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a1ive's grub2 and File Manager has great UEFI support!


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#76 alacran

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Posted 05 March 2020 - 05:49 PM

@ Rootman

 

If you follow the procedure on first post of this topic http://reboot.pro/to...boot-optional/ you will be able to also boot directly from Windows bootmanager your mentioned ISO as MBR (without need to load it in Ram first) and also as UEFI, and still keep E2B and agFM on your USB device.

 

I think with the mentioned approach we may loose E2B .imgPART capability (I haven't verified), but if using agFM or WinNTSetup it will not be missed.  And additional Wimboot VHD capability will be added:

 

Allowing to diskboot Wimboot VHDs (on Bios + UEFI + UEFI with CSM mode active) or Ramboot Wimboot VHDs (on Bios + UEFI with CSM mode active).

 

alacran



#77 Rootman

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Posted 05 March 2020 - 07:30 PM

I have to say I've read trough that post a few times and I am not sure what's  it's doing exactly.  I spend way to much time on this stuff as is.  Although I'd appreciate making it easier to boot either from one selection I don't quite grasp the fundamentals of what you are doing.

 

It works now and is the only ISO I have issue with so far.  

 

Thanks for the suggestion. 



#78 Rootman

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 12:07 PM

Steve

I've noticed about 25% of the time when using the custom menu in agFM it will boot automatically immediately to the top selection without stopping to show the menu.

 

If what I want to boot to is not the top / default choice I have to reboot in order to get to it.

 

Got any ideas?  I have the timeout set to 6 seconds.  It will instantly boot to the default.  As I said, like maybe 20-25% of the time. 



#79 steve6375

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 12:12 PM

Are you sure you have not double-tapped then ENTER key when booting (maybe from a boot menu)?

Try disabling the timeout (comment the timeout line out).

 

The only other thing I can think of is to put

echo Press a key...
read

at the top of the startup_menu.txt file  to absorb any extra key press.

 

Let me know what you find out.



#80 Rootman

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 01:16 PM

I suspect that I was, so I tried again very carefully to only press ENTER once when selecting the EFI partition from the systems boot menu, and it still would happen once in a while.

 

I added the pause, it works.  I changed it to the below, as it appears it needs an ENTER key, not just ANY key. 

echo Press ENTER to start EFI boot menu...
read

It works with the pause.  These are all Dell PCs by the way - not sure if that is a factor, and it's happened once in a while on on at least 10 laptops and PCs I've tried it on.  Not always, just once in a while.  And once in a blue moon it will happen twice in a row despite my taking care to NOT double tap the enter.  Weird.



#81 steve6375

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 01:35 PM

So the ENTER key is the last key you hit before grub2 loads?



#82 steve6375

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 01:39 PM

P.S. I presume this is only in EFI mode it works OK  in CSM\Legacy mode?


Edited by steve6375, 06 March 2020 - 01:42 PM.


#83 Rootman

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 03:40 PM

Yes, it only fails to pause for 6 seconds for the agFM menu in EFI mode, the same ISO file boots fine in E2B and the menu waits for the default 6 seconds as defined in E2B. 

 

This has  since you told me about the menu system in agFM.  Without the startup_menu.txt agFM would just stop at the agFM dialog. 



#84 Rootman

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 06:22 PM

So the ENTER key is the last key you hit before grub2 loads?

 

Yes, when booting to it from the computers boot menu and selecting the EFI drive  by pressing ENTER once.  As I stated, maybe 20% of the time the boot whips right past the startup_menu.txt menu and boots the default choice.  At first I thought I must have been double tapping enter, but careful examination proved otherwise.  Just a single tape of the ENTER key to choose the boot method from the systems boot menu. 

 

As a further test I also changed the boot order of devices on a PC this morning putting USB above the SSD so it required no user intervention to select the boot device - the boot method is set to EFI in the BIOS.  A reboot and it automatically booted to the USB agFM EFI boot after turning the PC on.  Out of 10 reboots it passed the menu without pausing twice for any amount of time, the default just booted straight away. 

 

It does appear to do it LESS when doing a cold boot, a reboot from an OS or even WinPE from the stick seems to cause it more often. 

 

When I added the 

echo Press ENTER to start EFI boot menu...
read

It stops and pauses 100% of the time as it should.  I tried pressing space or a character - nothing.  it takes an enter keystroke to pass this pause - which is OK

 

.  



#85 steve6375

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 06:26 PM

It sounds like a BIOS bug. Is there a later BIOS revision?



#86 Rootman

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 06:50 PM

Nope, this particular laptop I'm messing with now is all up to date.  And like I said a ways back I've tried it on at least 10 laptops or desktops.  Probably more.  I work in IT and use E2b (an now agFM as well) to boot to WinPE an dother ISO loads all the time.  Sometimes to just run some cleanup tasks, other times to recover data from a hosed OS.  I am just guessing at 10 laptops or desktops, It's likely more.  All are up to date.  I had just run Dell SupportAssist and updated the BIOS in all cases. 

 

I know on my 5 personal machine it's done it more than once on all of them.  

 

I forgot, SOME of the laptops are MS Surface 2 devices.  They also barge past the agFM menu on occasion.  These MS Surface laptops is what really pushed the need to have a simpler EFI boot system alongside E2B as the do not support legacy boot. 



#87 steve6375

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 07:07 PM

hmmm, it does seem like a strange bug in grub2 UEFI, but I can't figure out why no one else has come across it and fixed it before now. I have reported it to a1ive.



#88 Rootman

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 07:12 PM

It's no biggie, and Like I said only happens maybe 20% of the time.  It just seems to happen when I need it NOT too, like a user breathing down my neck to get something done. Most times what I have set for the default ISO I need anyway.  Just odd.



#89 steve6375

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 07:34 PM

If you feel like experimenting, can you copy \grubfmx64.efi to \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI  (make a backup of that file first so you can restore it later) and test it 10 times on a nonsecure UEFI64 system that shows the issue.

This is just so we can remove the EFI stubs and policy mods that it is currently doing.

Once tested, you can restore the original BOOTX64.EFI file.

thanks!



#90 steve6375

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 07:41 PM

P.S. Latest version 1.27 of agFM can now UEFI boot a few more ISOs (winPEs, etc,)

See the bottom of this page for the current 'tested' list. Most Linux LiveCD ISOs should work too.



#91 wimb

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 05:47 AM

I did some testing on my ASUS Z170I PRO GAMING Mobo for UEFI Secure booting from Removable USB size 32 GB with agFM Grub2 File Manager.
 
1. Easy2Boot_v1.B9m_Beta.zip as described here  that uses the sbpolicy to override security policy FAILS with RED message: Secure Boot Violation
 
2. Super-UEFIinSecureBoot-Disk_minimal_v3.zip Release (more Info here) was used to modify USB drive prepared with USB_FORMAT Tool
In that case UEFI Secure booting of agFM from USB is supported after using MokManager to Add the Certificate to the Firmware.
Also various Linux ISO files (Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Knoppix)  as well as Windows 10 VHD and PE WIM are booting in UEFI Secure Mode.
 
3. The Grub2 files bootx64.efi and grubx64.efi date 15-05-2018 of Linux Mint linuxmint-19-cinnamon-64bit-v2.iso as used in USB_FORMAT Tool
allow UEFI Secure booting from USB for various Linux ISO files + Win10 VHD and PE Wim without the need to Add Certificate with MokManager or other way to override security policy.


#92 steve6375

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 09:15 AM

 

I did some testing on my ASUS Z170I PRO GAMING Mobo for UEFI Secure booting from Removable USB size 32 GB with agFM Grub2 File Manager.
 
1. Easy2Boot_v1.B9m_Beta.zip as described here  that uses the sbpolicy to override security policy FAILS with RED message: Secure Boot Violation

 

Try going into BIOS Setup and clear the DBx Blacklist.



#93 wimb

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 09:37 AM

Try going into BIOS Setup and clear the DBx Blacklist.

 

Sure I might do that on my own PC, but the purpose of a Multi-Boot USB key is to use it on any equipment without changing BIOS Settings.

 

People in general won't like it when I start changing the BIOS, when trying to help them in case of trouble ......



#94 steve6375

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 10:56 AM

Well, it is called Secure Boot for a reason!



#95 Rootman

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Posted 25 March 2020 - 12:03 PM

If you feel like experimenting, can you copy \grubfmx64.efi to \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI  (make a backup of that file first so you can restore it later) and test it 10 times on a nonsecure UEFI64 system that shows the issue.

This is just so we can remove the EFI stubs and policy mods that it is currently doing.

Once tested, you can restore the original BOOTX64.EFI file.

thanks!

Hey sorry, this Covid 19 thing raised it's ugly head right when I posted last and suddenly everyone had to work from home, so some long hours and uncountable issues for me. Lukily no cases here . . . yet.  Just a lot of changes. 

 

I was going to do as you suggest, but I noticed I was getting a lot of extra cruft on my agfm drive, so I pulled out my menu files and deleted the rest and copied the agfm files from the freshest ZIP file and put my menu files back, this appears to have fixed it, at least it didn't boot immediately to the default entry.  Maybe there was something floating around form a previous version?  Sounds unlikely but for now I am calling it solved.

 

I just got your newest book on agfm and am looking forward to getting a chance to read through it.  Again, thanks for the great utility.  I use it daily. 



#96 ktp

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Posted 25 March 2020 - 01:52 PM

Hello you all,
 
For your information :
1- From Secure Grub2 (v2.05), when I load AIOboot (its own grubx64.efi), then nothing is displayed after the message "Welcome to AIOboot!".
After several tests, I found that I have to put a keypress wait at start of grub.cfg (basic scren mode), then everything is OK afterwards (gfxterm mode).
 
2- After loading xorboot EFI with Grub2, I can boot some iso like Acronis True Image.
 
Question:
In grub.cfg, I used the same splash image and unicode-small.pf2 font as AIO boot. But why there are no frame box characters around 4 sides of the Grub 2.05 menu, while there is no problem with AIO boot Grub2 2.02 menu? 
 
Thank you in advance.


#97 steve6375

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Posted 25 March 2020 - 01:55 PM

Off Topic!

This thread is about a1ive agFM project. Please post as new thread with a suitable subject title.



#98 ktp

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Posted 25 March 2020 - 02:07 PM

@steve6375

 

OK sorry for the off topic. I thought that this thread has 2 parts, a1ive's Grub2 and file manager. I am using both parts and having problem with Grub2 (secure boot) part.



#99 steve6375

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Posted 25 March 2020 - 02:11 PM

A1ive agFM must use a1ive's grub2. I see no mention of grubfm or agfm or a1ive in your post???



#100 ktp

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Posted 25 March 2020 - 02:17 PM

It's my fault :-(. I am so deeply working with a1ive's grub2 and file manager that for me it is explicit (which are not for others). In fact I only mentioned Secure boot (this is the advantage of using a1ive's Grub2 and agfm) and its version (2.05, found from agFM_download_files and Super-UEFIinSecureBoot-Disk mentioned in other threads related to a1ive's work).






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