GRUB4DOS for UEFI

@ liuzhaoyzz

 

I consider your tutorial may be very useful for non advanced users, as it covers all the different scenarios in a very detailed manner.

 

I can say you made a very good job making it that way.

 

I hope you don't mind I made a translation of your Tutorial using Google translate, if you have some free time please review the translation as some times certain term are no translated very acurately.

 

Finally, thanks for including me on the No.10 Special thanks, it is a pleasure for me try to make something to help the development team and all other people involved on this project, I only try to give something in return, to the people that has worked very hard making the original grub4dos, that we have enjoyed for many years, and now the fantastic UEFI version that we all have been dreaming.

 

Your friend

 

alacran

Edited by liuzhaoyzz, 14 December 2020 - 11:59 AM.

Wintoflash made a command Manual on the bottom his github,https://github.com/a...rub/tree/latest

But it is in Chinese,https://a1ive.github.io/grub2_zh.html

Most mod list you can find in command.lst ,you can download grub2-latest.tar  from github

To make things easier for other members and future readers I translated a1ive Grub2 Manual to English by means of Google translate.

I hope a1ve do not mind, but I though there is very good info in the Manual and it deserves to be translated to English and shared here.

alacran

To make things easier for other members and future readers I translated a1ive Grub2 Manual to English by means of Google translate.

 

I hope a1ve do not mind, but I though there is very good info in the Manual and it deserves to be translated to English and shared here.

 

alacran

Thank you for your translation！I think he won't mind it.But grub2 is in active development period,maybe the manual need to update frequently.

Edited by liuzhaoyzz, 14 December 2020 - 01:04 PM.

Hi iuzhaoyzz,

Nothing strange. The size of my VHD is 18 Gb and the memory is set to 25 Gb. Vmware is a very good to do such testings. My workplace lent me a computer for remote work and I cannot use it for testing purposes. A remote connection to the Vmware server does the job.

map --mem --top results in the error message out of memory. I will try again the grub2 test. Thanks.

 

Thank you for your translation very much！

 

You are warm-hearted to help friends.Your feedback is good for g4e/grub2.

 

不点=tinybit,not "No point"

 

Some Chinese Idioms are hard to translate into English,but it doesn't matter at all,most of the  translations are very acurately.

 

 

万事俱备，只欠东风,google translate: everything is ready, only Dongfeng, Dongfeng is to

let windows recognize the virtual disk emulated by grub4dos_UEFI or grub2_UEFI map xxx.vdf (hd0), and boot the

BCD normally.

 

It is very interesting^_^.

 

Already fixed and re-uploaded, thanks for your corrections, changes made are:

不点 = tinybit and  万事俱备只欠东风, =  all is ready except for the opportunity, (which I thing is more acurate).

If some other member could help me making same pictures on the Manual from an English OS, I can easily change the pictures to make it more easily understandable, sorry I can't do it myself, my OS lang is es-MX

Thank you for your translation！I think he won't mind it.But grub2 is in active development period,maybe the manual need to update frequently.

I will try to keep it updated.

alacran

To make things easier for other members and future readers I translated a1ive Grub2 Manual to English by means of Google translate.

 

I hope a1ve do not mind, but I though there is very good info in the Manual and it deserves to be translated to English and shared here.

 

alacran

steve already translated the manual a long time ago. https://www.rmprepus...ive-grub2-notes

I suggest to use DeepL instead of Google Translate to translate Chinese, because it is more reliable than Google Translate: http://deepl.com/

@ a1ve

Sorry, I didn't know steve6375 translated it, at least AFAIR I haven't seen on this forum any info related to that translation, and with all due respect to the good steve, his site is sometimes difficult to navigate, when you are looking for something.
 

Thanks for the link to steve translation and also for the hint about DeepL

alacran

Hi liuzhaoyzz,

Thanks for the info. Testing the latest release of a1ive's grub2, I was able to boot the VHD as filedisk. The grub2 map --mem command did the job and loaded the VHD to memory.  After a while, the Windows 10 loader displayed the error message INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE. VHD partitioning layout = GPT

I had success with RAM booting here :

http://reboot.pro/to...-uefi/?p=217272

Hi liuzhaoyzz,

Thanks for the info. Testing the latest release of a1ive's grub2, I was able to boot the VHD as filedisk. The grub2 map --mem command did the job and loaded the VHD to memory. After a while, the Windows 10 loader displayed the error message INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE. VHD partitioning layout = GPT

I had success with RAM booting here :

http://reboot.pro/to...-uefi/?p=217272

Hi liuzhaoyzz,

Thanks, I forgot the --rt parameter. Adding --rt didn't change the result, I received again the same message INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE.

Hello,

This time, I converted a Win10XPE built to a flat WinPE following the guide :

https://docs.microso...boot-or-non-ram

- Reduced the memory of the virtual machine to 8 Gb

- Created the two FAT32 and NTFS partitions hosted by a VHD sized 3 Gb. ( GPT disk )

- Applied the wim file with wimlib 1.13

- Injected the signed SVBus driver

- Created the boot files with bcdboot

grub4dos booted successfully the VHD as filedisk but trying to boot from RAM ended with the out of map memory message. This is the same issue reported by wimb :

http://reboot.pro/to...-uefi/?p=217331

In case of GPT VHD having 2 partitions GPT(EFI FAT32 100 MB + NTFS) then UEFI Grub4dos  results for me also in out of map memory error 8000000000000009

 

@ Vortex

When you install SVBus driver on a real OS it creates a service on Win registry to run it on the first stage of boot, the registry on a PE is very limited compared to a real OS, and very possible that service can't be created, or it's created wrongly, and then SVBus driver may not be available.  So this is not a valid test as there is another potential cause of troubles.

I ran some tests with a Win10XPE_x64.vhd, but it wasn't flat installed, it was just extracted to a MBR inicialized VHD with a single FAT-32 partition, you can see this post: http://reboot.pro/to...e-3#entry217174

In this case SVBus is not required as once the VHD is loaded on RAM, then the internal boot loader, loads the boot.wim.

This is the more simple test with a small VHD, fast and easy to make.

As you can see on same page, even before the new --top parameter was implemented it ran fine.

Try on MBR VHD first, if it doesn't work for you, try again on GPT VHD.

alacran

VHD_WIMBOOT Version 4.1 is now released    and has  integrated support for UEFI Grub4dos  and  a1ive UEFI Grub2 and signed SVBus driver

- Make fixed VHD with MBR and 2 Partitions (Active 100 MB FAT32 + rest NTFS) suitable for UEFI booting VHD from RAMDISK
- Added UEFI Grub4dos  and  a1ive UEFI Grub2 for UEFI booting VHD from RAMDISK
- Added signed SVBus driver for UEFI booting VHD from RAMDISK

More Info here

Download:  from GitHub VHD_WIMBOOT-41 and Win_Reduce_Trusted-40  to make Mini 7/8/10 x64 in VHD with UsedSize about 2 GB

Manual:  VHD_WIMBOOT.pdf

Hi alacran,

When you install SVBus driver on a real OS it creates a service on Win registry to run it on the first stage of boot, the registry on a PE is very limited compared to a real OS, and very possible that service can't be created, or it's created wrongly, and then SVBus driver may not be available.  So this is not a valid test as there is another potential cause of troubles.

 

You did the same test, a WinPE based experiment. FYI :

http://reboot.pro/to...-uefi/?p=217174

title Win10XPE_x64.vhd SVBus RAMDISK for UEFI boot from HD
find --set-root /VHD/Win10XPE_x64.vhd
map --mem /VHD/Win10XPE_x64.vhd (hd)
chainloader (hd-1)

 

This was your test case.

My Win10XPE based VHD integrated with SvBus can be booted as filedisk. The problem comes when I try do a RAM boot.

I think you didn't read carefully, we are quoting same post, but I it seems you do not understand yet that my VHD is not a real flat install, it is only the PE.iso content copied to a FAT-32 VHD and no SVBus installed, the sources\boot.wim was never deployed as in a real flat install, the VHD boots on Ram or as filedisk fine, but in both cases when booting it loads to Ram (again) the boot.wim just same as when booting from an ISO, and then it finally boots from it. (it boots fine also as Filedisk but not mentioned as at that moment the subject was Ramboot).

It seems you made a real flat install on a VHD (where sources\boot.wim is deployed to the VHD) and also added the SVBus driver,

So we can't compare apples and orages, Do you see the difference more clearly now?

Then my comment:

 

When you install SVBus driver on a real OS it creates a service on Win registry to run it on the first stage of boot, the registry on a PE is very limited compared to a real OS, and very possible that service can't be created, or it's created wrongly, and then SVBus driver may not be available.  So this is not a valid test as there is another potential cause of troubles.

And from liuzhaoyzz post: http://reboot.pro/to...e-7#entry217365

 

I test OK on real PC,not VMware.

I also prefer to boot on real hardware a VHD, I have had bad experiences using VMs, as then we are booting from a firmware/Bios completely different than the real one we will use at the end.

That is the reason to use a VHD, it is a virtual HD but capable to boot on real hardware.

alacran

Hello,

 PE.iso content copied to a FAT-32 VHD and no SVBus installed, 

 

I think you have a misleading title here :

title Win10XPE_x64.vhd SVBus RAMDISK for UEFI boot from HD
 

If you didn't install the SVBus driver, why your title contains the word SvBus? Maybe, a typo.

Flat or not, what I wanted to tell that both of us we used the files of a WinPE.

Yes, you are right, I'll fix it, to avoid confussion for future readers, it was caused by copy paste and forgot to delete SVBus, thaks for making me notice it. 

Edit: Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

alacran

Hello, 

No worries. Take your time. This time one real hardware, I received again the  out of map memory message while doing the flat WinPE test :

The VHD relatively small has a size of 3 Gb.

title Win10XPE flat

map --mem (hd0,2)/win10.vhd (hd)
chainloader (hd-1,0)

@ Vortex

I didn't know there is a new version, I'll download and test this new version, and comment back, but first, I will need some additional info and an additional file(s), to test all its new features, please see my next post my friend.

alacran

UEFI Grub2 and UEFI Grub4dos booting Win8x64 UsedSize=2.33 GB in VHD from RAMDISK using signed SVBus driver is working OK 

@ a1ive

Hi my friend, I just saw this post from you: http://bbs.wuyou.net...652&pid=4195636

 

Test: Add load command to load EFI driver. (Same function as GRUB2's efiload command and EFI Shell's load command)
Download: BOOTX64.zip (144.17 KB, download times: 15)
usage:
           load [-n] /path/to/driver.efi
Example:
           load /boot/ntfs_x64.efi
           Load the NTFS driver, and then enter the EFI Shell or refind to read the files on NTFS.

           load -n /boot/CrScreenshotDxe.efi
           Load the screenshot driver. After loading, you can press Left Ctrl + Left Alt + F12 to take a screenshot. The picture format is png and saved in the root directory of the first FAT partition found.

           load /boot/EfiGuardDxe.efi
           Load the driver that cracks the Windows driver signature verification. (May not support newer Windows versions, such as 20H1)
Example driver download: drivers.zip (122.07 KB, download times: 15)

Please share with us the items remarked in blue in your post, unless:

BOOTX64.zip from your post is now included on grub4dos-for_UEFI-2020-12-15

ntfs_x64.efi is same as on: https://github.com/pbatard/uefi-ntfsor https://efi.akeo.ie/

From ChangeLog_UEFI.txt on grub4dos-for_UEFI-2020-12-15

 

Release Notes:
2020-12-15 (a1ive)
  Add load command to load EFI driver.

Thanks in advance

alacran

Agree, VHD MBR (active 100MB FAT32 + rest NTFS), is working very fine here.
 
I would like our friend a1ive can tell us if his UEFI grub2 version is also capable to boot from a VHD compressed as *.gz or *.lz4, I already asked about this on a previus post but haven't got an aswer yet. In any case so far I'm assuming it is not capable.
 
I do not try this myself, because I have gotten the polution of ghost virtual drives, (floppies, CDs and VHDs), present when booting from all the VHDs after having a failed boot when using G4E, and I hate when this happends.  By the way also don't know if this is not the case if we have a failed boot when using a1ve grub2.  I will appreciate if any of you comment about this.
 
alacran

@ a1ive

 

Hi my friend, I just saw this post from you: http://bbs.wuyou.net...652&pid=4195636

 

 

Please share with us the items remarked in blue in your post, unless:

 

BOOTX64.zip from your post is now included on grub4dos-for_UEFI-2020-12-15

 

ntfs_x64.efi is same as on: https://github.com/pbatard/uefi-ntfsor https://efi.akeo.ie/

 

From ChangeLog_UEFI.txt on grub4dos-for_UEFI-2020-12-15

 

Thanks in advance

 

alacran

You could download NTFS driver from rEFInd project: https://sourceforge....rojects/refind/

pbatard's NTFS driver doesn't work on my PC.

CrscreenshotDxe: https://github.com/L...CrScreenshotDxe

EfiGuardDxe: https://github.com/Mattiwatti/EfiGuard

alacran,
I think grub2 support gz/lz4，but gz/lz4 need more memory to unzip.
I did not try gz/lz4,maybe Wintoflash did not try,either.
you can test it.

xz and gz. lz4 is not supported.

@ a1ve

Thanks your answers about the the links and info my friend, as more tools and info we have it's better.

alacran