Bug 17926

Summary:	/boot/EFI option not available
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Wayne Sallee <Wayne>
Component:	Installer	Assignee:	Thierry Vignaud <thierry.vignaud>
Status:	RESOLVED WONTFIX	QA Contact:
Severity:	major
Priority:	Normal	CC:	Wayne, lebarhon, marja11, nic, yvesbrungard
Version:	Cauldron
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:	(MGA5)
Source RPM:		CVE:
Status comment:
Attachments:	partitioning step in Cauldron EFI

Description Wayne Sallee 2016-03-09 19:34:22 CET

If I install inside Virtualbox, it works as expected.

If I use dd to write the CD to a USB device, and then try to install to another USB drive When creating a EFI partition it does not give me the mount option /boot/EFI.  

This is probably because it sees the other drive that has /boot/EFI already there.

I'm guessing that this is the reason. 

So unless a person knows to type "/boot/EFI" manually, that person will never get it installed because the option is missing.

So that option needs to be available even if it sees the "/boot/EFI" somewhere else.

Otherwise many people that use a USB instead of a CD will have a hard time installing on a EFI computer

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

Wayne Sallee 2016-03-09 19:34:56 CET

CC: (none) => Wayne

Comment 1 Wayne Sallee 2016-03-09 19:58:57 CET

The finished installation failed to boot. It dropped to shell because of a "Failed to mount" error.

This could be related to the install problem.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

Comment 2 Wayne Sallee 2016-03-09 20:15:57 CET

The boot problem may or may not be related, but I found that bug here:
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17796

Comment 3 Marja Van Waes 2016-03-10 22:40:17 CET


IIRC during Mageia 5 testing, when nothing had /boot/EFI as mountpoint, it was indeed impossible to select /boot/EFI/ from the list.

However, I don't manage to find the bug report... did we forget to file it, or am I just blind?

(And what is it like now, for EFI-installs in cauldron?)

CC: (none) => lebarhon, marja11, nic, yves.brungard_mageia

Comment 4 André DESMOTTES 2016-03-11 09:36:48 CET

Only find these bugs about /boot/EFI
bug16246 and bug16592

Comment 5 Marja Van Waes 2016-03-12 20:45:47 CET

(In reply to Wayne Sallee from comment #0)
  
> 
> This is probably because it sees the other drive that has /boot/EFI already
> there.
> 

I assumed you unmounted it, but rereading it it really looks as if you kept that mountpoint for the existing ESP.

If so: you can never use the same mountpoint on the same system and at the same time for two different partitions and our installer will only suggest /boot/EFI if it does not already exist.

However, I'm pretty sure in Mageia 5 unmounting the existing /boot/EFI did not result in showing /boot/EFI in the list.

It would be nice if someone could test what it's like in cauldron, so that it can at least be fixed there _if_ the issue still exists. If so, then please assign to Thierry

Changing version to cauldron, because installer bugs cannot be fixed in already released stable versions of Mageia.

Putting (MGA5) on the whiteboard, to indicate this bug was last seen in Mageia 5

Version: 5 => Cauldron
Whiteboard: (none) => (MGA5)

Comment 6 Marja Van Waes 2016-04-01 23:03:10 CEST

Well, no one with an EFI system seems to have found time to check in cauldron.

However, Thierry will know whether /boot/EFI should be in the dropdown list of mountpoints in diskdrake in installer, if the mountpoint does not yet exist.

Assignee: bugsquad => thierry.vignaud

Comment 7 André DESMOTTES 2016-04-02 11:39:20 CEST

Created attachment 7617 [details]
partitioning step in Cauldron EFI

On real EFI hardware with an existing ESP partition, cauldron behaves as expected. 
As first system installed in a EFI virtual box, the partitioning step doesn't display the partitions

Comment 8 Wayne Sallee 2016-04-02 19:07:59 CEST

I tested Mageia-6-dev1-x86_64-DVD.iso inside virtualbox.
I placed 2 virtual drives in. One blank, and one with an eif partition.

I tried to install on blank drive, but because the other drive has a EIF partition, the option of creating a /boot/EFI mount point on the new drive is not available. It can of course be manually typed in.

So I understand that this is a feature, not a bug?

What happens if both drives have /boot/EFI mount point?

My original purpose was installing it on a memory stick for multiple computer use.

This EFI stuff is a pain. I like the old BIOSes better. :-)
But this new type is here to stay,,, got to get used to it. :-)

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

Comment 9 papoteur 2016-04-02 22:18:05 CEST

Hello,
The problem you refer to is not related to UEFI, but to understanding the mounting in Linux.
Drives have partitions, and you decide with which name (mountpoint) to access them. Each name has to be unique.
When the installer starts, it detect the ESP (Efi partition) no HDD and give it the mountpoint /boot/EFI. This is the standard that people want, and we don't want that the system will not be bootable because the user forgotten to set /boot/EFI.

What you want is very specific and you know what you have to do:
1. Delete the already affected /boot/EFI mountpoint to the partition you won't use.
2. Specify the mount point /boot/EFI to the ESP on the removable device.
After the first step, /boot/EFI should be available in the list (didn't check).
OK?

Comment 10 Thierry Vignaud 2016-06-17 11:50:48 CEST

So closing as "not a bug"?

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => WONTFIX

Comment 11 Wayne Sallee 2016-06-17 14:05:10 CEST

It probably should close as "not a bug".

I gave up on the EFI mess, and just installed Mageia on the memory stick with the bios in non-EFI mode, then when booting it on any computer, I just tell the EFI bios to boot in the old standard tried and proven mode.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com