", RUN+="/bin/rmdir /media/%E{dir_name}"
    # Exit
    LABEL="media_by_label_auto_mount_end"
    Last edited by anthonyclark (2010-09-22 03:50:00)

  • Yet Another Toshiba A75 Issue.. Can anyone solve it ???

    I have a A75 Satellite. The issue I'm having is that everytime I try and install Windows XP, when it's copying files, it totally shuts down. It can stay running at the bios screen all day long, but when it comes to installing an OS, it shuts off.. Any fix for this ? Thanks !

    Try cleaning the air vents. When it's at the BIOS screeen the CPU, memory, and hard drive aren't doing anything so very little heat is generated, but when the OS is being loaded, the CPU, memory, hard drive, and DVD drive are running and generating a lot of heat. If the vents are clogged with dust the fan won't be able to cool the unit down enough and the unit shuts down.

  • Yet another CC billing issue

    I had to update the credit card on file with my Creative Cloud account. Since then, the card has not been billed. The last payment was made on October 6. The information on file is correct, and has been for quite some time (even with multiple attempts to re-update it). Now access to my Adobe products has been suspended. I tried calling Adobe multiple times ... once hanging up after 45 minutes of being on hold, another time choosing the call-back option and never receiving a call back, and finally getting the recording that the wait time was between 90 and 120 minutes. One time I got through on chat, but after the unsuccessful session I was told to call Customer Support. Yet a connection to sales was near instantaneous.
    These wait times are completely unacceptable. I understand that the attack on your servers has caused big headaches, but hire some temporary support staff to get through this.
    Please, Adobe, help me out. I need to use your products for work.
    -Jon-

    Hi Jon,
    I am so sorry for the inconvenience  faced by you, please provide me your contact number, if possible with an alternate contact number. I will follow up the issue.
    I have send an email to you also, please respond.
    Regards,
    Rajshree

  • Z77 Mpower UEFI Boot issue

    Hey guys,
    I got a little issue.
    I want to reinstall Windows 8 with UEFI-mode. So i insert my dvd, press F11,choose UEFI:My DVD Drive, and then there just is the Bootlogoscreen, it blinks a few times and then just boots normal to Windows.
    I checked all BIOS settings. Am I missing anything?
    I got the latest Beta BIOS.
    Thanks in advance

    Hmmm....ok. I will have to then take a pass as I don't have or plan to have W8 on any of my machines to experiment and test. Thought for sure it was a fast boot problem, with both disabled, can't be that. 

  • Windows 2012 R2 UEFI boot issue: "Error reported: Unsupported"

    Hi,
    I am trying to install and boot from windows 2012 R2 UEFI OS.
    I could install this OS in UEFI mode and but while booting i.e. executing the BOOTX64.efi from UEFI shell getting below error:
            "Error reported: Unsupported"
    this message comes on UEFI shell.
    I have tried executing BOOTMGFW.efi (inside EFI/Microsoft/Boot/) as well, but I get the same message.
    in what situations I may get this error? 
    PS: I am not allowed to insert snapshot.

    Hi Maxwell379,
    Please refer the following article to confirm your hardware meet the 2012R2 on UEFI requirement:
    Deployment Options for UEFI based Computers
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2011/03/25/deployment-options-for-uefi-based-computers.aspx
    UEFI Firmware
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824898.aspx
    I’m glad to be of help to you!
    We
    are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this
    interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time.
    Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.

  • Yet another Quick TIme issue.

    I made new audio in Digital Performer and imported an MOV file as the source video. The new file was saved as an MOV and plays perfectly on a mac. However, when I try to play this on my pc's QT, I have to load the new file first THEN the original file before both the video/audio play. Help!

    OK, that makes total sense. Thank you very much Jon; that explains the issue very clearly. This of course begs another question though; how to I merge the new audio file and the original video file?
    That may depend on how you plan to play the file. My preferred strategy is to create a new target file and prevent the original source files from being accidentally modified in case I need to repeat the merge sequence.
    1) Open the source files.
    2) Create a new empty player.
    3) Copy the individual files to the empty player in the order you wish them played.
    4 Save the resulting new file as a stand alone file.
    This merged file would play in most versions of QT based apps but maight be a problem in some versions of mobile device players which require content be "flattened" to individual audio and video tracks. (I.e., the QT 7 player can play up to 99 mixed data tracks but some versions of the mobile players do not.)

  • Yet another DNS forwarding issue.

    I'e read a few of the posts in here and it seems I'm not the only one having problems. I'll give you a rundown of my setup / problem.
    Ethernet 1 - 192.x.x.x address - Router & DNS pointing to itself - Name resolution works fine.
    Ethernet 2 - 10.x.x.x address - This is on my corporate LAN. Added the router & DNS address to this card. I can ping the router.
    I've setup forwarding using the GUI & also tried adding the entry of the 10.x DNS server to named.conf
    When I start this interface I get odd behaviour from Server Admin tool, spinning wheel until I stop the interface again.
    I've read various documents and AFAIK I've set things up correctly but it doesn't want to play ball! I'm running 10.5.7 btw.
    Any help appreciated.

    That was part of the problem, it had been setup that way as when I'd been testing DeployStudio and had just followed the instructions. Removing it didn't just solve the problem though as I needed to add both local DNS & external DNS on both interfaces with the 192 DNS first. Anyway cheers for pointing it out, I couldn't see the wood for the trees and needed another set of eyes and to sleep on it.
    Thanks
    Sean

  • Yet another Windows Printing Issue

    I've searched the net and these forums all afternoon trying to resolve my printing issues. I've followed all the common links posted by people who are tired of explaining the solutions to no avail. I do have the Gutenprint 5.1.3 driver installed. It doesn't list the 2100TN, but lists the 2100.
    Gear:
    Windows 2003 Server
    HP LaserJet 2100TN Printer attached shared through Win2k computer on the local network.
    PowerBook G4 (wireless)
    I've been successful printing in the past with this equipment. I'm not sure what happened, except I do remember resetting the print services on my Mac a while ago. That wiped out all my printers. That must have been because I lost print capabilities to the LaserJet.
    Any help is appreciated. This is a work environment and I need to print with my Mac fonts.

    Greg
    Thank you for trying to help. The work environment is a Windows 2003 Server, about 10 Windows 2k computers on a single domain. The HP printer is connected via the printer port on a Reception desk computer and shared as 2100TN. Let's call this computer Shubunkin. Shubunkin shares the printer to all on the network, including (hopefully) my Powerbook G4, which is connected via a wireless router. The G4 accesses the network folders via Samba - smb. The IP address of Shubunkin is in the same subnet as the other computers.
    Long story short, I have spent many hours trying to figure this out on multiple occasions. The last time I was connected was by a $100/hr tech that helped sort out some networking issues we were having after a move. At the end of the day, I asked him if he could take a look at my Mac and get the printer working. It took all of 10 min., but I'm not even sure he knew how he did it. He's a Windows tech. I do remember the printer showing up somewhere in the printer browser (AppleTalk maybe) on my Mac and choosing it. It was late and back last October.
    I want to be concise; I'm just not sure what information you all need to help. I do appreciate any efforts!!

  • Yet another kernal panic issue

    I'm having kernal panics too....
    My iMac starts up with no startup chime, and then it starts up OK, but then when it gets to the part when the login window comes up, its just a blue screen, and every 3-5 seconds the little "startup spinny thingy" comes up for about 1/5 of a second. I call it the blue-screen of death. I'm pretty sure its the memory, and I'm preforming all the tasks apple says to do on the support page. I've heard of people saying that buying a new keyboard or slapping the mac would work, but it doesn't for me. Usually I just reboot in safe-mode and all goes away, but now I can't boot up in safe mode OR hear a startup chime.

    Please read this in conjunction with my responce to your other post. 
    Have you tried disconnecting all external devices (standfast the Apple mouse and keyboard) and seeing how that goes? You may also wish to try removing the SODIMM RAM and Airport card if present). Some questions for you:
    Have you added any hardware/software recently?
    What does the Apple Hardware Test disk report? (Here's a more extensive RAM checker.)
    Do you have another Mac/External Firewire Hard Disk (they can help troubleshoot).
    cheers
    mrtotes

  • Yet Another Slow Performance Issue

    I am noticing some seriously slow performance on my state-of-the-art 2.5 Ghz G5. I don't even know where to start. It happens frequently, it happens switching back and forth b/w apps, I get the spinning ball all the time, I have to restart to "refrech" the machine, which doesn't help, it hangs, it thinks, it does whatever it does. No real reason it would be doing this, I am not taxing the processors in any great way. I only have a few apps open, running a medium size photoshop file, and I'm trying to get some work done on a deadline and it's really reaaly irritating.
    What kind of maintenance should I run to cleanse this machine or somthing? Norton? De-fragment? I sure hope there's a solution for this weak performance.
    G5, dual 2.5Ghz   Mac OS X (10.4.2)  

    Norton Utilties hasn't been good to us, even their AV has had a serious takeover exploit because it runs with root powers.
    Applications running with root powers (admin password install) is one of the greatest threats we face as Mac users because it introduces all the more chances of failure behind our greatest security barrier, the admin password.
    About your performance issues, I have written something about it that can make your Mac fly like the wind.
    Visit my site and download the performance and cloning text doc, it's a bit of rough draft, but the hard core info is there.
    One thing I need to add to my file above is that Western Digital is coming out with a larger faster drive called the RaptorX. Even though the clear cover is about worthless to us PowerMac G5 owners, the size and speed of this drive makes a excellent boot drive for performance.

  • Yet another hybrid graphics issue...

    Hi everyone!
    I've been finding help (and funny stuff!) on these forums and the wiki for a while, but one problem remains despite Arch's awesomeness: I can't seem to shutdown, reboot or hibernate my laptop properly after switching graphics... It freezes every single time I try it, leaving me with soft lockups and acknowledging nothing but a hard shutdown.
    Some info:
    - Laptop: Acer 5820TG with Intel (integrated) and ATI HD 5650 (dedicated) graphics
    - vgaswitcheroo seems to work:
    [root@funbox tan]# echo "DIGD" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
    [root@funbox tan]# cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
    0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
    1:DIS: :Pwr:0000:01:00.0
    2:DIS-Audio: :Pwr:0000:01:00.1
    [root@funbox tan]# echo "OFF" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
    → Overheating stops and battery consumption decreases, as expected
    However, the "vgaswitcheroo" folder disappears as soon as "OFF" has been echo-ed to "switch":
    [root@funbox tan]# cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
    cat: /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
    A few things keep surprising me:
    1. KMS does not seem to be enabled for my integrated graphics:
    [root@funbox tan]# cat /sys/module/i915/parameters/modeset
    -1
    However, dmesg | grep drm shows this: http://hastebin.com/wawavayena.coffee , which leads me to think that KMS are enabled for both integrated and dedicated graphics...
    2. As you have probably noticed above, the "switch" file initially contains a "DIS-Audio" entry, which I haven't seen anywhere else while browsing to solve this problem. Could this be part of the issue ?
    Anyway, thanks in advance for having read all of this, and of course feel free to ask me for more information and/or tell me if I have done or understood something wrong.
    Cheers,
    Tan
    Last edited by Weyfonk (2014-01-08 20:12:07)

    I assume you are using the radeon driver? Or am I mistaken and you are using Catalyst?

Maybe you are looking for