Re: CURRENT: EFI boot failure

Am Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:09:01 -0700
Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn_at_freebsd.org> schrieb:

> 
> On 09/15/14 22:51, O. Hartmann wrote:
> > Am Mon, 15 Sep 2014 17:39:26 -0700
> > Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn_at_freebsd.org> schrieb:
> >
> >> On 09/15/14 17:36, Allan Jude wrote:
> >>> On 2014-09-15 20:05, O. Hartmann wrote:
> >>>> Installing FreeBSD-11.0-CURRENT-amd64-20140903-r270990 on a Laptop works for UEFI
> >>>> fine. After I updated the sources to  r271649, recompiled world and kernel (as well
> >>>> as installed), now I get stuck with the screen message:
> >>>>
> >>>>>> FreeBSD EFI boot block
> >>>>      Loader path: /boot/loader.efi
> >>>>
> >>>> and nothing happens. After a couple of minutes, the system reboots.
> >>>>
> >>>> What happened and how can this problem be solved?
> >>>>
> >>> You might need to update the boot1.efi file on the UEFI partition (small
> >>> FAT partition on the disk)
> >>>
> >>> I am not sure how 'in sync' boot1.efi (on the fat partiton) and
> >>> loader.efi have to be.
> >>>
> >>> https://wiki.freebsd.org/UEFI
> >>>
> >> boot1.efi is designed never to need updating. (It also hasn't changed
> >> since April)
> >> -Nathan
> >
> > But it has changed bytesize when I recompiled world with recent sources compared to
> > the boot.efi size from the USB image I installed from (revision see above).
> 
> Probably compiler updates or something? I really wouldn't worry about it 
> too much. I'd worry more about loader, since we know boot1 could use the 
> console but loader doesn't show up.
> 
> > How to update bootcode on UEFI layout? I created a GPT partition with type efi (1 GB)
> > as well as a 512KB partition typed freebsd-boot.
> 
> How did you set it up in the first place? If you have a FreeBSD-only 
> system partition (like the installer sets up), you just dd 
> /boot/boot1.efifat to the EFI partition. Otherwise, it's FAT and you 
> copy /boot/boot1.efi to somewhere your boot manager can find it.
> 
> > I'm new to EFI and the way the notebook now behaves is really strange. While the USB
> > drive image used to boot with new console enabled, it now boots again with the old
> > console and 800x640 resolution. This might indicate some minor but very effective
> > mistake I made.
> >
> 
> The EFI boot block finds the first UFS partition -- on any disk -- and 
> tries to boot from it. If you have multiple FreeBSD disks connected, 
> that will very likely result in madness.
> -Nathan
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After I managed to install the OS and updated to the most recent world, it took two days
to have all the installations prepared. Now I'm about the configure X11 and run into
another very annoying situation.

The Laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 equipted with the following CPU/iGPU and
dedicated GPU:

CPU Intel i5-4200M (Haswell) at 2.5 GHz with iGPU Intel HD Graphics 4600

GPU: nVidia GT 740M mobile GPU.

EFI Version 2.31
EFI Firmware: Lenovo (rev. 05648)

In the Firmware/EFI/BIOS the primary GPU is selected to be the nVidia GT 740M. Boot is
EFI only, no CSM support. With CSM support enabled a VGA screen with 640x400 pixel shows
up. Non UEFI options doesn't boot this system at all!

Any attempt to bring up the nVidia GPU (starting X for testing) ends up in a blank
screen, stuck mousepointer, no keyboard. I even can not switch to another console!
When X server started the first time on tty9, I can switch to another console. But the
moment I switch back to ttyv9 everything is frozen and as described above.

When the system boots, I do not see a loader! Where is the loader I'm used to see when I
have the chance to switch to single user mode, console or switch off ACPI?

Because I need X11 up (and it should be running on the nVidia GPU for performance
reasons), I tried to get back to the legacy "sc" console in textmode since I read about
several issues and immature vt() system, so I put those lines in the /boot/loader.conf:

hw.vga.textmode=1
hw.vty=sc

(tried also hw.vty=vt).

But with either of those lines in the loader thing get more annoying and nasty: The
system doesn't show even a console, it is stuck with this sparse EFI boot message, last
lines are

dimensions xxxx x yyyy
stride xxxx
masks 0xfffffff [...]

and the rest of the screen is blank. System remains unusable, the HDD is working and
obviously booting the system but incapable of presenting a screen. When booting the USB
drive image, this initial EFI message gets overwritten (no screen blanking, the kernel
messages starts writing over this message like in the first days of computers ...). In
the case described above that doesn't happen at all.

After I deleted.commented out the lines 

hw.vga.textmode=1
hw.vty=sc

in loader.conf the system is booting again - and clears the initial EFI messages before
dumping the screen with kernel messages, as expected.

Well, at the end, it seems I sit in front of two days useless labor, new hardware, UEFI
and no X11.