Questions before installing Salix

[gapan]

Is it a Lenovo laptop? Sounds like a buggy EFI implementation. Try this after booting with the installation CD and exiting the installer:

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mkdir /efi
mount /dev/sda1 /efi
cd /efi/EFI
cp -r Salix-Xfce-14.2 boot
cd boot
mv elilo.efi bootx64.efi

that assumes that the boot directory is not already there. If it is already there copy the contents of the salix directory in the boot directory instead

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cp Salix-Xfce-14.2/* boot/

The reason for that is I know some laptops, especially some Lenovo ones, require that they always boot from a boot/bootx64.efi firmware, regardless what the actual EFI settings say. If you still have the bootx64.efi provided by Windows in there, it's probably trying to boot a windows installation that does not even exist anymore.

[Themis]

I’ll first try what you’ve suggested, gapan, and later do what mimosa said.

Yes, this is a Lenovo ThinkPad T420, apparently 2520M (between 2011 and 2013, I guess; it’s a refurb one).

So it seems that there is no /efi/EFI directory. Here is what I have:

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root@salix64:/# mkdir /efi
root@salix64:/# mount /dev/sda1 /efi
root@salix64:/# cd /efi/EFI
sh: cd: /efi/EFI: No such file or directory
root@salix64:/# ls
bin/     dev/   floppy/   lib64/        nfs@    run/       sys/   usr/
boot@    efi/   init@     lost+found/   proc/   sbin/      tag/   var/
cdrom@   etc/   lib/      mnt/          root/   scripts/   tmp/
root@salix64:/# cd efi/
root@salix64:/efi# ls
Boot/   bootmgr   BOOTSECT.BAK   System\   Volume\   Information/

Is the Boot/ folder actually equivalent to the EFI you mentioned?

Sorry for this thread. I thought that it would have been easier to install and use. Installation was OK, but my laptop seems to be unwilling to let me use a Linux distro. Never mind, I’ll end up using Salix one way or another.

[gapan]

What's inside the Boot directory?

[Themis]

Apparently this…

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root@salix64:/efi/Boot# ls
BCD           cs-CZ/   es-ES/   it-IT/        nl-NL/   sv-SE/
BCD.LOG       da-DK/   fi-FI/   ja-JP/        pl-PL/   tr-TR/
BCD.LOG1      de-DE/   Fonts/   ko-KR/        pt-BR/   zh-CN/
BCD.LOG2      el-GR/   fr-FR/   memtest.exe   pt-PT/   zh-HK/
BOOTSTAT.DAT  en-US/   hu-HU/   nb-NO/        ru-RU/   zh-TW/

[DidierSpaier]

Looks like the files from Windows remain in /efi. This is because there was already a FAT32 filesystem so the installer didn't ask you if you wanted to format it.

But as all that stuff can interfere with Salix installation I would just do a rm -r /efi/* then follow previous instructions from gapan.

EDIT Anyway, it's easier to just install in legacy mode if you have issues with this machine's firmware (I have a Lenovo W520 refurbished and I ended up installing Slint in Legacy mode).

Not to have to reinstall you can just start again the installer, then when you see the Salix Installation dialog choose Exit installation then type:

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mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mount --bind /dev  /mnt/dev
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /sys  /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt
liloconfig

Before or after that, set you firmware to boot in Legacy mode.
Then, reboot.

[Themis]

Thanks, Didier.
There are two things I don’t understand very well.
(1) About an hypothetical FAT32 filesystem, wasn’t that supposed to be deleted when I erased every partition on the disk? I should definitely read about HDD/SSD and all that, since I’m don’t know much about this.
(2) I understand the FAT32 thing. I mean I understand why it would ignore the /efi/EFI folder, but what I don’t understand is why it simply ignores the mkdir command for the /EFI subfolder. Ignoring its existence would be a thing, but ignoring the command to create it… I don’t get this part.

[DidierSpaier]

You are welcome, Themis.

(1) You didn't actually erase the partition, rather modified the partition table located elsewhere in the SSD. This left the partition itself intact, just its associated metadata (mostly where it begins and where its ends physically on the SSD) where deleted. Cf. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table where you see that even in a GPT layout you still have a protective MBR. That's what allows you to install lilo in the MBR even if you have a GUID partition table.

(2) In this post I see a mkdir /efi command, not mkdir -p /efi/EFI .Did you actually issue a command to create the /efi/EFI folder?

Pour en savoir plus et pour les longues soirées d'hiver, voir le chapitre 5 GUID Partition Table (GPT) Disk Layout (page numérotée 115, physiquement page 183) de la spécification UEFI 2.7 errata A

[mimosa]

For the benefit of others who may be reading in future, for a Salix-only machine, "legacy" boot does the job; but those wishing to dual-boot with Windows probably need to boot both OSs with UEFI. I say "probably", because it has been many years since I have done this

The two unusual features here are:

1) the BIOS requires the .efi file to have a particular name (one can only shake one's head in disbelief)

2) some stuff that was meant to be deleted got left behind. Without getting into how exactly that happened in this case ... choosing to format partitions created or reused during installation should normally be enough (even quick format) - unless of course the intention is to retain the data, such as another OS. If dual booting with Windows, the idea is to create a new bootloader that will do that, not to retain the existing one and "add" Salix to it. So the EFI partition should be formatted, unless of course another Linux installation is responsible for managing it.

[DidierSpaier]

1) the BIOS requires the .efi file to have a particular name (one can only shake one's head in disbelief)

That's probably because of an incomplete implementation of the UEFI specification, as this particular name, as shown in the table 14 page 91, is intended in case of booting via the Simple File Protocol, at least when booting from a removable media.

That's also why a system's installer should always have an "EFI" partition with a FAT file system in which is stored a PE32+ image (aka an EFI image) named this way.

[Themis]

Thanks.

What I did was erasing all the data (so I got one big partition with free space), then creating my different partitions that I then used to install Salix (which seems to be properly installed, now; the only problem is that I can’t boot on it…). I never planned to keep a dual boot, nor to keep data that didn’t even existed. I bought the laptop last week, it came with a clean (I suppose) Windows 7 Pro installation, that I just wanted to remove entirely to put a Linux distro.

I thought that maybe I should switch back to MBR. I’ve read that it is possible with gdisk, but I’ve also read that if an MBR → GPT conversion is no big deal, GPT → MBR might be kind of “dangerous”, but I couldn’t figure out why. So right now, I don’t really know what is the best solution…
First trying what Didier said? (“(2) In this post I see a mkdir /efi command, not mkdir -p /efi/EFI .Did you actually issue a command to create the /efi/EFI folder?”)
Going back to MBR and install Salix with Legacy boot?

Pour en savoir plus et pour les longues soirées d'hiver, voir le chapitre 5 GUID Partition Table (GPT) Disk Layout (page numérotée 115, physiquement page 183) de la spécification UEFI 2.7 errata A

Wow. De la bonne grosse doc, en effet. J’irai lire ça attentivement, en espérant comprendre suffisamment de choses. Merci.