qubes-doc/troubleshooting/uefi-troubleshooting.md

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doc	UEFI Troubleshooting	/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/

Troubleshooting UEFI related problems

Cannot start installation, hangs at four penguins after choosing "Test media and install Qubes OS" in GRUB menu

There is some common bug in UEFI implementation, affecting mostly Lenovo systems, but probably some others too. You can try existing workaround:

1. In GRUB menu¹ press e.

2. At the end of chainloader line add /mapbs /noexitboot.

3. Perform installation normally, but not reboot system at the end yet.

4. Go to tty2 (Ctrl-Alt-F2).

5. Execute mount | grep boot/efi and note device name (first column). It should be something like /dev/sda1.

6. Execute efibootmgr -v, search for Qubes entry and note its number (it should be something like Boot0001 - 0001 is an entry number).

7. Replace existing Qubes entry with modified one. Replace XXXX with entry number from previous step, /dev/sda with your disk name and -p 1 with /boot/efi partition number):

    efibootmgr -b XXXX -B
    efibootmgr -v -c -u -L Qubes -l /EFI/qubes/xen.efi -d /dev/sda -p 1 "placeholder /mapbs /noexitboot"
   

8. Compare new entry with the old one (printed in step 6) - it should only differ in additional options at the end.

9. Now you can reboot the system by issuing reboot command.

System crash/restart when booting installer

Some Dell systems and probably others have another bug in UEFI firmware. And there is another workaround for it:

1. In GRUB menu¹ press e.

2. At the end of chainloader line add -- efi=attr=uc.

3. Perform installation normally, but not reboot system at the end yet.

4. Go to tty2 (Ctrl-Alt-F2).

5. Execute:

    sed -i -e 's/^options=.*/\0 efi=attr=uc' /mnt/sysimage/boot/efi/qubes/xen.cfg
   

6. Now you can reboot the system by issuing reboot command.

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1 If you use rEFInd, you can see 3 options regarding the USB installer. Choose "Fallback Boot Loader" to enter the GRUB menu. ↩ ↩