[EN] New hardware with UEFI and SSD

[ralul]

I hoped you would risk to be our "Frontschwein"
(this Agaida would name the hero)

[dibl]

I hoped you would risk to be our "Frontschwein"

 :shock:

The Frontschwein must go to the Schlachthaus!    :lol:

[Paraquat]

Hi, I'm new here, and this is my first post

Now that UEFI is upon us and mostly taken over the market for consumer motherboards, I thought there should be much interest in how to deal with this awful situation. I've personally decided that if I'm building my own box, I should go with something that I'm sure is 100% Linux-friendly and not interested in being "Certified for Windows 8." In terms of motherboards and avoiding UEFI, it looks to me like the best solution is to buy a Tyan server motherboard. Doesn't actually have to be Tyan (I hear that Supermicro is also excellent, I'm just a little more familiar with Tyan).

Server motherboards vs standard desktop motherboards - in most respects they are the same, but a few differences. A server motherboard will usually have slots for two processors (most likely to use Intel Xeon processors), and also support ECC memory which is memory with error correction. There is of course support for RAID. Design is slim so that they can be put into a U1 chassis so they can fit on a server rack.

Server boards are designed to be fast and reliable. On the other hand, the onboard graphics are not tweaked to make gamers happy since manufacturers don't expect system administrators to be playing games on a server (most servers run headless anyway).

Cost for server boards is somewhat higher. They can be very expensive for the top-end boards, but it's overkill for desktop use. At the lower end, server boards can be had for around US$200. Here is one example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151243

I haven't actually bought a server motherboard yet, but it's on my shopping list for whenever my current computer starts wearing out. I'm currently running on an old ASUS motherboard and it's doing fine, but when it conks out my next purchase will likely be Tyan since ASUS is very anxious to keep in Microsoft's good graces by being "Windows ready."

cheers,
Paraquat

[dibl]

Welcome!

It is an interesting approach, and that looks like a nice motherboard.  Two issues that I would note -- (1) I'm not finding Linux support for the onboard AST2150 video chip*, (2) for the same cost you should be able to find a motherboard with USB 3 capability.

I built my desktop system at the end of 2010 just ahead of the UEFI transition, so I haven't had to deal with it yet.  But everything I can read indicates that the situation is not so bad, today -- all motherboards are supposed to allow you to disable secure boot. I have had good luck with 3 different Asus motherboards in the past few years, so I would not be afraid to buy one if I were building a new system.


*There is something called "open IPMI" that is said to have Linux kernel support.  I have never heard of it -- maybe it is OK.

[GoinEasy9]

Since I started this thread almost 2 years ago, and since it deals with the same topic, I figured I would post in this thread instead of making a new topic.

After all this time, I found the solution for a simple way of installing siduction in UEFI mode, in the Manual.  It's at the bottom of this Manual page link:
http://manual.siduction.org/hd-install-opts#usb-hd
The first time I tried it, it failed, but, after a short format of the 4Gb stick, it succeeded.  It's possible some of the flags were not correct on the usb stick, so, the format got rid of all flags except the boot flag and it worked.

The instructions require extracting all the files from the siduction iso and moving them to the root of the usb stick.  Then configuring/installing isolinux to boot the stick by executing:

Code: [Select]

syslinux -i -d /boot/isolinux /dev/sdXN (Where "i" is install and "d" is the directory, and, where "X" is your usb's mount, mine was /dev/sdc and "N" is the partition number, which, on a fresh stick, should be "1").
and then,

Code: [Select]

install-mbr /dev/sdX   
Check it out:
siducer@siduction:~$ su
root@siduction:/home/siducer# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0007
Timeout: 3 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0002,0005,0003,0004,0000,0007
Boot0000* CD/DVD Drive  BIOS(3,0,00)
Boot0001* opensuse      HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi)
Boot0002* Fedora        HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\fedora\shim.efi)
Boot0003* Fedora_17     HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\redhat\grub.efi)
Boot0004* Hard Drive    BIOS(2,0,00)P0: ST1500DM003-9YN16G        .
Boot0005* debian        HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi)
Boot0007* UEFI:  Patriot Memory PMAP    ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(16,2)USB(2,0)HD(1,1f80,776080,00000000)

So, as soon as I make sure there is nothing of value left on the Fedora_17 partitions, I'll use them for siduction.  I'm assuming that the installer won't give me the opportunity to mount /dev/sda1 as /boot/efi, so, after the install, I'll have to add an entry in fstab for /boot/efi.   
/dev/sda1   /boot/efi    vfat    umask=0002,utf8=true  0 0     (or use the UUID)

Then, the rest should be fairly easy.
apt-get install grub-efi-amd
grub-install /dev/sdaX  (Where "X" is the / partition number)
efibootmgr -c -L siduction_13.2 -d /dev/sda -p 1 -l '\EFI\siduction\grubx64.efi'
"-c" = create
"-L" = Label
"-d" = Disk containing ESP
"-p" = ESP partition
"-l" = bootloader

I don't think I need to chroot, grub-install is installing to the particular partition.

Since I'm probably not going to get to the install until tomorrow, comments would be appreciated.  Am I missing something?  Am I doing something the hard way, or doing something totally wrong?  It would be nice to know before hand. 

BTW - Whomever wrote this piece in manual, THANK YOU.  I can't believe it took so long for me to find it.  I wanted to post it in this thread so others can find it.

OK, until tomorrow.  Thanks in advance for any hints.  I'm so psyched to get siduction on my main machine.

[mylo]

...I'm just waiting for the time...

that's a nice one!

[GoinEasy9]

So, I really hate the fact that I have so little time to keep up with things, and, it looks like the devs have been really busy.

I played with the install a couple of times, then, finally realized I could define my own mountpoint, and did so for sda1 (The ESP) as /boot/efi. 

Continuing with the install, all efi parts were placed in the right locations, and, a "siduction" choice was added into the UEFI menu.

So, UEFI install was a SUCCESS.  All one needs to do is manually add the /boot/efi mountpoint during installation, and it works.

Thank You, you made my day.

root@siduction64kdefx:/home/goineasy9# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0007
Timeout: 3 seconds
BootOrder: 0007,0001,0002,0005,0003,0004,0000
Boot0000* CD/DVD Drive  BIOS(3,0,00)
Boot0001* opensuse      HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi)
Boot0002* Fedora        HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\fedora\shim.efi)
Boot0003* Fedora_17     HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\redhat\grub.efi)
Boot0004* Hard Drive    BIOS(2,0,00)P0: ST1500DM003-9YN16G        .
Boot0005* debian        HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi)
Boot0007* siduction     HD(1,800,61800,6d98f360-cb3e-4727-8fed-5ce0c040365d)File(\EFI\siduction\grubx64.efi)

I'll have to clean up Boot0003, and remove /boot/efi/efi/redhat to clean up the ESP, since I used the Fedora_17 partitions.  Minor stuff.