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I just used the amd64 minimal installation iso (installed on usb drive) to install and configure gentoo linux with the following make.conf:

CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
MAKEOPTS="-j5"
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
USE="device-mapper truetype bindist mmx sse sse2 lzma logrotate graphviz"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
DISTDIR="${PORTDIR}/distfiles"
PKGDIR="${PORTDIR}/packages"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.isoc.org.il/pub/gentoo/"
GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64"

created a BIOS Bootand EFI System partitions as described in the installation handbook.

# parted /dev/nvme0n1
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/nvme0n1
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p
Model: NVMe Device (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 256GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name    Flags
 1      1049kB  3146kB  2097kB  ext4            grub    bios_grub
 2      3146kB  137MB   134MB   fat32           boot    boot, esp
 3      137MB   16.9GB  16.8GB  linux-swap(v1)  swap
 4      16.9GB  256GB   239GB   ext4            rootfs

Installed grub with grub-install:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
Installation finished. No error reported.

I noticed the message EFI variables are not supported on this system. but I'm guessing that the kernel that i'm booting on just doesn't support efi variables but I compiled my gentoo-sources kernel to support that.

content of my boot partition:

# ls -lsa /boot/
total 13749
    1 drwxr-xr-x  4 root root      512 Jan  1  1970 .
    4 drwxr-xr-x 21 root root     4096 Feb 15 19:00 ..
    1 drwxr-xr-x  3 root root      512 Feb 15 22:22 EFI
 3129 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  3203197 Feb 15 22:23 System.map-4.15.3-gentoo
  103 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   104849 Feb 15 22:23 config-4.15.3-gentoo
    1 drwxr-xr-x  6 root root      512 Feb 15 22:23 grub
10513 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 10764560 Feb 15 22:23 vmlinuz-4.15.3-gentoo

I have a Gigabyte B150M-HD3-CF motherboard that supports uefi booting. but when I reboot my computer it doesn't find a bootable drive to boot from.

what am I missing ?

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  • I suspect your firmware has CSM (Compatibility Support Module) enabled, which provides BIOS compatibility. In this mode the firmware emulates a legacy PC and the EFI variables are unavailable to the kernel.
    – Johan Myréen
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 7:01
  • 2
    The last time I did a Gentoo install, the Gentoo boot media didn't support EFI -- I had to use a different live DVD that did have that support.
    – Andy Dalton
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 19:28
  • If you're using a non-Gentoo boot disk, make sure to follow the warning about needing to have /dev/shm mounted or else parts of the Gentoo infrastructure don't work properly. In a previous question, I noted that the Ubuntu Server DVD worked OK for me.
    – ErikF
    Commented Feb 22, 2018 at 8:47

1 Answer 1

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1

One has to boot a system in EFI mode to be able to install EFI bootloader; read this for more insight. BTW, you might like a proper rescue image to finish this installation like this:

mount /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt
mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/boot/efi # or /mnt/boot?
for i in dev proc sys; do mount --bind /$i /mnt/$i; done
chroot /mnt grub-install
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2
  • A very nice install image is System Rescue CD. It will boot EFI, is Gentoo-based and will carry you through the handbook just fine.
    – SleighBoy
    Commented Jun 8, 2018 at 8:14
  • Yeah, it's fine but I know that ALT Rescue tends to just boot regardless of e.g. Secure Boot setting which is rare across distros like Gentoo (I actually wrote the UEFI SecureBoot mini-HOWTO and know the pain).
    – Michael Shigorin
    Commented Jun 15, 2018 at 14:10

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