Re: Cannot boot from dual bios/uefi boot CD

[Andrei Borzenkov]

On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 5:10 PM, John Frankish
<address@hidden> wrote:
>> >> >> > On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 10:30 AM, John Frankish
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>> >> >> > Hi,
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > I'm trying the create a dual bios/uefi boot iso to burn to
>> >> >> > CD/DVD and boot both bios and uefi.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> And your grub version is?
>> >> >>
>> >> > 2.00
>> >> >
>> >> Current is 2.02~beta2.
>
> I tried 2.02~beta2 and no matter what I do, I end up at the grub prompt with
> the message:
>
> Error: no server is specified
>
> ..seems like a bug?
>

It is hard to tell without seeing your exact prefix and embedded
config. "No server specified" sounds like something related to network
which could be if you include networking drivers ...

Which is one of reason why grub-mkrescue is recommended - we know what
it does :)

>> >> >> > The bios boot works fine
>> >> >> > On two different machines, the uefi boot gets to the grub menu
> list:
>>
>> I say that you should be using grub-mkrescue command. This is supported
> tool to build bootable standalone hybrid ISO image that can > be used to
> boot both from CD as well as USB (although to boot from USB in case of EFI
> you probably need recent fix). This command > > builds correct image and
> allows you to add arbitrary files to it, including grub.cfg, kernels and
> such. It needs xorrisofs and in case of EFI > - mtools (mformat/mcopy).
>>
> OK, but I'm trying to make an iso that is bootable both by legacy BIOS and
> UEFI, the above doesn't sound like it will do this?
>

grub-mkrescue creates ISO that is bootable by all platforms for which
grub support is installed. If your system has grub for i386-pc and
x86_64-efi (and may be i386-efi) installed under standard directory,
grub-mkrescue will build ISO that includes support for all three and
is bootable on all three platforms. If not, this is a bug. Which is
one more reason to use it :)

Normally grub boot time code is located under /usr/lib/grub or
/usr/lib/grub2. It should have subdirectories /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc
etc. If you build grub yourself, you need to build and install it two
or three times for each individual platform. If you are using grub
from your distribuion, it should have packets for each one (at least
those I know have).

>> grub-mkimage is low level tool which is almost never correct way unless
> you have very specific requirements not covered by standard > utilities.
>