Re: GRUB on EFI

[Greg White]

I just upgraded from grub2 1.99 to 2.00 using the instructions below:

export EFI_ARCH=x86_64
./configure --with-platform=efi --target=${EFI_ARCH} --program-prefix=""
make
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/EFISYS # if the mount-point does not exist
sudo mount -t vfat -o rw,users /dev/sda1 /mnt/EFISYS # replace /dev/sda1 with your boot drive
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/EFISYS/efi/boot
cd ./grub-core
../grub-mkimage -O ${EFI_ARCH}-efi -d . -o grub.efi -p "" part_gpt part_msdos ntfs ntfscomp hfsplus fat ext2 normal chain boot configfile linux multiboot search
sudo cp grub.efi *.mod *.lst /mnt/EFISYS/efi/boot
sudo mv /mnt/EFISYS/efi/boot/grub.efi /mnt/EFISYS/efi/boot/bootx64.efi  # Most firmware only looks for bootx64.efi
sudo touch /mnt/EFISYS/efi/boot/grub.cfg

Then create your grub.cfg as you see fit.  I tried very hard to follow the instructions and edit the scripts and not directly edit grub.cfg but I could never get a working grub.cfg that way.  Any system that can't detect windows and just add it without having to edit a script (40_custom) is just broken in my opinion.  I just started editing grub.cfg using a template I found on the internet.  I have decent text color and highlights now, but the background color is still black instead of blue so the menu looks a little weird.  The best part is my grub is now more dynamic than before.  If I forgot to remove a bootable usb thumb drive from my computer all of the set root=(hdx,y) were wrong and nothing would boot until I removed the drive and rebooted.  With the help of the forum I am now fully dynamic (I can add and remove drives when I want) and use UUIDs as much as possible.  I deleted update-grub and update-grub2 from the computer to prevent any accidents.

Thanks,
Greg