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SYSLINUX with EFI

syslinux efi bootloader uefi

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#1 Linux-Taurus

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Posted 11 August 2011 - 05:09 PM

Hi,
I am a newbie to Syslinux. I want to boot Linux 2.6 kernel on my board that has Intel core i7 with EFI support. So, I tried with creating a bootable pendrive with syslinux on it (steps as suggested in the Syslinux documentation). Although it worked with my older machine (i386), it is not working with my new board.

i want to have some clue on the following:\
- Does SYSLINUX support I7 Sandy bridge?
- Does SYSLINUX supports EFI? If so how to install it.

Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated.

#2 sbaeder

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Posted 11 August 2011 - 07:48 PM

Hi,
I am a newbie to Syslinux. I want to boot Linux 2.6 kernel on my board that has Intel core i7 with EFI support. So, I tried with creating a bootable pendrive with syslinux on it (steps as suggested in the Syslinux documentation). Although it worked with my older machine (i386), it is not working with my new board.

i want to have some clue on the following:\
- Does SYSLINUX support I7 Sandy bridge?
- Does SYSLINUX supports EFI? If so how to install it.

Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated.

Does it have any controls to manage the BOOT ORDER...i.e. what happens when you put a bootable CD/DVD into the machine ? EFI shouldn't make a difference, but if there is any sort of an option to select boot order when booting (like from the BIOS a prompt to hit F12 or some other key), try that too...

Bottom line, make sure it can boot from NOT the main hard drive, then go from there...

Scott

#3 Sha0

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Posted 11 August 2011 - 09:24 PM

Hi,
I am a newbie to Syslinux. I want to boot Linux 2.6 kernel on my board that has Intel core i7 with EFI support. So, I tried with creating a bootable pendrive with syslinux on it (steps as suggested in the Syslinux documentation). Although it worked with my older machine (i386), it is not working with my new board.

How do you know it isn't working? What have you tried and what do you see?

i want to have some clue on the following:\
- Does SYSLINUX support I7 Sandy bridge?
- Does SYSLINUX supports EFI? If so how to install it.

Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated.

Right now, Syslinux is a BIOS-based boot-loader. Efforts are underway to make a Syslinux .EFI module for use with [U]EFI-based (non-BIOS-based) computers. If you join the Syslinux mailing-list, you can watch the progress.

Many [U]EFI systems have a "BIOS mode" where they can boot in a "legacy" or "BIOS-emulation" mode. If you can do that, then you might have some better luck.

Perhaps you could share the computer model and someone might be able to share their experience.

#4 Linux-Taurus

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Posted 12 August 2011 - 02:01 PM

Does it have any controls to manage the BOOT ORDER...i.e. what happens when you put a bootable CD/DVD into the machine ? EFI shouldn't make a difference, but if there is any sort of an option to select boot order when booting (like from the BIOS a prompt to hit F12 or some other key), try that too...

Bottom line, make sure it can boot from NOT the main hard drive, then go from there...

Scott


The board supports to change the boot sequence (with F2 key) during the BIOS initialization. However, it is not able to boot from the pendrive on which SYSLINUX 4.02 is installed. However, the same pendrive works fine on other i386 machine.

Is it that, there is some set-up/configuration required to boot Syslinux on an efi based board??

#5 Linux-Taurus

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Posted 12 August 2011 - 02:02 PM

Does it have any controls to manage the BOOT ORDER...i.e. what happens when you put a bootable CD/DVD into the machine ? EFI shouldn't make a difference, but if there is any sort of an option to select boot order when booting (like from the BIOS a prompt to hit F12 or some other key), try that too...

Bottom line, make sure it can boot from NOT the main hard drive, then go from there...

Scott


The board supports to change the boot sequence (with F2 key) during the BIOS initialization. However, it is not able to boot from the pendrive on which SYSLINUX 4.02 is installed. However, the same pendrive works fine on other i386 machine.

Is it that, there is some set-up/configuration required to boot Syslinux on an efi based board??

#6 Linux-Taurus

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Posted 12 August 2011 - 02:16 PM

Right now, Syslinux is a BIOS-based boot-loader. Efforts are underway to make a Syslinux .EFI module for use with [U]EFI-based (non-BIOS-based) computers. If you join the Syslinux mailing-list, you can watch the progress.

Many [U]EFI systems have a "BIOS mode" where they can boot in a "legacy" or "BIOS-emulation" mode. If you can do that, then you might have some better luck.

Perhaps you could share the computer model and someone might be able to share their experience.



Can you help me to how to implement either of the "legacy" , "BIOS-emulation" modes??
I have tried the normal emulation mode as follows, but it didn't worked.

- Created a bootable partition using 'fdisk'
- Created ext2 file system on the 1st partition using 'mke2fs'
- Copied the MBR (440) bytes to the device using 'dd'
- Mounted the device to a directory
- Copied the config file, kernel image to it
- Unmount , reboot.

#7 sbaeder

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Posted 12 August 2011 - 08:28 PM

I think you missed the point...

Go into the BIOS (THE EFI) and see if there are any options inside it to allow bios "boot emulation"...Wouldn't have anything to do with the media - it is a MotherBoard setting (which is why they asked for more info on specifics of the motherboard)

#8 Linux-Taurus

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Posted 17 August 2011 - 05:23 AM

Hi,
I have tried with the _EFI shell_ option from the BIOS. However, it gae a EFI shell. Also, there is also a efi based secondary bootloader with a directory structure as follows.
"/boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.efi"

I do not know how to use it...
Currently I am using an evaluation board for the Intel core-i7 Sandy bridge architecture.

#9 sbaeder

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Posted 17 August 2011 - 04:35 PM

go "google" more on grub.efi, and there are a lot of posts on how different linux distributions use it to boot into grub from an EFI system...

If you are looking at a sepecific linux, try their site as well...(you didn't say - you just said a linux kernel)...

Scott

#10 Linux-Taurus

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Posted 20 August 2011 - 05:28 AM

Thanks.. I'll try it





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