Dan, I think the situation with the "inappropriate ioctl for device" could be either because of a programming error in the kernel (Source: Google) or that your bios update changed something around with the way the graphics card is integrating with the rest of the system. I would try recompiling the kernel (like you said) to try and see if it fixes the issue with the EFI Variables and/or fixes the " inappropriate ioctl for device" problem. If it doesnt fix the ioctl problem I would try upgrading the kernel incase something has changed that fixes this problem.
Douglas R. Reno
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