Re: [gentoo-user] New AMD hardware. Can't boot.

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hello, Mick.

On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 20:11:33 +0100, Mick wrote:
> On Thursday 20 Apr 2017 18:26:43 Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > Hello, Gentoo.

> > The saga of my new AMD Ryzen machine: I've installed Gentoo onto
> > (mdadam) RAID-1 on two MVMe Samsung 960 EVO M.2 SSDs, one of them being
> > plugged into the motherboard, the other in a carrier card plugged into
> > the second PCIe x16 slot.

> > At least, I've got as far as the point where I need to boot into the
> > newly installed system.  The machine doesn't boot.  In its attempts, it
> > displays an underline cursor on a blank 80 x 25 screen, flips this
> > cursor nearer the middle of the screen once or twice, then hangs.

> > The SSDs are partitioned with GPT.  The boot loader is grub2.  I've
> > taken care to follow the instructions in the Gentoo handbook to try to
> > avoid missing out some little detail.  However, I've never used grub2
> > before, so quite possibly I have missed something out.

> > It's also possible that the motherboard's BIOS is still too buggy to
> > support booting from an NVMe drive.  (It's an Asus Prime X370-Pro: I've
> > already had to upgrade the BIOS once (to version 0604) to get the
> > installation CD to be recognised at all.)

> > Asus doesn't have email support, they merely have an http site where one
> > can register and ask for help, if one doesn't mind their obnoxious
> > ambiguous "privacy" policy.  I do mind, particularly after having paid
> > good money for a product which is only partially working.

> > The BIOS boot sections are puzzling.  If I disable what they call
> > "OPROM" booting (i.e. MBR), the BIOS no longer displays the three drives
> > (two SSDs + DVD) as booting options.  There is an ostensible setting
> > called "secure boot" which is enabled, and I haven't found any way of
> > disabling it.

> If you cannot find a way to disable Secure Boot you will need to use a kernel
> image which has been digitally signed by RHL, or Microsoft.  Have a look here
> (random page on Google search):

> https://www.howtogeek.com/175641/how-to-boot-and-install-linux-on-a-uefi-pc-with-secure-boot/

> If you obtain the necessary key you should be able to sign your kernel/initrd
> and then use these to boot your PC without disabling secure boot.  Some binary
> distros RHL/Ubuntu et al probably provide digitally signed images to try.

If I can't boot Gentoo, the motherboard goes back to the shop (or into
the dustbin).  I'm not going to be installing anything which uses a
signed image.  Still, the CD booted without a signature.  Could it be
that it will boot from MBR normally, but requires a signature for GPT?

> > When I booted from the minimal CD, did it boot in MBR or GPT mode?  How
> > do I tell?

> Check you've disabled your Compatibility Support Module so the MoBo will not
> try to use legacy BIOS boot mode with MBR, rather than UEFI.

If I disable the CSModule, the BIOS doesn't show the CD drive at all, so
I can't boot that way.

> After it boots check if you can list the directory /sys/firmware/efi.
> If you get a result like this:

> $ ls -la /sys/firmware/efi
> ls: cannot access '/sys/firmware/efi': No such file or directory

> you have booted in BIOS mode.

That settles it.  I've been booting in MBR/BIOS mode.  Thanks.

> However, if you get a message like this:

> $ ls -la /sys/firmware/efi
> total 0
> drwxr-xr-x   4 root root    0 Apr 20 17:28 .
> drwxr-xr-x   6 root root    0 Apr 20 17:28 ..
> -r--r--r--   1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 config_table
> drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    0 Apr 20 17:28 efivars
> -r--r--r--   1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 fw_platform_size
> -r--r--r--   1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 fw_vendor
> -r--r--r--   1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 runtime
> -r--------   1 root root 4096 Apr 20 20:07 systab
> drwxr-xr-x 134 root root    0 Apr 20 20:07 vars

> then you have booted a UEFI system.


> > Can anybody suggest ideas to get this machine booting?  Would
> > partitioning the drives with MBR, and trying to boot that way help, for
> > example?  I really don't want to do that, though, though if it's the
> > only way to get my machine booting, I'd do it.

> Have you tried booting with one disk only?  This should confirm if your set up
> and drivers are appropriate for your hardware.

I have tried taking the "secondary" SSD out.  It fails to boot in this
case exactly as when both SSDs are installed.  However, once booted (from
the CD), the installation system can read and write the SSDs without
problem.  There's a setting in the BIOS booting section, where one can
indicated whether booting from NVMe is in GPT or MBR mode, so it seems
the Asus's intention is to allow booting from an NVMe SSD.

> --
> Regards,
> Mick

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).