GRUB4DOS for UEFI

I re-read all this topic since the begining, and it seems starting with the 2020-12-05 version I loose the capability to Filedisk boot when running some tests.

From my post: http://reboot.pro/to...e-4#entry217218

 

And now I have a new issue, during this new tests I was UEFI booting from the Win10XPE_x64.ISO to make certain editions to the menu.lst and copying some files. etc, it was booting very fine more than 5 times until it do not fully load anymore, the loading line remains forever about 1/3 from the beginig and never moves, replaced it with the copy on my USB and same thing, tryed with and old version and then the classic message boot_image_handle not found, so now it can load any other ISO but not that one (from any partition, as tried several).

I replaced latter the boot.sdi file into Boot file on the FAT-32 UEFI bootable partition of my internal HD and also the WinPE.ISO and the problem persisted, and also tested MBR booting same ISO and it boots fine.

Latter I read some info related to this issue in the case of WinPE ISOs on wuyou.net forum about this issue may be caused by corruption of the boot.sdi file into the ISO because of repeated failures, but as I replaced the full ISO this may not be the cause in my case.

And latter from wimb post: http://reboot.pro/to...e-4#entry217233

 

VHD WIMBOOT map and map --mem in UEFI Grub4dos Failed with boot_image_handle not found .....

From Vortex post: http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry217272

 

The purpose of my second test was to boot the same Vhd as filedisk but I received the error message INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE on a blue screen.  Attached are the screenshots. I also tested the option map (hd0,gpt3)/Win10.vhd. Same result.

From wimb post: http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry217275

 

My Mini10_SV.vhd (MBR FAT32+NTFS) booting OK as RAMDISK also fails to boot as FILEDISK when using New UEFI Grub2 and menuentry

menuentry "Mini10_SV.vhd as FILEDISK" {
map --rt (hd0,gpt2)/VHD/Mini10_SV.vhd
boot
}

I also can confirm when trying to Filedisk boot a Mini-10 VHD with G4E it fail.

Then it seems Filedisk booting a WinPE ISO or a Win VHD is failing.

I'm reluctant to test this again because it will created ghost virtual CDs when Rambooting a VHD, and at the moment I don't have any, and it was not very easy to get rid of them on 5 VHDs.

alacran

New test version:

From: https://github.com/c...mment-743725179

 

yaya2007 commented 7 hours ago

have a try.
BOOTX64.rar.txt

My tests report: https://github.com/c...mment-743745530

 

v2020-12-12 Test Report

Locations of files used to test:

 

MBR NTFS Formated (hd0,4)/Isos/Win10XPE_x64.ISO
MBR FAT-32 Formated (hd1,0)/VHD/Mini-10x64-2004-2.vhd

Commands tested: map; map --mem, and map --mem --top

All booted fine, not a single issue. No more issues when using map command alone

Extract of menu.lst titles used:

NOTE: MS has always stated that to boot a VHD it has to reside on a NTFS partition.  But if you look carefully you will notice the Mini-10x64-2004-2.vhd is on a FAT-32 partition/drive which is fine for boot from Ram, but it was also booted as Filedisk from there, thanks to SvBus driver and grub4dos, which is another plus to this marriage.

Also notice that VHD was booting from Ram with or without the use of --top parameter. EDIT: (as it is only 2.3 GB it fits on Ram below 4 GB)

I think it would be good if some other members run some tests too.

VHDs UEFI bootables on Ram are MBR formated (2 partitions), First 64 to 100 MB Primary FAT-32 Active Partition ID:0C + a Secondary NTFS partition, were the OS with SVBus driver installed resides.
The FAT-32 partition contains only boot files/folders to MBR/CSM and UEFI boot.

alacran

Hello alacran,

Thanks for your tests.

Testing the new release of grub4dos for UEFI, I received the out of malloc memory error message. Attached is the screenshot.

Memory should not be problem as I have 8 Gb of memory on my virtual Vmware machine.

Hi, it's nice you ran a test.

The quantity of total Ram can seem enougt but what really matters is the quantity of non fragmented Ram availabe and if the firmware lets map above 4 Gb, to start.

IMHO it is better to test on real hardware on a VHD located into your internal HD, any VM includes an additional layer of potential issues, to start the firmware/Bios of the VM.

Also your info is very vague my friend, from the picture I see you are using 2020-12-10 version, better download and try the 2020-12-12 test version from my previous post on real hardware as suggested.

All my tests are on real hardware: an old Asus B75M-A MB i3 3225 CPU 3.3 GZ  8 GB Ram (no dedicated GPU) on VHDs located into the HD.

EDIT: CSM and Secure Boot need to be disabled.

CSM  interfere with translation of SvBus info, to UEFI readable info.

The grub4dos UEFI bootmanager can't run on Secure Boot. There is a workaround but to run some tests it's easier just disable it.

alacran

Hi alacran,

I don't see any reason why not to run the tests on a virtual machine. Various test scenarios will hep us to find and solve more issues.

I tested the latest release of grub4dos for UEFI. The system boots the "real" operating system on hd0 and not the vhd located hd0. The purpose was to boot the vhd as filedisk. Attached is the screenshot.

Thanks alacran 

 

I have tested this new version of UEFI Grub4dos and booting from RAMDISK fails (with and without --top) with boot_image_handle not found.

1、You need an actived FAT32 partition+NTFS partition in VHD.

2、bcdboot %windisk%:\windows /s %bootdisk%: /l zh-CN /f ALL

%windisk%=NTFS partition in vhd

%bootdisk%=FAT32 Partition in vhd

3、The most important thing，delete the folder (the second NTFS partition)\EFI and \BOOT directory,or rename it.

Otherwise G4E will report boot_image_handle not found.

4、modify the (FAT32/ESP of VHD) \ EFI \ Microsoft \ boot \ BCD

5、modify the (main hard disk fat32/esp) \ EFI \ Microsoft \ boot \ BCD

You may have a look at this thread.

http://wuyou.net/for...tra=#pid4192803

liuzhaoyzz,from china

Edited by liuzhaoyzz, 13 December 2020 - 03:19 AM.

Hello alacran,

 

Thanks for your tests.

 

Testing the new release of grub4dos for UEFI, I received the out of malloc memory error message. Attached is the screenshot.

 

Memory should not be problem as I have 8 Gb of memory on my virtual Vmware machine.

1、Use map --mem --top insterd of map --mem to map vhd into the High Memory Area(>4GB).So your vhd must less than 8-4=4GB.

map --mem --top was launched in g4e 2020-12-10 or later.

F:\EFI\grub\menu.lst

"out of malloc memory" error message means you have not enough continuous memory.

You can run displaymem in G4E environment to see you memory layout.

Edited by liuzhaoyzz, 13 December 2020 - 03:14 AM.

1、You need an actived FAT32 partition+NTFS partition in VHD.

2、bcdboot %windisk%:\windows /s %bootdisk%: /l zh-CN /f ALL

%windisk%=NTFS partition in vhd

%bootdisk%=FAT32 Partition in vhd

3、The most important thing，delete the folder (the second NTFS partition)\EFI and \BOOT directory,or rename it.

Otherwise G4E will report boot_image_handle not found.

4、modify the (FAT32/ESP of VHD) \ EFI \ Microsoft \ boot \ BCD

5、modify the (main hard disk fat32/esp) \ EFI \ Microsoft \ boot \ BCD

 

You may have a look at this thread.

http://wuyou.net/for...tra=#pid4192803

 

liuzhaoyzz,from china

Thank you and very good description 

After renaming Boot and EFI folder in NTFS partition as x-Boot and x-EFI then I can use UEFI Grub4dos G4E for booting from RAMDISK.

a1ive Grub2 chainloaded G4E 2020-12-12 of yaya2007 Booting UEFI Secure Mini 10x64 Used Size =1.75 GB in 3 GB fixed VHD from RAMDISK using signed SVBus driver.

VHD 3GB = MBR (FAT32 100 MB + rest NTFS)

Downloads and More Info at wimb GitHub and MSFN Forum

To solve the problem of boot_image_handle not found the only change needed for me was renaming as x-Boot and x-EFI in NTFS partition 

EDIT: Now both UEFI Grub2 of a1ive and UEFI Grub4dos of yaya2007 are working OK for me in booting Mini 10x64 in MBR VHD from RAMDISK using signed SVBus driver 

==

Hi iuzhaoyzz,

Thanks for your help. I decided to reinstall the operating system hosted by the vhd and now booting as filedisk is OK. It looks like that the memory allocated by Vmware is not continous so booting to RAM is not possible now. The memory usage of Vmware reached to 88% so the case is understandable. The virtual hard drive is a GPT system.

Hi alacran,

Thanks for the info. As always, you are doing a very good job. Also, thanks to a1ive for the latest release of UEFI grub4dos, again very nice job.

Hi iuzhaoyzz,

 

Thanks for your help. I decided to reinstall the operating system hosted by the vhd and now booting as filedisk is OK. It looks like that the memory allocated by Vmware is not continous so booting to RAM is not possible now. The memory usage of Vmware reached to 88% so the case is understandable. The virtual hard drive is a GPT system.

 

Hi alacran,

 

Thanks for the info. As always, you are doing a very good job. Also, thanks to a1ive for the latest release of UEFI grub4dos, again very nice job.

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

So conclusion must be use VHD MBR(active 100MB FAT32 + rest NTFS) which is booting OK in UEFI Grub4dos and also in UEFI Grub2

Such GPT VHD with internal EFI or normal FAT32 partition is bootable from RAMDISK using UEFI Grub2 from a1ive    So UEFI Grub2 is doing better  

GPT with Normal FAT32 requires Boot folder + bootmgr

GPT is less compatible - use MBR VHD instead

Hi wimb,

So conclusion must be use VHD MBR(active 100MB FAT32 + rest NTFS) which is booting OK in UEFI Grub4dos 

 

That case does not work for me. The system boots the "real" operating system and not the VHD. I am forced to prefer the GPT disk for the moment. Test targeting boot as filedisk.

I took care of the BCD creation to impose both of the BIOS and UEFI firmwares.

bcdboot E:\Windows /s D: /f ALL

My test operating systems are full Windows 10 installations.

My latest test : a1ive's grub2-filemanager can boot the same VHD MBR(active 100MB FAT32 + rest NTFS)

1、You need an actived FAT32 partition+NTFS partition in VHD.

2、bcdboot %windisk%:\windows /s %bootdisk%: /l zh-CN /f ALL

%windisk%=NTFS partition in vhd

%bootdisk%=FAT32 Partition in vhd

3、The most important thing，delete the folder (the second NTFS partition)\EFI and \BOOT directory,or rename it.

Otherwise G4E will report boot_image_handle not found.

4、modify the (FAT32/ESP of VHD) \ EFI \ Microsoft \ boot \ BCD

5、modify the (main hard disk fat32/esp) \ EFI \ Microsoft \ boot \ BCD

 

You may have a look at this thread.

http://wuyou.net/for...tra=#pid4192803

 

liuzhaoyzz,from china

Thanks very much liuzhaoyzz, that info is very valuable, it is the key of a successful boot.

In fact not having the EFI file is enough, the Boot folder is currently present on all my VHDs, and they are booting fine, but as it is not used anymore, of course it's better to not have it present on NTFS partition as liuzhaoyzz said.

This makes clear to me why I didn't have this issue, as I used same WIM file captured from MBR Rambooting and it was created on a MBR environment, on first install with WinNTSetup I usually was only selecting to create MBR booting files and BCD entry, latter when creating booting entries on the PC BCD and into the VHD with wimb program and it detected there was not a FAT-32 partition to boot, the EFI file was never created on NTFS, but I never thought that was the key for a successful boot.

From: http://reboot.pro/to...e-7#entry217327

 

Use map --mem --top insterd of map --mem to map vhd into the High Memory Area(>4GB).So your vhd must less than 8-4=4GB.

If you take a look to my last tests report, in my case I can boot the 2.3 GB VHD with or without the --top parameter, once --top was vailable I started using it always, but started testing without it for a request from yaya on a previous test, in this case the VHD is small enough and MBR boots on a 4 GB RAM PC, then we can summarize it this way, as:

1. mam --mem --top   >>>  locates the VHD on upper Ram above 4 GB  >>> if available
2. map --mem  >>>  locates the VHD on Ram below 4 GB  >>> it's the only option when having only 4 GB of Ram

Of course the recommended is No.1, but on machines with 4 GB of Ram the No.2 is the remaining option that may or may not work depending of several factors as:

• The VHD size (try to keep it not bigger than 2.3 GB)  >>>  a 1.6 GB Wimboot VHD is a very good size in my experience.
• Ram shared with ghraphics and other devices.  >>>  in case of troubles you may reduce shared Ram on the firmware/Bios
• Remaining contiguos Ram available  >>>  this is directly controled by the previous 2 factors.

@ wimb & Vortex

I'm very glad to know UEFI Ramboot is also working for you. Congratulations!!!

I'm aware in case of Vortex the GPT partition works better for him, I assume it is related to the firmware (VM or PC), which may be more restrictive or improperly made as AFAIK in UEFI specs there is no restriction to use only GPT partitions so far.

alacran

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

 

So conclusion must be use VHD MBR(active 100MB FAT32 + rest NTFS) which is booting OK in UEFI Grub4dos and also in UEFI Grub2

 

Such GPT VHD with internal EFI partition is bootable from RAMDISK using UEFI Grub2 from a1ive    So UEFI Grub2 is doing better  

 

GPT is less compatible - use MBR VHD instead

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

 

@ wimb & Vortex

 

I'm very glad to know UEFI Ramboot is also working for you. Congratulations!!!

 

 

I  think UEFI Ramboot is Not yet working for  Vortex ......

Yes it is very nice that we have now UEFI Grub4dos and UEFI Grub2 working OK for booting MBR VHD from RAMDISK

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.

 

I don't have problem ghost virtual drives (floppies, CDs and VHDs)

In case of UEFI Grub4dos you can try

find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /folder/filename

In case of UEFI Grub2 you can try:

search --file --set=vhd_drive --no-floppy /folder/filename
map --mem --rt ($vhd_drive)/folder/filename

Hi wimb,

I  think UEFI Ramboot is Not yet working for  Vortex ......

 

You are right. I had only success during one of my previous tests. The situation is now tough. I decided to restart again. Wiped out the content of the vhd, created the two partitions FAT32 and NTFS, recovered the OS with wimlib and finally completed the bcdboot operation. The vhd is yet GPT.  grub4dos for UEFI refused again to boot the VHD as filedisk and instead it loaded the main operating system. 

Returning back to the grub4dos shell, I mapped the vhd as filedisk and chainloaded a1ive's grub2.  This boot loader booted successfully the VHD as it was already mapped by grub4dos. ( image : g4d1.png and g2a.png )

I did some simple debugging tests with grub4dos for UEFI. ( g4d-debug.png and g4d-debug2.png )  The problem is that grub4dos UEFI cannot chainload /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

What should I do after restoring the content of the vhd and maintaining the FAT32 partition with bcdboot ?

 

I don't have problem ghost virtual drives (floppies, CDs and VHDs)

 

In case of UEFI Grub4dos you can try

find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /folder/filename

In case of UEFI Grub2 you can try:

search --file --set=vhd_drive --no-floppy /folder/filename
map --mem --rt ($vhd_drive)/folder/filename

find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /folder/filename, it is very used on MBR version, and I was aware of it, but I had the idea this was not available or valid anymore on UEFI version, (now I know I was wrong), lliuzhaoyzz also suggested same line to Vortex on this post.

About the equivalent on grub2, I wasn't aware of it, thanks for the hint, my knowledge of grub2 commands is only empiric, the few I know has being by reading carefully some grub.cfg

Can you recommend me an updated and good info to read and learn about the available commands on grub2 and its use?

alacran

In UEFI_MULTI and USB_FORMAT there is folder Help_Info with file GNU GRUB Manual 2.02.html

Grub Manual 2.04 PDF  and Grub Manual 2.04 html  and  a1ive Grub2 Notes  and   Grub2 Manual by a1ive

@ 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

Hi alacran,

Can you recommend me an updated and good info to read and learn about the available commands on grub2 and its use?

 

An article about installing Grub2 on USB and HDD from Windows :

https://www.aioboot....2-from-windows/

Hello,

What should I do after restoring the content of the vhd and maintaining the FAT32 partition with bcdboot ?

 

I tried chainloader (hd-1,0) instead of hainloader (hd-1) and this was successfull to boot the VHD. Disk partitioning layout : GPT

Hello,

 

I tested a1ive's new grubx64.efi on a Vmware system. Using grubx64.efi and SVBus, I was able boot a complete Windows 10 64-bit to RAM ( 24 Gb RAM, 18 Gb .vhd file ) My GPT vhd drive has two partitions, a small FAT32 partition ( EFI ) and the second one is an NTFS volume hosting the operating system.

 

The purpose of my second test was to boot the same Vhd as filedisk but I received the error message INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE on a blue screen.  Attached are the screenshots. I also tested the option map (hd0,gpt3)/Win10.vhd. Same result.

 

Many thanks to a1ive for his hard work.

Try the lastst version of grub2:https://github.com/a...ases/tag/latest

I test OK on real PC,not VMware.

Hi iuzhaoyzz,

 

Thanks for your help. I decided to reinstall the operating system hosted by the vhd and now booting as filedisk is OK. It looks like that the memory allocated by Vmware is not continous so booting to RAM is not possible now. The memory usage of Vmware reached to 88% so the case is understandable. The virtual hard drive is a GPT system.

 

Hi alacran,

 

Thanks for the info. As always, you are doing a very good job. Also, thanks to a1ive for the latest release of UEFI grub4dos, again very nice job.

It is very strange.

24 Gb RAM, 18 Gb .vhd file???

Your PC has 25-4=21GB continuous free memory,g4e map --mem --top win10.vhd report out of memory?

How much is win10.vhd at all?

win10.vhd must be less then 21GB

Edited by liuzhaoyzz, 14 December 2020 - 11:26 AM.

find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /folder/filename, it is very used on MBR version, and I was aware of it, but I had the idea this was not available or valid anymore on UEFI version, (now I know I was wrong), lliuzhaoyzz also suggested same line to Vortex on this post.

 

About the equivalent on grub2, I wasn't aware of it, thanks for the hint, my knowledge of grub2 commands is only empiric, the few I know has being by reading carefully some grub.cfg

 

Can you recommend me an updated and good info to read and learn about the available commands on grub2 and its use?

 

alacran

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

Edited by liuzhaoyzz, 14 December 2020 - 11:37 AM.