[Server-devel] Fwd: [XSCE] UEFI workaround?

[Adam Holt]

From: Tony Anderson <tony_anderson at usa.net>
Date: Fri, Oct 31, 2014 at 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: [XSCE] UEFI workaround?
To: xsce-devel at googlegroups.com

Hi,

My head is still bloody banging against the brick wall.

I shipped the NUC 3401 to Nick, he should receive it today. (4gb memory,
1TB drive)

I can reliably create a usb stick from BERNIE to install XS (NEXS v31) on
systems which have a traditional bios. This scheme does not work on systems
with UEFI firmware. Microsoft requires
UEFI firmware for systems certified for Windows 8, so solving this problem
is unavoidable.

The Zotac uses AMI firmware while the NUC 2820 and Gigabyte apparently use
the Intel firmware.
With the Intel firmware, there is a legacy mode. It also allows the hard
drive to be installed from the
usb stick. However, the system will not boot to the hard drive. So the next
step is to try the boot
in legacy mode. Another option is to upgrade the bootloader to Grub2 which
supports uefi. The
third step is to build an iso which installs a Grub2 bootloader. In the
longer run, NEXS needs to be
upgraded to CentOS 6.6 (32-bit) or, more ambitiously, to CentOS 7 (64-bit).

The Zotac symptom I have also seen with bios systems and I think is really
a kickstart issue. If
the install is to a new drive, the usb stick is /dev/sda and the hard drive
is /dev/sdb. However, if the
drive has been partitioned (e.g. when I am installing a new version over an
old one), the hard drive
is /dev/sda and the usb stick is /dev/sdb. I have created two versions of
ks.cfg, one for each case.
However, this is not working for the Zotac which reports that there is not
enough space on the hard drive instead of re-partitioning.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Tony



On 10/31/2014 12:50 PM, Adam Holt wrote:

 Tony Anderson's is leaving to Africa in 6 days, assisting many different
school server deployments, and needs help getting around "secure"
BIOS/firmware UEFI on the following platforms:


 - NUC 34010 - BIOS upgrade solves this, by moving jumper and inserting USB
memory stick containing newer Intel BIOS

- NUC 2820 - installs but doesn't boot

- Gigabyte Brix GB-BXBT-2807

- Zotac nano CI320

- Zotac ID81 Atom system but UEFI not Bios

 Just in case you have any similar experience, please drop some hints, and
he'll happily reply here with Tons of more details he's tried :)

--
 Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !

-- 
Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
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