Re: CURRENT: EFI boot failure

Am Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:54:31 -0700
Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn_at_freebsd.org> schrieb:

> 
> On 09/16/14 14:50, O. Hartmann wrote:
> > 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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> >> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current
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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.
> 
> Try xf86-video-scfb instead?
> 
> > 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?
> 
> There is no beastie menu for UEFI, and will not be, since it UEFI's 
> terminal emulation does not provide the required features. You can boot 
> single user from the loader command line, however, with boot -s, for 
> example. The interface is identical to what you get if you choose 
> "Loader prompt" in the usual menu.

Good to know.

> 
> > 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.
> 
> syscons does not support UEFI systems at all. Since it can't initialize 
> the VGA hardware, you get a blank screen. hw.vga.textmode also won't 
> have any effect since EFI systems don't use the vga driver for console, 
> instead using an EFI-provided framebuffer structure through the vt_efifb 
> driver.

Oh, I lack in informations of how this new system is working. So vga is obsolete then and
should be this efifb then.

> 
> > 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.
> 
> One thing you might want to try that got my Haswell laptop up is to use 
> the x11-drivers/xf86-video-scfb driver. This uses the vt framebuffer 
> directly. It's more or less the equivalent of the VESA driver since it 
> is unaccelerated, but it will work. We really need actual Haswell 
> graphics drivers (I suspect they are required to get the multiple GPU 
> handoff to work as well).
> -Nathan

This laptop has, as mentioned, also a dedicated GPU, nVidia GT 740M which is supposed to
work with a new driver BLOB 343.13 (driver: nvidia). I do not want to use the iGPU
HD4600, also it could save energy/battery lifetime, but there is no method to switch
between both. I'd like to use this GPU, not the slower HD4600 Haswell iGPU.

As far as I know from other notebooks I ran with FreeBSD, this
x11-drivers/xf86-video-scfb as well as its VESA counterpart is insanely slow and not very
usefull for high resolution displays. It might be useful having a display anyway.

But, anyway thanks for your assistance, very appreciated.

Regards,
Oliver