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edbarx

Member

Registered: 2016-12-01

Posts: 20  

How to boot GRUB with HP Probook 4540s

What is required:

• To use GPT, EFI boot mode must be used. Legacy Boot mode does not seem to support the use of GPT formatted disks. Please, note I haven't tried an MBR formatted disk as I prefer the advantages of GPT over MBR

• An EFI System Partition must be present if GPT is used.

• The laptop's EFI firmware assumes the first stage of the bootloader is placed in the EFI system partition under:

  /EFI/Microsoft/Boot

• The name of the first stage must be bootmgfw.efi

• During setup grub-efi creates a primary bootloader with name grubx64.efi and places it under /boot/EFI/debian or /boot/EFI/devuan. The EFI System Partition must be mounted on /boot/efi.

• So to make this laptop boot grub-efi in EFI mode with Secure boot disabled it is necessary to have an EFI System Partition with boot flags boot and efi.

• The installation of Devuan or Debian should have the EFI system partition mounted on /boot/efi when grub-efi is setting itself up.

The Howto:
Boot the computer with gparted disk to create a new 200 MB FAT32 formatted partition to serve as an EFI System Partition. Also remember to use the boot and esp flags for the partition.

During the installation of Devuan or Debian make sure grub-efi is installed and setup. This should result in the primary bootloader being saved under /boot/EFI/devuan or /boot/EFI/debian. An EFI System Partition must exist for grub-efi to properly setup itself.

Search the EFI System Partition for a file named grubx64.efi under /boot/EFI/devuan or /boot/EFI/debian assuming the EFI System Partition is mounted on /boot/efi. 'efi' is a directory under /boot. Make a backup of grubx64.efi and rename grubx64.efi to bootmgfw.efi. Finally, move bootmgfw.efi to /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/. You will need to create any missing directories.

Enjoy!

Last edited by edbarx (2016-12-01 18:42:11)