Ubuntu 16.04 UEFI

20170213 jean@huens.be

Since some hardware (acer revo one?) only supports GPT disk partitioning. It may be time to leave the MBR partitioning and switch to UEFI boot and GPT partitioning

Ubuntu EFI operations

Ubuntu 16.04 and later can handle UEFI boot.
You need

a computer with firmware capable of EFI.
This firmware is probably entangled in BIOS.
a disk with GPT partitioning
a partition with EFI partitioning (specail form of fat 32)

Ubuntu programs

The main program to manipulate EFI booting is efibootmgr. It can be used to verfy and adapt information in the EFI system partition.

Display EFI boot information:

# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0005
Timeout: 10 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0005,0007
Boot0000* Diskette Drive	BBS(Floppy,,0x0)
Boot0001* P0: ST3250312AS	BBS(HD,,0x0)P0: ST3250312AS               .
Boot0002* USB Storage Device	BBS(USB,,0x0)
Boot0003* CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive	BBS(CDROM,,0x0)P2: TSSTcorp CD-RW/DVD-ROM TS-.
Boot0004  Onboard NIC	BBS(Network,,0x0)
Boot0005* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,081dd417-d80f-40a1-a36d-f3a76d0c0db0,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)

To create a new boot entry (this example was used to create 0005 above)

# efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/sda --part 1 --label ubuntu --loader \\EFI\\ubuntu\\shimx64.efi

Ubuntu boot loaders

Boot loaders live on the \EFI\ubuntu EFI system partition (mounted on /boot/efi):

grubx64.efi grub boot loader uses \EFI\ubuntu\grub.cfg
fwupx64.efi donot know yet
shimx64.efi is a frontend to implement secure boot, it calls grubx64.efi to do the real work
Mokmanager.efi donot know yet

Solving EFI problems

When replacing/ changing disk you should make sure every disk uses GPT and has a EFI system disk.
Even then there may be no bootable config.

I do use a UEFI bootable USB stick with EFInd to verify what is on disk and boot it.
For general information see http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/
To find a USB flashdrive image file http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html

Dell Optiplex 790

Dell optiplex 790, running ubuntu 16.04, installed from a USB stick.

Convert disk using Ubuntu

Based on http://askubuntu.com/questions/84501/how-can-i-change-convert-a-ubuntu-mbr-drive-to-a-gpt-and-make-ubuntu-boot-from.

resize and move disk partitions

The needed space for a EFI (= fat 32) partition. Gparted or parted van be used:

BUT gparted refuses to work on mounted partitions, and since we use /dev/sda1 as / it will not work.

Workaround is to boot a gparted-live (tested with gparted-live-0.26.1-1-amd64.iso).
Use of gparted is here.

Hardware Dell Optiplex 790 with ubuntu 14.04 on MBR /dev/sda
Bios setup : UEFI enabled
Boot and enter PF12, you will see the USB stick as UEFI device, select, enter
Flashy screen select gparted failsafe (or other). It takes some time te start.
started gparted
- /dev/sda1 freed 400Mb at begin (moving partition takes 15-20 min)
- /dev/sda1 freed 2G at end
- /dev/sda2 (swap) recreated
- created a new fat32 partition at start of disk. I did not find what to do to make this a EFI partition ?
I did quit here since reinstalling ubuntu with a disk erase (next) is easier.

Reinstall Ubuntu

change Bios options

Change in the bios => general => boot sequence => UEFI

One can try to add boot options but the BIOS does not find a GPT disk with EFI...

I did "load defaults" and got a greyed out boot list option with UEFI selected
And a description of the default boot including SATA USB ....
Rebooted => BIOS is back to legacy
Change in the bios => general => boot sequence => UEFI
Save and reboot:
"no bootable devices"
Change in the bios => general => boot sequence =>
ONE can select both Legacy and UEFI
And then the USB installation stick is recognized.

Install ubuntu from USB

The ubuntu desktop install detects that there is UEFI but the disk does contain MBR bootable software.You get a warning screen and I did select "continue with UEFI"
selected erase disk.
it warns:
- partition #1 of SCSI1(0.0.0) as ESP
- partition #2 of SCSI1(0.0.0) (sda) as ext4
- partition #3 of SCSI1(0.0.0) (sda) asswap
keyboard US with euro on 5
installation goes on without problems
removed usb stick and rebooted

Check installed system

After installing openssh-server.

disk

root@emilia:~# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev
tmpfs           384M  6.1M  377M   2% /run
/dev/sda2       225G  4.7G  209G   3% /
tmpfs           1.9G  212K  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       511M  3.6M  508M   1% /boot/efi
tmpfs           384M   92K  383M   1% /run/user/1000
root@emilia:~# gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 488397168 sectors, 232.9 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 8F41788B-9F6D-45C0-8CC3-90EB9A49A234
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 488397134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2349 sectors (1.1 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         1050623   512.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2         1050624       480253951   228.5 GiB   8300  
   3       480253952       488396799   3.9 GiB     8200  

Command (? for help):  i
Partition number (1-3): 1
Partition GUID code: C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B (EFI System)
Partition unique GUID: 081DD417-D80F-40A1-A36D-F3A76D0C0DB0
First sector: 2048 (at 1024.0 KiB)
Last sector: 1050623 (at 513.0 MiB)
Partition size: 1048576 sectors (512.0 MiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'EFI System Partition'

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-3): 2
Partition GUID code: 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4 (Linux filesystem)
Partition unique GUID: 6D5B45BF-A768-4460-92AF-3BF2BFA7DDA9
First sector: 1050624 (at 513.0 MiB)
Last sector: 480253951 (at 229.0 GiB)
Partition size: 479203328 sectors (228.5 GiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: ''

Command (? for help): i 3
Partition number (1-3): 3
Partition GUID code: 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F (Linux swap)
Partition unique GUID: DE30F507-E371-4727-BC49-389176174C7B
First sector: 480253952 (at 229.0 GiB)
Last sector: 488396799 (at 232.9 GiB)
Partition size: 8142848 sectors (3.9 GiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: ''

EFI

root@emilia:~# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0006
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0006
Boot0000* Diskette Drive	BBS(Floppy,,0x0)
Boot0001* P0: ST3250312AS	BBS(HD,,0x0)P0: ST3250312AS               .
Boot0002* USB Storage Device	BBS(USB,,0x0)
Boot0003* CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive	BBS(CDROM,,0x0)
Boot0004  Onboard NIC	BBS(Network,,0x0)
Boot0006* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,081dd417-d80f-40a1-a36d-f3a76d0c0db0,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
root@emilia:~#

Boot 0-4 seem to be legacy boot devices (4 NIC is not enabled in BIOS)
Boot 6 is on EFI partition.

EFI partition

root@emilia:~# cd /boot/efi
root@emilia:/boot/efi# ls -lR EFI
EFI:
total 4
drwx------ 3 root root 4096 Jun 20 13:33 ubuntu

EFI/ubuntu:
total 3620
drwx------ 2 root root    4096 Jun 20 13:31 fw
-rwx------ 1 root root   64352 Jun 20 13:31 fwupx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root     126 Jun 20 13:33 grub.cfg
-rwx------ 1 root root 1067896 Jun 20 13:33 grubx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root 1271672 Jun 20 13:33 MokManager.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root 1289424 Jun 20 13:33 shimx64.efi

EFI/ubuntu/fw:
total 0

Test UEFI boot

Reboot and change bios to UEFI
The bios VIEW option now shows:

Boot Option Name:
ubuntu
File System List: 
HD(1,GPT,081dd417-d80f-40a1-a36d-f3a76d0c0db0)
File Name:
\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi

Apply and exit
Reboot (boots ubuntu)

Test UEFI booted ubuntu

Every thing is as in the first test.
efibootmgr still shows the legacy devices 0-4 ?

Added another boot entry:

root@emilia:~# efibootmgr -b 5 -c -d /dev/sda1 -L "ubuntu grub" -l "\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi"
BootCurrent: 0006
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0005,0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0006
Boot0000* Diskette Drive
Boot0001* P0: ST3250312AS
Boot0002* USB Storage Device
Boot0003* CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
Boot0004  Onboard NIC
Boot0006* ubuntu
Boot0005* ubuntu grub
root@emilia:~# root@emilia:~# efibootmgr -t 10
BootCurrent: 0006
Timeout: 10 seconds
BootOrder: 0005,0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0006
Boot0000* Diskette Drive
Boot0001* P0: ST3250312AS
Boot0002* USB Storage Device
Boot0003* CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
Boot0004  Onboard NIC
Boot0005* ubuntu grub
Boot0006* ubuntu
root@emilia:~# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0006
Timeout: 10 seconds
BootOrder: 0005,0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0006
Boot0000* Diskette Drive	BBS(Floppy,,0x0)
Boot0001* P0: ST3250312AS	BBS(HD,,0x0)P0: ST3250312AS               .
Boot0002* USB Storage Device	BBS(USB,,0x0)
Boot0003* CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive	BBS(CDROM,,0x0)
Boot0004  Onboard NIC	BBS(Network,,0x0)
Boot0005* ubuntu grub	HD(1,GPT,081dd417-d80f-40a1-a36d-f3a76d0c0db0,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)
Boot0006* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,081dd417-d80f-40a1-a36d-f3a76d0c0db0,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)

Rebooted

Boots into Ubuntu, nothing seen from timeout of 10 seconds, nothing seen from grubx64.efi.
Puzzled, but it works

Dell Optiplex 7020

Dell Optiplex 7020 running ubuntu 14.04

Change BIOS options

Bios boot : UEFI
bios boot advanced : diable legacy boot option rom (I am not sure this is the correct location and/or name)
Secure boot : enabled
Uefi PXE boot: enabled

After these changes and MBR formated disk is not bootable, but using PF12 you will get some devices, among them:

UEFI PXE boot ip4
UEFI PXE boot ip6

Both PXE boots did fail and only a ubuntu16.04_amd USB stick was usable.

Install ubuntu from USB

Instalation done without problems; system reboots without problem.

Check installed system

The system was booted using EFI and the efibootmgr ouput looks OK:

root@dellzebub2:/root# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0012,0013
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,16fcb1e6-9e58-4aff-b2c4-104e15c46d9f,0x800,0xfa000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)\
           WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}\
                 ...d................
Boot0001* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,e84c57da-10a0-4f40-9ddc-4ba50686319b,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0012* Onboard NIC(IPV4)	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x19,0x0)/MAC(3417ebaab7b0,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.0:0<->0.0.0.0:0,0,0)AMBO
Boot0013* Onboard NIC(IPV6)	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x19,0x0)/MAC(3417ebaab7b0,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)AMBO

Then we did install fwts (ubuntu FirmWareTeSt) to test/view UEFI variables. The installation requests a password
as shown in

The install script.
and this screenshot
After the installation fwts can be used to dump UEFI variables and related stuff.
Results.log contains some examples (long).
At the next reboot you will get a blue screen (not the windows one ) and MOKmanager will show some selections. If you choose to enable SecureBoot (I did) You will need the password given at the previous step.
It will ask for password char X , to answer you need to type one char followed by a RETURN

Test Disk exchanges

A disk with GPT partitioning contains a "backup" MBR at the start.
This did give me hope that a GPT partitioned disk could be used on a machine with only MBR firmaware=BIOS.

Test machines :

Dell optiplex 790, running ubuntu 16.04, BIOS with EFI, Disk with GPT
Dell optiplex 755, running ubuntu 16.04. BIOS with MBR, Disk with MBR

Dell 790 with MBR disk

Started with PF12 :
No boot devices found !

When BIOS is switched to Legacy (was UEFI), the Disk can be used to boot.
(PF12 shows boot devices and UEFI, but UEFI cannot be used and freeze the system.

Dell 755 with GPT disk

Started with PF12 :

Shows onboard SATA disk

When you select to boot from the disk
screen freezes
no visible system actions
no error messages
Cntl ALT DEL and power button works.