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jafsdewn

Member

Registered: 2024-08-18

Posts: 3  

Daedalus: efi boot partition does not boot on an optiplex 3040.

I was flashing Devuan daedalus with Rufus on a Sandisk cruzer. I created the necessary partitions and followed the instructions. When I came to the boot menu, there wasn't a new boot entry, but from what I understood devuan should have created a boot entry on the EFI menu.

I went to the BIOS setup and added a new boot entry manually. I selected hd(1,5) and I set the file location to:
/efi/devuan/bootx64

I noticed that when I booted in the supposed partition, I was booted in the USB stick instead.
I'm currently typing this in Windows. Any help would be appreciated!

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,176  

Re: Daedalus: efi boot partition does not boot on an optiplex 3040.

Welcome to Devuan.

I was flashing Devuan daedalus with Rufus on a Sandisk cruzer.

Maybe that is part of the problem. I have used Rufus myself many years ago, nowadays I use Linux tools like dd or cp. Lets see if we can find the root cause.

I created the necessary partitions and followed the instructions.

Please tell us how you have setup your partitioning?

When I came to the boot menu, there wasn't a new boot entry, but from what I understood devuan should have created a boot entry on the EFI menu.

Yes that is done during executing grub-install on the end of the installation. If you don't skip that step. And only if you have started the installation in efi mode.

I went to the BIOS setup and added a new boot entry manually. I selected hd(1,5) and I set the file location to:
/efi/devuan/bootx64

Well, the efi grub-install creates a directory /boot/efi/EFI/debian. And per default shimx64.efi is used as starter. But only if present.

I'm currently typing this in Windows.

Dual boot?

There is a thread where somebody else has issues with efi installation also. Please have a read, there is a lot of information in there that might help you too: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=6788

In any case, have you started the installation in efi mode?

Last edited by rolfie (2024-08-18 19:25:14)

jafsdewn

Member

Registered: 2024-08-18

Posts: 3  

Re: Daedalus: efi boot partition does not boot on an optiplex 3040.

In any case, have you started the installation in efi mode?

I flashed devuan along with formatting the partitition scheme as MBR. On the boot menu, "UEFI" appears alongside the usb and when I boot it with MBR the installation runs as if it were in efi mode. I'm not sure if that counts since I could have done that with GPT.

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,176  

Re: Daedalus: efi boot partition does not boot on an optiplex 3040.

I flashed devuan along with formatting the partitition scheme as MBR.

Memory stick or hard drive on your Optiplex? You should use GPT on the target drive for an efi installation.

The first partition on the target drive should be the ESP, FAT32 formatted, I do recommend at least 512M, better 1024M. If you use manual partitioning, make sure its mounted to /boot/efi and used as ESP. Essential to successfully install grub.

jafsdewn

Member

Registered: 2024-08-18

Posts: 3  

Re: Daedalus: efi boot partition does not boot on an optiplex 3040.

After half a week of tearing my hair out, I came across an article by Rod Smith on using the fallback efi program used to mimic the boot manager for Windows in the fallback boot path:
(https://rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/fallback.html) --or efi/boot/bootx64.efi, renaming fbx64.efi to bootx64.efi

The problem is I don't know where the fallback boot path is in both ESPs. I had already created one of these partitions when I installed Devuan.