[SOLVED] Updating Slackware 15.0+

rocknrobin · 04-10-2024, 05:26 PM

I just recently built a new PC whereupon I cannot enable CSM on my motherboard so I am trying to move an existing Slackware 15.0+ MBR image on hard drive to UEFI. I posted a thread on this forum back in February 2022, https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ub-4175708479/, that detailed directions to make this happen which I have summarized here:

Code:

To fix:
reimage the hardrive
boot ubuntu usb,
use gparted to shrink sda1 and create a 200mb fat32 partition flagged esp.
open a terminal

to convert to gpt drive use gdisk

sudo gdisk /dev/sda

after converting to gpt mount /dev/sda1 and chroot into the system and install grub
chroot /mnt /bin/bash

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount --bind /run /mnt/run
sudo chroot /mnt
mkdir /boot/efi
mount /dev/sda2 /boot/efi
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=grub
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit


Also if used in a virtual environment:

mkdir /boot/efi/EFI/boot
cp /boot/efi/EFI/grub/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64efi

All these steps worked great and I was able to have a UEFI bootable Slackware platform on my new PC then. I tried with basically the same hardware today on a new machine...same exact motherboard, same RAM, and same processor. This is the error message I get when I try the grub-install today.

Code:

bash-5.2# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=grub
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
grub-install: error: efibootmgr failed to register the boot entry: No such file or directory.

Repartitioning the hard drive and converting to a GPT drive worked ( on /dev/sda -- sdb is the usb drive I am using to make these modifications).

Code:

root@robby-Z690-UD-DDR4:~# parted -l
Model: ATA Samsung SSD 870 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End    Size   File system  Name                  Flags
 1      32.3kB  999GB  999GB  ext4         Linux filesystem
 2      999GB   999GB  537MB  fat32        EFI system partition  boot, esp


Model:  USB  SanDisk 3.2Gen1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 61.5GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                  Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB   537MB   fat32        EFI System Partition  boot, esp
 2      538MB   61.5GB  61.0GB  ext4




root@robby-Z690-UD-DDR4:~# gdisk /dev/sda

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.8

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

I do see that efivar must be installed:

Code:

bash-5.2# efivar --usage
Usage: efivar [OPTION...]
  -t, --attributes=<attributes>     attributes to use on append
  -l, --list                        list current variables
  -p, --print                       print variable specified by --name
  -D, --dmpstore                    use DMPSTORE format when exporting
  -d, --print-decimal               print variable in decimal values specified
                                    by --name
  -n, --name=<guid-name>            variable to manipulate, in the form
                                    8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c-Boot0000
  -a, --append                      append to variable specified by --name
  -f, --datafile=<file>             load or save variable contents from <file>
  -e, --export=<file>               export variable to <file>
  -i, --import=<file>               import variable from <file
  -L, --list-guids                  show internal guid list
  -w, --write                       write to variable specified by --name

Help options:
  -?, --help                        Show this help message
      --usage                       Display brief usage message

but when listing the variables, which I can do on the working UEFI machine lists nothing.

Code:

bash-5.2# efivar --list
efivar: error listing variables: Function not implemented

Has something changed with Slackware since 2022 that needs to be modified to make this work now?

Thanks for any help.

babydr · 04-10-2024, 07:27 PM

@rocknrobin , Seems that you don't have efivars mounted for grub-install to read the variables from .
Maybe the module isn't installed .

Code:

efivarfs       efivarfs                0       0         0     -          0          0          0    - -    /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

rocknrobin · 04-10-2024, 08:49 PM

Thanks for the quick response babydr. How do I mount efivarfs? I didn't have to do that before?

rocknrobin · 04-10-2024, 10:16 PM

Update from previous reply. When checking /sys/firmware/efi/efivars there are no files in that directory.

Code:

bash-5.2# cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
bash-5.2# ls -l
total 0

The working system has 103 files in it so the variables are not even there if I did mount it. How do I populate the variables?

Thanks.

Didier Spaier · 04-11-2024, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocknrobin

Update from previous reply. When checking /sys/firmware/efi/efivars there are no files in that directory.

Code:

bash-5.2# cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
bash-5.2# ls -l
total 0

The working system has 103 files in it so the variables are not even there if I did mount it. How do I populate the variables?

Thanks.

As root, type:

Code:

mount -t efivarfs none /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

after that grub-install should work if the ESP is in /dev/sda, else you need to give the target device as argument of the grub-install command.

rocknrobin · 04-11-2024, 10:42 AM

Thanks Didier Spaier. I first checked to see if efivarfs was mounted:

Code:

bash-5.2# mount | grep efivarfs
bash-5.2#

It was not so I mounted it as you pointed out:

Code:

bash-5.2# mount -t efivarfs none /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
bash-5.2# mount | grep efivarfs
none on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw,relatime)
bash-5.2#

Then I ran grub-install and grub-mkconfig:

Code:

bash-5.2# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=grub
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.
bash-5.2# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-huge-6.6.25
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.gz
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-huge
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.gz
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-generic-6.6.25
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.gz
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.gz
Warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration.
Check GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry.
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done
bash-5.2#

All seems to have installed okay. I now have 108 files in /sys/firmware/efi/efivars. I will now reboot to see if the new hard drive will boot on uefi.

rocknrobin · 04-11-2024, 05:17 PM

Thanks for all the help. I rebooted and I now have a Slackware distro 15.0 working on a UEFI hardware platform booting with Grub. A couple of cleanup items. After I was able to boot up to Slackware the network interface on the new hardware was not working. I ran across this back in September of last year solved via this post: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ng-4175728577/
I updated the MAC address of the new NIC on the new Motherboard in 70-persistent-net.rules, rebooted and ETH0 working again. Then I had to change the IP address of the new machine so it didn't cause an IP address conflict in /etc/rc.d/inet1.conf. Another reboot and the new IP address took affect. Voila.