0

Since it's a complete pain to realize PXE booting via UEFI (I still have not achieved it and time isn't on my side), I tried a workaround by booting from pxelinux while still choosing UEFI-bootloader and partitioning in the installer (this is not distribution-specific):

  • Any way I try it, though partitioning seems correct, the installed system won't boot; UEFI does not find the bootloader and I've tried with CSM Mode on as well.

Is it actually possible to install UEFI-Linux from a legacy-booted installer?

Improve this question
3
  • Have you verified the EFI boot files exist on the FAT32 EFI partition prior to rebooting the sytem? Is Secure Boot enabled or disabled, as some distros may not support it?
    – JW0914
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 13:12
  • secureboot is disabled; about the partition stuff i am not quite sure. distro is fedora btw
    – sgohl
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 14:24
  • I would double-check the EFI partition is formatted as FAT32 and the correct size for Fedora (distros vary greatly in the size they want the EFI partition to be), and, from Fedora's help section, verify the EFI partition's folder and file hierarchy is configured, and named, correctly.
    – JW0914
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 14:49

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

UEFI PXE is a pain. On most computers it seems completely broken or only seems to work with a Windows installation. I've never been able to get it to work with Linux either.

Your workaround, unless the Linux installer has a special option for this, won't work.
Normally the installer sets up a same type of system as the installation media is booted in. So that would be Legacy in your case.
You may manually create the EFI partition, but there is no way the installer can guess you wanted to install the EFI boot files.
As this is a rare corner-case most Linux distros don't include this in the installation procedure. (I don't know of any Linux distro that has support for this.)

In theory you could manually partition the EFI partition AND copy the EFI bootfiles to it. That should work. As far as I know the rest of Linux (with a full-featured kernel, a stripped down kernel may be more limited) should be able to run under both EFI and Legacy.

But by far the easiest way is just to create a USB install media en install from that directly in UEFI mode.

Improve this answer
1
  • thanks for your response. I was afraid it's actually true that the installer sets up the same type as its booted in. usb would be a unpleasant option if I manage to find out where to put the anakonda-ks.cfg or how to add the ks= option to the kernel parameters and re-create the img . fedora docs are a pain, too ^^
    – sgohl
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 14:21

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .