On Friday, September 7, 2018 at 4:15:23 PM UTC-5, Guy Frank wrote: > On Friday, September 7, 2018 at 5:34:49 AM UTC-5, Marcus Linsner wrote: > > On Friday, September 7, 2018 at 12:27:04 PM UTC+2, Marcus Linsner wrote: > > > Actually I just looked, my MBR starts with lots of zeroes until the > > > partitions are defined > > > > In fact the MBR contains the definition of only one (dummy)partition, since > > it's GPT, like: > > > > [ctor@dom0 ~]$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=here.mbr bs=512 count=1 > > 1+0 records in > > 1+0 records out > > 512 bytes copied, 8.5102e-05 s, 6.0 MB/s > > [ctor@dom0 ~]$ fdisk -l here.mbr > > GPT PMBR size mismatch (468862127 != 0) will be corrected by w(rite). > > Disk here.mbr: 512 B, 512 bytes, 1 sectors > > Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes > > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > > Disklabel type: dos > > Disk identifier: 0x00000000 > > > > Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type > > here.mbr1 1 468862127 468862127 223.6G ee GPT > > > > but this doesn't matter. > > > > I see the 'Boot' field is present only here (when type is dos, but not when > > type is gpt) > > Hi Marcus: Thanks so much for your input on this! You're on the right track > to think this is a UEFI issue. I've learned more about my problem, so let me > explain. > > I have new hardware and the BIOS that comes w/ it *absolutely refuses* to run > MBRs for internal storage (HDD, SSD). Problem is that when I transfer the > Qubes ISO over to a USB drive, it sets up the drive with a MBR (fdisk -l > shows 'msdos' or 'dos'). Apparently the Qubes installer takes a cue from the > install medium and installs with a MBR, not with UEFI / GPT (again, checked > with fdisk -l). When I try to run the installation, even though it's all > there, the BIOS refuses to treat the installation as a bootable disk--so it > boots nothing and throws an error. > > If I understand your suggestion, it's to set the BIOS to UEFI and try to > install. Problem is it will not read my usb drive with the Qubes install on > it--because the drive has a MBR and UEFI mode will not read a thumb drive > that isn't UEFI / GPT. > > I therefore looked for instructions on how to convert the Qubes installation > USB drive to UEFI / GPT (and then install w/ BIOS set to UEFI). I followed > the instructions here: > > https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/thinkpad-troubleshooting/ > > Ran into two problems. One is that I get an error at the end of creating the > GPT thumb drive saying that there is no grub.cfg file to write out to the > USB. [specifically: sed: can't read /run/tgttmp.xI67OE/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg: No > such file or directory] Have no idea what causes that, but perhaps a > grub.cfg is not essential. The second problem I run into is that, contrary > to the instructions, I see no xen.cfg under .../EFI/BOOT, just a BOOT.cfg. I > change the label to BOOT in this cfg file, the only one in that directory. > > When I try to install, I get a 'Panic on CPU 0' and installation halts before > I get to the Qubes GUI install. The error seems to be that Xen can't read > the cmos time to set its time. One of the calls is to efi_get_time. > > When I installed from a MBR USB stick, I got to the Qubes QUI install w/o any > fatal errors. So am guessing there's something about efi_get_time that isn't > cooperating w/ my computer's hardware. > > At this point, I don't know whether I should give up because Qubes is not yet > compatible with my hardware (Dell Precision 3630), or whether I should > continue my efforts, perhaps by finding alternative instructions for creating > UEFI USB sticks for installation. > > Best, Guy
OK, then, I read somewhere that DVD-ROM installations will install either UEFI or Legacy, depending on the setting of the BIOS. So, I tried burning a DVD w/ Qubes and running that. I get the same error as above, including the efi time problem (which I suspect also shows the install is going to UEFI), so it looks like when I do succeed in installing from a UEFI media, I simply run headlong into a software bug related to my newer hardware. I can't find any info on the bug online and have no idea how I might fix it. Qubes, then, looks like it's out for me. This is the 2nd time I've tried to use Qubes and run into severe problems. Oh well, would be a great OS to be using, but if I can't, I can't. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "qubes-users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/e54db04b-6bc5-4183-85fa-61aa41950196%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
