On Fri, September 7, 2018 10:21 pm, Guy Frank wrote:
> 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.

If you do want to give this another go at some point, try this one:
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/#installation-freezes-before-getting-to-anaconda--disable-efi-runtime-services
. It's an ugly solution but let me get Qubes installed on a troublesome
computer.


-- 
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/157ce1267017fb974a3bf828827dab19.squirrel%40tt3j2x4k5ycaa5zt.onion.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Reply via email to