H81M-ITX not recognizing Linux boot mgr (SOLVED)

I have a 5TB drive formatted GPT with Arch Linux.  It boots just fine on one of these boards.  Under boot options, it lists both ACHI and Linux Boot Manager.

Edited by jsalk - 11 Mar 2017 at 3:27am

jsalk wrote: I have a 5TB drive formatted GPT with Arch Linux.  It boots just fine on one of these boards.  Under boot options, it lists both ACHI and Linux Boot Manager. On a second system with the exact same board, processor and memory, it will not boot.  Boot options list only ACHI. All the Bios setting seem the same. Why might it recognize the Linux boot option (UEFI) on one system and not the other which is exactly the same? - Jim

You're saying moving the same 5TB drive to the other PC is when you don't see the Linux Boot Manager Entry, correct?

When you installed Linux, did you only have the 5TB drive connected and powered up, or were other drives connected to the board and operating?

The 5TB drive is connected to a SATA port on both PCs?

Same UEFI/BIOS version in both boards?

You have the same CSM option settings on both boards?

I'm not sure what is going on.

You did not mention the video source for both PCs, I'm guessing it is the Intel iGPU? If not, are you using different video cards, or a video card in one PC and not the other? The video source, if not GOP compatible, a UEFI protocol, will not let the PC boot, all you'll get is a black screen, or message warning you the video source is not GOP compatible.

Normally it should be the GPT formatting that causes the Linux Boot Manager entry to be shown in the boot order.

That is how it works with Windows. GPT partitioning can use the EFI boot loader, and the entry in the boot order is Windows Boot Manager. That occurs in a Windows installation when there are two entries for the Windows installation media. One will have the prefix "UEFI:", and the other will be "AHCI:", for the EFI and Legacy boot loaders, respectively. Using the "UEFI:" boot order entry will cause the OS drive to be GPT formatted, and the EFI boot loader to be used.

Any idea which entry was used for the Linux installation media when you created the master 5TB drive? You can put that media in both PCs now, and check what you get in the boot order. I can create a Windows installation media from an ISO file on one PC, and when used to install Windows on another, I will have both the "UEFI:" and "AHCI:" or "RAID:" entries, depending upon the SATA mode setting.

Do you know if you are using a Linux EFI boot loader, rather than a "Legacy" boot loader in the Linux installation?

Windows puts a MBR partition along with the GPT partition, in an installation using the EFI boot loader. That is supposedly not following the UEFI standards, but is done for compatibility with older, non-EFI compatible programs like Memtest. I think Linux also does this for compatibility.

One possibility that is causing both disks to fail on the second PC, is an EFI security feature, the matching of GUIDs between systems. One or more of the GUIDs used on the first PC is not matching that of the second PC, so the GPT/EFI booting partition is not allowed to be used. Do you have the Secure Boot option enabled in the UEFI on these boards?

One thing you can try on the second PC, is find the CSM option, usually in the Boot screen, or possibly the ACPI screen. CSM is enabled by default. Click on it to open its sub-option. Find the Launch Storage OpROM Policy option, and set it to UEFI Only. You must Save and Exit the UEFI to apply that option. Go directly back into the UEFI and check the boot order for the Linux Boot Manager entry.

If setting that option setting fails for whatever reason, you may be automatically put right back into the UEFI again.

You might find some information on this page helpful, which discusses UEFI booting and GPT partitioning in Windows and Linux:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface




Edited by parsec - 02 Mar 2017 at 12:08pm