Salix 14.1 64 booting from a UEFI system

[khash777]

It's the first time I'm dealing with a UEFI installation and it does't boot. The installation from the live cd is fine, I created a ef00 partition and elilo and so, however at restart it'll go to the "bios" again (not sure if it's still called BIOS), without any options to select anything. I assume elilo has not taken over the boot stuff yet?.
This is on a Asus X550C which came with Windows 8 pre installed, and the windows boot option is still visible in bios. Can someone please guide me to how to boot the Salix os thanks.

[mimosa]

Which live CD are you using? You may do better to install from the Install CD; at least, that could be worth trying.

[khash777]

Sorry forgot to provide these details: I'm installing it from "Salix64 Xfce 14.1 DVD ISO (x86_64, 64-bit)" which as stated on the download page is not a live image. I can't see any links to install CDs there?

[mimosa]

That *is* the install CD (you said "live" in your first post). I'm afraid I can't really help troubleshoot this, but you should get an answer from someone who can.

[laprjns]

I'm installing it from "Salix64 Xfce 14.1 DVD ISO (x86_64, 64-bit)" which as stated on the download page is not a live image.

So to be clear, you download Salix64 Xfce 14.1 and burned the image to a DVD. Is this correct? When you booted the installation DVD did it boot in EFI mode or legacy bios mode? If it booted in EFI mode, then at the end of the installation it should have asked if you wanted to install elilo. If you said yes to this, then everything would have been setup for you and you would not have has to create an EFI System partition (what you called ef00)and elilo would have been setup without any manually interaction as it appears you may have done

Assuming that elilo was setup properly, then there should be a Salix boot option in the EFI boot menu. In order to get to the EFI boot menu you have to press a key at power up. For your Asus laptop its most likely the ESC key, but this is different from system to system. Once the EFI boot menu comes up it should have an option to boot Window 8 and other removable media that is detected. If the Salix installation was properly registered with the EFI boot menu, then there should be an option to boot Salix also.

[khash777]

laprjns: thanks for your replay and sorry about the confusion, yes I downloaded and burned the image to a DVD as you say, however I'm not sure if it booted in EFI or legacy bios mode. It did ask me at the end of installation to install elilo, which I did. The only reason I created the EFI system was that I tried to reinstall it and thought maybe that was the problem, the lack of the ef00 partition, which it wasn't.
I did now manage to get to the EFI boot menue as you described by pressing the ESC key, and choose the Salix installation in there, however all it does is to go the bios setup again, like if there is nothing there to boot to or so. as I'm getting closer now, what would be the next thing to try out?

[laprjns]

laprjns: thanks for your replay and sorry about the confusion, yes I downloaded and burned the image to a DVD as you say, however I'm not sure if it booted in EFI or legacy bios mode. It did ask me at the end of installation to install elilo, which I did. The only reason I created the EFI system was that I tried to reinstall it and thought maybe that was the problem, the lack of the ef00 partition, which it wasn't.

So it did boot in EFI mode on your first attempted and most likely install elilo properly. I sure that you would have been able to boot into Salix had you know that you needed to press the ESC key to get the EFI boot menu. It not clear to me waht you did on your second attempt to install Salix, but it did appear to break Salix boot manger link that was set yp in the RFI boot menu.

I'm getting closer now, what would be the next thing to try out?

The first thing to check is to see if Win 8 still boots from the EFI boot menu. If it does, then the easiest thing to do is to install Salix again, letting the installer setup elilo for you. Once you do this, on the first reboot make sure that you press the ESC key and then select Salix to boot. It highly probable that the non-working Salix menu entry will still bet there. Just go through all the menu entries and confirm that they the boot the appropriate OS. Any boot menu entries can be deleted, but we can cover this after you confirm that you can boot Salix from the EFI boot menu.

[gapan]

You mention that you created an ef00 partition yourself. If windows is already installed in that system, one such partition should already have been there. So, I'm guessing you might have actually created a second ef00 partition that wasn't really needed and elilo was actually put there, instead of the first one.

[khash777]

I removed all boot entries in bios and reinstall salix with elilo, so at EFI boot menu (pressing Esc) there is only the Salix boot option to select, but choosing that still takes me back to the bios, like if it's empty?
Later I'll use SystemRescueCD to remove all partitions and any trace of windows or any other disturbing EFI partition and try to install it again.

[gapan]

If you removed windows, then if there's an option in the bios to disable efi booting (it might be called something like "legacy mode") then that would probably be your best bet.