Hello, I wanted to know if it is possible to modify a BIOS file to accept a legacy disk when it does not have the capability, I had this problem on a Optiplex 3060 that were donated to my job where we use non-uefi linux distros, we cannot use uefi since is a "big machine" with this systems beign the center of all of it, we can't change the distro now, maybe make some changes, but if I can modify the BIOS it would be awesome.
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Originally posted by stj View Postit would be simpler to use this and make a version for your machines
https://libreboot.org/
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No way trying to port coreboot/Libreboot to an unsupported machine (or even trying to get it working properly on a supported machine) would be easier than anything else.
Much easier to just install a UEFI-compatible bootloader and boot the Linux kernel from that. If the system is already using Grub it won't change much, although you need an EFI System Partition somewhere (a 500 MB FAT32 partition with correct type). This partition can be put on another drive (even external) if it's not possible to modify the main storage.
UEFI has been the preferred boot mode for 13 years so it's really time to move on from legacy BIOS, which is not supported on newer platforms anyway. Any distribution that does not support booting from UEFI has been out of support for a long time.OpenBoardView — https://github.com/OpenBoardView/OpenBoardView
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Originally posted by piernov View PostNo way trying to port coreboot/Libreboot to an unsupported machine (or even trying to get it working properly on a supported machine) would be easier than anything else.
Much easier to just install a UEFI-compatible bootloader and boot the Linux kernel from that. If the system is already using Grub it won't change much, although you need an EFI System Partition somewhere (a 500 MB FAT32 partition with correct type). This partition can be put on another drive (even external) if it's not possible to modify the main storage.
UEFI has been the preferred boot mode for 13 years so it's really time to move on from legacy BIOS, which is not supported on newer platforms anyway. Any distribution that does not support booting from UEFI has been out of support for a long time.
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Originally posted by rogfanther View PostYou can use a small usb disk, with a uefi bootloader in it, as piernov said. If necessary, you can even install it with an extension cord inside the machine.
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While I haven´t got yet a machine that wouldn´t accept Legacy boot, I do believe that some exist out there. And with these "brand names", chances are greater. But IMHO, trying to modify the bios is much more complex to do when you seem to need some more simpler, efficient fix.
Since he can modify the disk partitions, as you said, the suggestion, as per above, is not a full EFI linux installation, but just a bootloader ( small program, like rEFIfind, grub, Plop boot manager, etc. . ), with the necessary partitions ( usually, some 500MB FAT32 partition only ) .
Or, just create two sets of disk images, one with Mint installed on Legacy Boot, and another with the same Mint installed as EFI boot.
Some work will always be necessary, but it is much easier to just do what you already do ( install linux Mint ) with little changes only on the boot mode, than porting coreboot or developing and testing solutions that involve many more modifications to your workflow.
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Originally posted by rogfanther View PostWhile I haven´t got yet a machine that wouldn´t accept Legacy boot, I do believe that some exist out there. And with these "brand names", chances are greater. But IMHO, trying to modify the bios is much more complex to do when you seem to need some more simpler, efficient fix.
Since he can modify the disk partitions, as you said, the suggestion, as per above, is not a full EFI linux installation, but just a bootloader ( small program, like rEFIfind, grub, Plop boot manager, etc. . ), with the necessary partitions ( usually, some 500MB FAT32 partition only ) .
Or, just create two sets of disk images, one with Mint installed on Legacy Boot, and another with the same Mint installed as EFI boot.
Some work will always be necessary, but it is much easier to just do what you already do ( install linux Mint ) with little changes only on the boot mode, than porting coreboot or developing and testing solutions that involve many more modifications to your workflow.
I will ask them if they used the bootloader already, but I think they already use one, since before entering the OS they can select on boot which OS we se, since we use mint and other thing that I forgot, some kind of backup manager created by them, I barely use it so I just forgot to tell you guys about it, my fault.
EDIT: I asked them, my superiors, about the UEFI transformation, they tried already creating with grub as the bootloader, which is the one we use, but since we have like 4 sda, we don't know on which one is the grub configuration, we don't know why but when we change to legacy the boot then the grub stops working, it seems it is a "legacy only" configuration on grub, so, what I need to know by now is just where can I find information on how to create grub, so I can, by myself, create a grub and copy-paste the sda where linux mint (turned uefi) is, we already created a linux mint version by now (with your help, of course) but now the grub doesn't appear, and if it is easy to create one with a template then that would be better.
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Can´t you use this UEFI-only machine as a template, install Mint and your other programs on it, and then create the disk images based on that ?
You didn´t describe clearly what is that you install on the machines, and what are your part on the process, but from the little we know , how about this :
- Install Mint on the UEFI-only machine, accepting the options for configuring as UEFI-boot, etc.
- Install other necessary software, specific to your customers
- Image the disk, and try restoring the image to the disk of another UEFI-Only machine
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Originally posted by rogfanther View PostCan´t you use this UEFI-only machine as a template, install Mint and your other programs on it, and then create the disk images based on that ?
You didn´t describe clearly what is that you install on the machines, and what are your part on the process, but from the little we know , how about this :
- Install Mint on the UEFI-only machine, accepting the options for configuring as UEFI-boot, etc.
- Install other necessary software, specific to your customers
- Image the disk, and try restoring the image to the disk of another UEFI-Only machine
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No problem with the English, probably my spanish would be much worse. Unless you prefer to speak portuguese
If the computers you work with change / are different ( due to from where you receive them ) , modifying bioses are not an efficient way to solve that.
Since not much money is involved ( you said the computers are free / cheap ), can´t your business buy usb drives ( small, 512MB to 1GB would be enough ) , to set this up inside the machines ? Would add maybe $1 to the cost of each.
Other than that, what you are looking for would be a way to modify an already installed system ( with linux, grub, partitions, etc ) to be booted in a UEFI machine. Am I right in this ? Since you are the hardware guys, would that make things easier for you , as a way to solve the situation without inconveniencing the software guys ?
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Originally posted by rogfanther View PostNo problem with the English, probably my spanish would be much worse. Unless you prefer to speak portuguese
If the computers you work with change / are different ( due to from where you receive them ) , modifying bioses are not an efficient way to solve that.
Since not much money is involved ( you said the computers are free / cheap ), can´t your business buy usb drives ( small, 512MB to 1GB would be enough ) , to set this up inside the machines ? Would add maybe $1 to the cost of each.
Other than that, what you are looking for would be a way to modify an already installed system ( with linux, grub, partitions, etc ) to be booted in a UEFI machine. Am I right in this ? Since you are the hardware guys, would that make things easier for you , as a way to solve the situation without inconveniencing the software guys ?
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If the drive has 3 or less primary partitions you do not need to convert to GPT as you still have 1 primary partition left to create an EFI System Partition.
If the drive already has 4 primary partitions and you can't delete one or convert several of them to secondary partitions, then you need to convert to GPT. You can use gdisk to do that, it will try to keep the same layout.
Note that for a legacy BIOS Grub to be installed to a GPT drive, it needs a BIOS boot partition, which is a small partition of a few MB with a specific type at the beginning of the drive, but at this point this is irrelevant since we want to use UEFI Grub instead. However this will also likely prevent the current legacy BIOS Grub to boot, so you will have to perform the UEFI Grub installation step booting from another system and using chroot to get into the target system.
Then one of the existing partition will probably have to be resized to make room for the EFI System Partition.
Then you can create the EFI System Partition (500 MB, FAT32 with type 0xEF00 in gdisk) and add it to the `/etc/fstab` as the `/boot/efi` mountpoint.
After that you can install `grub-efi-amd64-signed` and `shim-signed` (for Secure Boot support, although I'm not sure everything will be configured properly for that), then reinstall grub in EFI mode with `sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi` and re-generate the configuration with `sudo update-grub`.
There's one caveat though, if you move the drive to another machine, the other machine will not have the necessary UEFI Boot menu entry that points to the Grub bootloader. Hopefully, the bootloader also installed itself to the default path `/EFI/Boot/BootX64.EFI` (in the EFI System Partition) so that it can boot even without a specific entry. If that's not the case you can try to run the grub-install command again, adding `--removable`.
I'd still recommend re-installing the bootloader after booting on the target system to create the appropriate UEFI Boot menu entry.
Anyway, Linux Mint 19.3 has been out of support for a year, so I'd highly recommend upgrading and this is a good opportunity to make a proper UEFI system.OpenBoardView — https://github.com/OpenBoardView/OpenBoardView
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Originally posted by rogfanther View PostI´m looking at the commands to change a MBR installed linux to a EFI one. Can you confirme the exact version of Mint you use, and also maybe the result of running 'fdisk -l" as root in a terminal, so that I can try to recreate the same partition layout here ?
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Originally posted by piernov View PostIf the drive has 3 or less primary partitions you do not need to convert to GPT as you still have 1 primary partition left to create an EFI System Partition.
If the drive already has 4 primary partitions and you can't delete one or convert several of them to secondary partitions, then you need to convert to GPT. You can use gdisk to do that, it will try to keep the same layout.
Note that for a legacy BIOS Grub to be installed to a GPT drive, it needs a BIOS boot partition, which is a small partition of a few MB with a specific type at the beginning of the drive, but at this point this is irrelevant since we want to use UEFI Grub instead. However this will also likely prevent the current legacy BIOS Grub to boot, so you will have to perform the UEFI Grub installation step booting from another system and using chroot to get into the target system.
Then one of the existing partition will probably have to be resized to make room for the EFI System Partition.
Then you can create the EFI System Partition (500 MB, FAT32 with type 0xEF00 in gdisk) and add it to the `/etc/fstab` as the `/boot/efi` mountpoint.
After that you can install `grub-efi-amd64-signed` and `shim-signed` (for Secure Boot support, although I'm not sure everything will be configured properly for that), then reinstall grub in EFI mode with `sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi` and re-generate the configuration with `sudo update-grub`.
There's one caveat though, if you move the drive to another machine, the other machine will not have the necessary UEFI Boot menu entry that points to the Grub bootloader. Hopefully, the bootloader also installed itself to the default path `/EFI/Boot/BootX64.EFI` (in the EFI System Partition) so that it can boot even without a specific entry. If that's not the case you can try to run the grub-install command again, adding `--removable`.
I'd still recommend re-installing the bootloader after booting on the target system to create the appropriate UEFI Boot menu entry.
Anyway, Linux Mint 19.3 has been out of support for a year, so I'd highly recommend upgrading and this is a good opportunity to make a proper UEFI system.
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