Re: A thread on grub-bug could need attention

[Daniel Kiper]

On Mon, Jan 08, 2018 at 01:48:42PM +0100, Daniel Kiper wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 12:35:20PM +0100, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > i am unhappy about the state of the thread
> >
> >   http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grub/2017-12/msg00010.html
> >   "HP ProBook x360 11 G1 EE incompatible with grub"
> >
> > which is about an EFI implementation which SYSLINUX for EFI can operate
> > from USB stick whereas GRUB from USB stick ends up with black screen.
> >
> > An allergy of the firmware towards ISO 9660 hybrid images on USB stick
> > can surely be ruled out by
> >   http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grub/2017-12/msg00022.html
> >   (The only known production ISO with SYSLINUX for EFI does work)
> >   http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grub/2017-12/msg00024.html
> >   (A normal distro installation works after replacing GRUB by SYSLINUX)
> >
> > The bug reporter, Michel Bouissou, seems well apt enough to do experiments.
> > But i am not apt enough to propose any beyond ISO 9660.
> > Could people from this list please give Michel some hints about how to
> > retrieve more information about the problem between GRUB and this
> > peculiar EFI ?
>
> Thank you for a notice. Sorry for late reply. I am just back after a bit
> longer vacation. Now I am recovering and trying to get at speed. I will
> take closer look at the thread next week.

OK, I have looked through the email exchange. I have not seen any info
about the UEFI/firmware update. Have you done that? If you have not
please do. If it does not help please create bootable USB stick in
following way. I assume that USB stick is /dev/sdb device. If not please
change device path below accordingly. Additionally, if you use Debian,
IIRC you do, please install at least following extra packages: dosfstools,
gdisk, grub-common and grub-efi-amd64-bin. I assume that other distros
has similar ones.

1) Zap GPT and MBR - DANGEROUS - it removes all GPT and MBR partitions
   # sgdisk -Z /dev/sdb

2) Create EFI System Partition (code EF00) using gdisk. 256.0 MiB will suffice.

3) Format EFI System Partition
   # mkdosfs /dev/sdb1

4) Create GRUB2 EFI bootable image
   # mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
   # mkdir /mnt/efi/boot
   # grub-mkstandalone -O x86_64-efi -o /mnt/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
   # umount /dev/sdb1

Reboot HP machine from this USB stick. You should see normal GRUB2 prompt.
If it does not happen then I will think about next steps.

If you have any questions please drop me a line.

Additionally, I will be at FOSDEM this weekend. So, if you wish and you
will be there then you can bring the machine and I can take a look.

Daniel