[gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[German]

Hi people. I am about to try today an EFI gentoo install with sysrecuecd. It is all more or less clear to me in the install docs, however I am not sure how to gather info about my hardware, which modules should be compiled when installing kernel manually. Is there a way to gather this info? What command should be issued to accomplish that? Also, I am sort of reluctant to compile kernel manually. Is this possible to use genkernel to install system in EFI mode or I must to use manual compilation? Thank you for your advice and suggestions.

-- 
German <gentgerman@gmail.com>

Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Dale]

German wrote:
> Hi people. I am about to try today an EFI gentoo install with sysrecuecd. It is all more or less clear to me in the install docs, however I am not sure how to gather info about my hardware, which modules should be compiled when installing kernel manually. Is there a way to gather this info? What command should be issued to accomplish that? Also, I am sort of reluctant to compile kernel manually. Is this possible to use genkernel to install system in EFI mode or I must to use manual compilation? Thank you for your advice and suggestions.
>

I have no experience with EFI, yet.  I think this will help with one
part of your post tho.  You can use lsmod while booted with sysrescue
and get a list of what modules are being used.  I've done that before. 
It helps. 

Another command that can help and may be better. lspci -k.  That should
look like this snippet:

01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 HDMI Audio Controller
(rev a1)
        Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 069a
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
02:00.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. Device 3483 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device 5007
        Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
        Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Motherboard
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
04:06.0 Ethernet controller: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. Ethernet 100/10
MBit (rev 31)
        Subsystem: ARCHTEK TELECOM Corp Device 0008
        Kernel driver in use: dmfe

What you are really looking for is the "Kernel driver in use:" part.  If
you are making your own kernel, you use that info to find the module to
enable, either built in or as a module.  I sometimes cheat and use this
command:

lspci -k | grep Kernel

Make sure that K is upper case OR add the -i option to grep.  That
command only lists the part I am really interested in and the driver
name sometimes tells what it is for anyway.  Plus, it's generally best
to enable the hardware you got. 

Maybe someone else can come along and shine some light on the rest. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[German]

On Thu, 26 Feb 2015 21:33:34 -0600
Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:

> German wrote:
> > Hi people. I am about to try today an EFI gentoo install with sysrecuecd. It is all more or less clear to me in the install docs, however I am not sure how to gather info about my hardware, which modules should be compiled when installing kernel manually. Is there a way to gather this info? What command should be issued to accomplish that? Also, I am sort of reluctant to compile kernel manually. Is this possible to use genkernel to install system in EFI mode or I must to use manual compilation? Thank you for your advice and suggestions.
> >
> 
> I have no experience with EFI, yet.  I think this will help with one
> part of your post tho.  You can use lsmod while booted with sysrescue
> and get a list of what modules are being used.  I've done that before. 
> It helps. 
> 
> Another command that can help and may be better. lspci -k.  That should
> look like this snippet:
> 
> 01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 HDMI Audio Controller
> (rev a1)
>         Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 069a
>         Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
> 02:00.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. Device 3483 (rev 01)
>         Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device 5007
>         Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
> 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
> RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
>         Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Motherboard
>         Kernel driver in use: r8169
> 04:06.0 Ethernet controller: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. Ethernet 100/10
> MBit (rev 31)
>         Subsystem: ARCHTEK TELECOM Corp Device 0008
>         Kernel driver in use: dmfe
> 
> What you are really looking for is the "Kernel driver in use:" part.  If
> you are making your own kernel, you use that info to find the module to
> enable, either built in or as a module.  I sometimes cheat and use this
> command:
> 
> lspci -k | grep Kernel
> 
> Make sure that K is upper case OR add the -i option to grep.  That
> command only lists the part I am really interested in and the driver
> name sometimes tells what it is for anyway.  Plus, it's generally best
> to enable the hardware you got. 
> 
> Maybe someone else can come along and shine some light on the rest. 
> 
> Dale
> 
> :-)  :-) 
> 
> 

Thanks Dale, this was helpful

-- 
German <gentgerman@gmail.com>

Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Matti Nykyri]

> On Feb 27, 2015, at 5:02, German <gentgerman@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi people. I am about to try today an EFI gentoo install with sysrecuecd. It is all more or less clear to me in the install docs, however I am not sure how to gather info about my hardware, which modules should be compiled when installing kernel manually. Is there a way to gather this info? What command should be issued to accomplish that? Also, I am sort of reluctant to compile kernel manually. Is this possible to use genkernel to install system in EFI mode or I must to use manual compilation? Thank you for your advice and suggestions.

Just did my first EFI install this week... So not a virgin anymore ;) I had an old system so I attached the new drive to that for partitioning and install.

You use gpt with uefi. You need to reserve one partition for UEFI. Set the type to EF00 and boot flag enabled (parted or gdisk can do this). Format to fat32.

Make a partition for gentoo and format it. Untar stage3 and portage snapshot to it (snapshot is faster than rsync). Chroot. Emerge portage and grub. I copied kernel from my old system to /boot. If you don't have this build a new one. Run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg (mkdir if it doesn't exists. (http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2)

Install grub:
grub2-install --target=x86_64-uefi /to/your/partition

Then copy /boot/efi/EFI/gentoo/grubx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI

Many asus mb's have bug in efi and require BOOTX64.EFI to be lower case = bootx64.efi so rename it as necessary. My mb had that bug and a rename was needed even though fat should be case insensitive.

After this you can boot your new system and continue with the install :)

Further reading:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFIBooting

-- 
-Matti

Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Matti Nykyri]

> On Feb 27, 2015, at 5:57, Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:
> 
> Make a partition for gentoo and format it. Untar stage3 and portage snapshot to it (snapshot is faster than rsync). Chroot. Emerge portage and grub. I copied kernel from my old system to /boot. If you don't have this build a new one. Run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg (mkdir if it doesn't exists. (http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2)

Manually modify grub.cfg so that the root drive will match the setup of the new system. (Something like this /dev/sdb2 -> /dev/sda2 and hd1,2 -> hd0,2)

> 
> Many asus mb's have bug in efi and require BOOTX64.EFI to be lower case = bootx64.efi so rename it as necessary. My mb had that bug and a rename was needed even though fat should be case insensitive.

Also disable secure boot. It's only for windows...

-- 
-Matti

Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Mick]

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On Friday 27 Feb 2015 06:09:25 Matti Nykyri wrote:
> > On Feb 27, 2015, at 5:57, Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:
> > 
> > Make a partition for gentoo and format it. Untar stage3 and portage
> > snapshot to it (snapshot is faster than rsync). Chroot. Emerge portage
> > and grub. I copied kernel from my old system to /boot. If you don't have
> > this build a new one. Run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg (mkdir
> > if it doesn't exists. (http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2)
> 
> Manually modify grub.cfg so that the root drive will match the setup of the
> new system. (Something like this /dev/sdb2 -> /dev/sda2 and hd1,2 ->
> hd0,2)
> 
> > Many asus mb's have bug in efi and require BOOTX64.EFI to be lower case =
> > bootx64.efi so rename it as necessary. My mb had that bug and a rename
> > was needed even though fat should be case insensitive.
> 
> Also disable secure boot. It's only for windows...

Not only, you can use it with Linux too, but you will have to start creating 
X509 certs (or use RHL's? ) and signing your kernel images.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Alec Ten Harmsel]

On 02/27/2015 01:09 AM, Matti Nykyri wrote:
>> On Feb 27, 2015, at 5:57, Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:
>>
>> Make a partition for gentoo and format it. Untar stage3 and portage snapshot to it (snapshot is faster than rsync). Chroot. Emerge portage and grub. I copied kernel from my old system to /boot. If you don't have this build a new one. Run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg (mkdir if it doesn't exists. (http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2)
> Manually modify grub.cfg so that the root drive will match the setup of the new system. (Something like this /dev/sdb2 -> /dev/sda2 and hd1,2 -> hd0,2)


If you're using grub2, you should not be manually editing grub.cfg, just
/etc/default/grub and running grub2-mkconfig. The computer I'm on right
now boots with EFI, and I've never had to manually touch grub.cfg.

Alec

Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Matti Nykyri]

> On Feb 27, 2015, at 12:23, Alec Ten Harmsel <alec@alectenharmsel.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> On 02/27/2015 01:09 AM, Matti Nykyri wrote:
>>> On Feb 27, 2015, at 5:57, Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Make a partition for gentoo and format it. Untar stage3 and portage snapshot to it (snapshot is faster than rsync). Chroot. Emerge portage and grub. I copied kernel from my old system to /boot. If you don't have this build a new one. Run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg (mkdir if it doesn't exists. (http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2)
>> Manually modify grub.cfg so that the root drive will match the setup of the new system. (Something like this /dev/sdb2 -> /dev/sda2 and hd1,2 -> hd0,2)
> 
> If you're using grub2, you should not be manually editing grub.cfg, just
> /etc/default/grub and running grub2-mkconfig. The computer I'm on right
> now boots with EFI, and I've never had to manually touch grub.cfg.

I don't usually use any LiveCD. I just prepare the HDD of the new system in an old box. The old system had no efi and different hard drive setup.

In that scenario it is necessary to manually intervene. Grub can not guess correctly...

-- 
-Matti

Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[German]

On Fri, 27 Feb 2015 06:57:28 +0200
Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:

> > On Feb 27, 2015, at 5:02, German <gentgerman@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > Hi people. I am about to try today an EFI gentoo install with sysrecuecd. It is all more or less clear to me in the install docs, however I am not sure how to gather info about my hardware, which modules should be compiled when installing kernel manually. Is there a way to gather this info? What command should be issued to accomplish that? Also, I am sort of reluctant to compile kernel manually. Is this possible to use genkernel to install system in EFI mode or I must to use manual compilation? Thank you for your advice and suggestions.
> 
> Just did my first EFI install this week... So not a virgin anymore ;) I had an old system so I attached the new drive to that for partitioning and install.
> 
> You use gpt with uefi. You need to reserve one partition for UEFI. Set the type to EF00 and boot flag enabled (parted or gdisk can do this). Format to fat32.
> 
> Make a partition for gentoo and format it. Untar stage3 and portage snapshot to it (snapshot is faster than rsync). Chroot. Emerge portage and grub. I copied kernel from my old system to /boot. If you don't have this build a new one. Run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg (mkdir if it doesn't exists. (http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2)
> 
> Install grub:
> grub2-install --target=x86_64-uefi /to/your/partition

Are you sure that grub is needed for EFI system? I doubt it. I used efibootmgr as per gentoo handbook. And it was also said that it is possible to boot EFI system without anything at all ( e.g. grub, efibootmgr)

> 
> Then copy /boot/efi/EFI/gentoo/grubx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
> 
> Many asus mb's have bug in efi and require BOOTX64.EFI to be lower case = bootx64.efi so rename it as necessary. My mb had that bug and a rename was needed even though fat should be case insensitive.
> 
> After this you can boot your new system and continue with the install :)
> 
> Further reading:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFIBooting
> 
> -- 
> -Matti


-- 
German <gentgerman@gmail.com>

Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Fri, 27 Feb 2015 06:42:45 -0500, German wrote:

> > Install grub:
> > grub2-install --target=x86_64-uefi /to/your/partition  
> 
> Are you sure that grub is needed for EFI system? I doubt it. I used
> efibootmgr as per gentoo handbook. And it was also said that it is
> possible to boot EFI system without anything at all ( e.g. grub,
> efibootmgr)

No, GRUB is not needed. However, using some sort of boot manager makes
life easier and a number of us here are happy with Gummiboot.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Why do programmers get Halloween and Christmas confused?
Because oct 31 is the same as dec 25.

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Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Mick]

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On Friday 27 Feb 2015 12:08:33 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Feb 2015 06:42:45 -0500, German wrote:
> > > Install grub:
> > > grub2-install --target=x86_64-uefi /to/your/partition
> > 
> > Are you sure that grub is needed for EFI system? I doubt it. I used
> > efibootmgr as per gentoo handbook. And it was also said that it is
> > possible to boot EFI system without anything at all ( e.g. grub,
> > efibootmgr)
> 
> No, GRUB is not needed. However, using some sort of boot manager makes
> life easier and a number of us here are happy with Gummiboot.

Yes, as Neil says, GRUB, Gummiboot, rEFInd and friends offer flexibility in 
what you boot with and are particularly helpful - if not the only solution - 
if you want to boot a LiveCD iso image from your hard disk.

On the other hand, if you have a DVD drive on the machine and you don't 
multiboot continuously, then you can use the EFI stub kernel to boot very very 
fast.  :-)

http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub_kernel

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] About to attempt EFI install, which modules to compile?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Thu, 26 Feb 2015 22:02:36 -0500, German wrote:

> Hi people. I am about to try today an EFI gentoo install with
> sysrecuecd. It is all more or less clear to me in the install docs,
> however I am not sure how to gather info about my hardware, which
> modules should be compiled when installing kernel manually. Is there a
> way to gather this info? What command should be issued to accomplish
> that? Also, I am sort of reluctant to compile kernel manually. Is this
> possible to use genkernel to install system in EFI mode or I must to
> use manual compilation? Thank you for your advice and suggestions.

There's a page on the Gentoo Wiki that covers EFI, but this is what I
have set

% zgrep EFI /proc/config.gz 
CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION=y
CONFIG_EFI=y
CONFIG_EFI_STUB=y
# CONFIG_EFI_MIXED is not set
CONFIG_FB_EFI=y
CONFIG_DMI_SCAN_MACHINE_NON_EFI_FALLBACK=y
# EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) Support
CONFIG_EFI_VARS=y
CONFIG_EFI_RUNTIME_WRAPPERS=y
CONFIG_EFIVAR_FS=y
# CONFIG_EARLY_PRINTK_EFI is not set

I don't think genkernel will help with EFI, but manual configuration is
no big deal. You could let genekernel generate a configuration to set as a
starting point. Really though, manual configuration is just a case of
following the handbook, just like any other part of setting up Gentoo.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

"Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable."
  - Mark Twain

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