Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Ian Eure]

Hello,

I have Guix running on one computer already, and wanted to set it 
up on another, a ThinkPad L390 Yoga.  This was previously running 
Debian, but I wiped it to put Guix on, by running `sudo dd 
if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=1M'.  After the Guix install, 
the laptop doesn’t boot -- the firmware shows a boot device 
selection menu, rather than bootint into Guix.  The only entry is 
the internal NVMe SSD, and choosing it does nothing -- the 
firmware can’t figure out how to boot from it.  I tried two other 
third-party installers based on Guix 1.4.0, and got the same 
result.  The installer boots and runs fine, the install process 
appears to succeed, but after restarting, the machine doesn’t 
boot.

This is a very vanilla setup.  I used the graphical Guix 
installer, let it partition things, and have one partition for 
everything.  I have no other OS on this computer, I’m not 
dual-booting, net-booting, or anything else exotic.

Secure boot is disabled in the BIOS.

I tried updating the firmware on the laptop and restoring it to 
the default settings -- no change.

I tried wiping the partition table again, but using /dev/zero -- 
no change.

If I boot the installer image and drop into its GRUB menu, I can 
chainload GRUB off the internal SSD’s ESP, which lets me boot 
Guix.  So the installation itself is fine, but the bootloader is 
broken.  After booting this way, I tried `guix pull' and `sudo 
guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm'.  This also didn’t work 
-- the machine still will not boot.

After digging in the ESP, I thought I’d found a clue: the GRUB 
payload is placed at /EFI/Guix/grubx64.efi, and there’s no 
/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI, which is typically what a UEFI platform 
would look for to begin booting the OS.  But!  My existing Guix 
machine (a ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 AMD) *does* boot, but *doesn’t* have 
a /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI payload, either.  My Debian machine has 
/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI as well as /EFI/debian/grubx64.efi -- both 
files have identical contents per sha256sum.  But but!  The X13 
*also* has some Debian files in the ESP, so it’s not 100% 
identical to the L390.  Not sure how those got there.  It’s also a 
former Debian box, but I wiped it, and am surprised to see 
anything remaining from that.

My only hypothesis around this is that perhaps the EFI variables 
are messed up, and resetting BIOS settings doesn’t clear them. 
That might make the BIOS do something weird in its boot process; 
or make GRUB think some other OS is installed, and install the 
bootloader wrong for a single-OS setup.

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice?  Needing a USB stick 
to boot the machine is a pain.

Thanks,

  — Ian

Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Julien Lepiller]

Hi Ian,

Something similar happened to me before. After reconfiguring a lot of times, the firmaware had no space left for EFI variables. I didn't notice the error message at first because guix system did succeed. Maybe you have some similar errors that don't lead to a failure? What does the last phase say, when installing the bootloader?

Le 6 janvier 2024 04:41:34 GMT+01:00, Ian Eure <ian@retrospec.tv> a écrit :
>Hello,
>
>I have Guix running on one computer already, and wanted to set it up on another, a ThinkPad L390 Yoga.  This was previously running Debian, but I wiped it to put Guix on, by running `sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=1M'.  After the Guix install, the laptop doesn’t boot -- the firmware shows a boot device selection menu, rather than bootint into Guix.  The only entry is the internal NVMe SSD, and choosing it does nothing -- the firmware can’t figure out how to boot from it.  I tried two other third-party installers based on Guix 1.4.0, and got the same result.  The installer boots and runs fine, the install process appears to succeed, but after restarting, the machine doesn’t boot.
>
>This is a very vanilla setup.  I used the graphical Guix installer, let it partition things, and have one partition for everything.  I have no other OS on this computer, I’m not dual-booting, net-booting, or anything else exotic.
>
>Secure boot is disabled in the BIOS.
>
>I tried updating the firmware on the laptop and restoring it to the default settings -- no change.
>
>I tried wiping the partition table again, but using /dev/zero -- no change.
>
>If I boot the installer image and drop into its GRUB menu, I can chainload GRUB off the internal SSD’s ESP, which lets me boot Guix.  So the installation itself is fine, but the bootloader is broken.  After booting this way, I tried `guix pull' and `sudo guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm'.  This also didn’t work -- the machine still will not boot.
>
>After digging in the ESP, I thought I’d found a clue: the GRUB payload is placed at /EFI/Guix/grubx64.efi, and there’s no /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI, which is typically what a UEFI platform would look for to begin booting the OS.  But!  My existing Guix machine (a ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 AMD) *does* boot, but *doesn’t* have a /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI payload, either.  My Debian machine has /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI as well as /EFI/debian/grubx64.efi -- both files have identical contents per sha256sum.  But but!  The X13 *also* has some Debian files in the ESP, so it’s not 100% identical to the L390.  Not sure how those got there.  It’s also a former Debian box, but I wiped it, and am surprised to see anything remaining from that.
>
>My only hypothesis around this is that perhaps the EFI variables are messed up, and resetting BIOS settings doesn’t clear them. That might make the BIOS do something weird in its boot process; or make GRUB think some other OS is installed, and install the bootloader wrong for a single-OS setup.
>
>Does anyone have any suggestions or advice?  Needing a USB stick to boot the machine is a pain.
>
>Thanks,
>
> — Ian
>

Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Ian Eure]

Julien Lepiller <julien@lepiller.eu> writes:

> Hi Ian,
>
> Something similar happened to me before. After reconfiguring a 
> lot of
> times, the firmaware had no space left for EFI variables. I 
> didn't
> notice the error message at first because guix system did
> succeed. Maybe you have some similar errors that don't lead to a
> failure? What does the last phase say, when installing the 
> bootloader?
>

Thank you for the suggestion.  I’ve run into this problem before 
as well, on different hardware.  I didn’t see any message to this 
effect during the install, or during subsequent `guix system 
reconfigure' invocations, which do seem to update the bootloader. 
Does `guix system init' do more than that?

I did look around the EFI variables, but there are a bajillion of 
them and I have no idea what any of them mean, or which may be 
safe to remove.  I figured resetting all my BIOS settings would 
clear those out.

Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Ian Eure]

Julien Lepiller <julien@lepiller.eu> writes:

> Hi Ian,
>
> Something similar happened to me before. After reconfiguring a 
> lot of
> times, the firmaware had no space left for EFI variables. I 
> didn't
> notice the error message at first because guix system did
> succeed. Maybe you have some similar errors that don't lead to a
> failure? What does the last phase say, when installing the 
> bootloader?
>

The messages are long gone.  Is it save to run `guix system init 
/etc/config.scm' on my installed system, to see what that outputs? 
I *think* it’s safe to do so, but would like some confirmation 
before potentially wrecking this install — other than not booting, 
it’s working pretty well.

Thanks,

  — Ian

Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Roman Riabenko via]

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У пт, 2024-01-05 у 19:41 -0800, Ian Eure пише:
> ... After the Guix install, 
> the laptop doesn’t boot -- the firmware shows a boot device 
> selection menu, rather than bootint into Guix. ...

Sometimes, the installer makes a BIOS-compatible installation which
fails to run from UEFI. The fix might be as simple as choosing a
different USB boot option before running the installer. I typically
have two boot options before running the installer from the USB: one is
for UEFI, while the other is for BIOS. When the firmware supports both
options, they are available, and the BIOS installer is usually the
default. Another approach is to tweak your firmware settings to disable
CMS (Compatibility Support Mode) and other compatibility features so
that only the UEFI installer is available and try re-installing Guix to
ensure it installs UEFI. Please note that I am neither a developer nor
administrator, but just a user who shares experience as I understand
it.

> Secure boot is disabled in the BIOS.

You might want to try enabling it and see if any other options become
available in the firmware settings. For example, if I reset my laptop
firmware, all boot options are usually gone. I need to enable secure
boot and choose "Select a UEFI file as trusted", which becomes
available only with secure boot enabled. I can add a path to a ".efi"
file there.


I hope you solve it soon!

Roman


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Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Felix Lechner via]

Hi Ian,

On Mon, Jan 08 2024, Roman Riabenko via wrote:

> Sometimes, the installer makes a BIOS-compatible installation which
> fails to run from UEFI.

I like to check 'efibootmgr' inside the installer. Alternatively, you
can look at the NVRAM contents with evivars. (I don't have experience
yet with the newer efivarfs, but I think that's similar.) If you cannot
find the UEFI boot variables, then GRUB cannot either---and the setup
will be defective. It will not boot in UEFI.

Old GRUB boot sectors can make the boot experience even more confusing.

> The fix might be as simple as choosing a different USB boot option
> before running the installer.

That's how all my equipment, which is up to a decade old, works but it's
always a wire act from USB creation to first boot.

> You might want to try enabling it [secure boot]

I do not recommend Secure Boot for average Linux users. It tends to
create more problems and may not provide the security you expect.

Kind regards
Felix

Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Roman Riabenko via]

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Hi Felix

У вт, 2024-01-09 у 05:53 -0800, Felix Lechner пише:
> On Mon, Jan 08 2024, Roman Riabenko via wrote:
> > You might want to try enabling it [secure boot]
> 
> I do not recommend Secure Boot for average Linux users. It tends to
> create more problems and may not provide the security you expect.

Just to be clear, I do not promote the use of "Secure Boot" in any way.
Instead, I suggest looking again into different options in the firmware
settings and trying some of them, even if they seem irrelevant.
Unfortunately, the firmware is often poorly designed and non-free. In
my anecdotal case, it is possible to edit boot options by specifying
paths from within the EUFI setup only when the "Secure Boot" is on.
Otherwise, the option is not merely greyed out but is absent
altogether. It is also named inappropriately. After configuring the
boot options, I turn off the "Secure Boot" by emptying its password.
Hopefully, the firmware is not this broken on the device which Ian is
trying to use, but I try to be helpful.

Roman

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Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Ian Eure]

Felix Lechner <felix.lechner@lease-up.com> writes:

> Hi Ian,
>
> On Mon, Jan 08 2024, Roman Riabenko via wrote:
>
>> Sometimes, the installer makes a BIOS-compatible installation 
>> which
>> fails to run from UEFI.
>
> I like to check 'efibootmgr' inside the 
> installer. Alternatively, you
> can look at the NVRAM contents with evivars. (I don't have 
> experience
> yet with the newer efivarfs, but I think that's similar.) If you 
> cannot
> find the UEFI boot variables, then GRUB cannot either---and the 
> setup
> will be defective. It will not boot in UEFI.
>
> Old GRUB boot sectors can make the boot experience even more 
> confusing.
>

I’ve tried wiping both the entire SSD, and just the first 100mb, 
both with random data and zeros.  Either would obliterate any 
legacy boot sector which may have been present.

Can you talk a bit more about using efibootmgr inside the 
installer?

Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Ian Eure]

Roman Riabenko <roman@riabenko.com> writes:

> [[PGP Signed Part:Undecided]]
> У пт, 2024-01-05 у 19:41 -0800, Ian Eure пише:
>> ... After the Guix install, 
>> the laptop doesn’t boot -- the firmware shows a boot device 
>> selection menu, rather than bootint into Guix. ...
>
> Sometimes, the installer makes a BIOS-compatible installation 
> which fails to run from UEFI. ... When the firmware supports 
> both options, they are available, and the BIOS installer is 
> usually the default. Another approach is to tweak your firmware 
> settings to disable CMS (Compatibility Support Mode) and other 
> compatibility features so that only the UEFI installer is 
> available and try re-installing Guix to ensure it installs 
> UEFI. Please note that I am neither a developer nor 
> administrator, but just a user who shares experience as I 
> understand it.  ...

I’ve tried with both UEFI+CSM and UEFI-only, and get the same 
unbootable install either way.


> The fix might be as simple as choosing a different USB boot 
> option before running the installer. I typically have two boot 
> options before running the installer from the USB: one is for 
> UEFI, while the other is for BIOS.
>

I don’t have any option similar to that.

>
>> Secure boot is disabled in the BIOS.
>
> You might want to try enabling it and see if any other options 
> become
> available in the firmware settings. For example, if I reset my 
> laptop
> firmware, all boot options are usually gone. I need to enable 
> secure
> boot and choose "Select a UEFI file as trusted", which becomes
> available only with secure boot enabled. I can add a path to a 
> ".efi"
> file there.
>

My BIOS doesn’t have any option like that.  Since the GRUB payload 
from Guix is the only file on the ESP, and is unsigned, I don’t 
think enabling Secure Boot is likely to solve this.

Re: Laptop won’t boot after Guix install

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

Hi Ian,

If you want BOOTX64.EFI, to work around broken/forgetful firmware NVRAM, search the manual for the 'grub-efi-removable-bootloader'.

Kind regards,

T G-R

Sent on the go.  Excuse or enjoy my brevity.