Has anyone had success booting from USB on UEFI-enabled server? I have HP DL380 Gen9. I can image the SLES11 SP4 x86_64 iso to a DVD and it will boot and perform an install regardless of whether my server is set for Legacy BIOS or UEFI. I can run ‘isohybrid’ on the same iso and then ‘dd’ it to a USB stick and it will boot and install SLES11 SP4 as long as the server is set to Legacy BIOS. If the server is set to UEFI, it will not boot from this USB stick. With HP Gen9, this requires F11 Boot Menu during boot, then select the USB device from the list. When I try this the display just returns to the device selection. I’ve seen conflicting documentation regarding UEFI and USB boot. Some docs state that this is not permitted, ever. HP’s latest UEFI Deployment Guide (May 2016) provides instructions for doing this with Windows media, but not Linux.
Hi
I always use imagewriter to create the iso image to a USB device, no
issues seen with efi booting.
When prepping a usb device I always use wipefs -a across the partitions
and root device to ensure everything is cleaned out as well.
You may need to set to CSM booting first, you may also need to ensure
system disk is set to gpt and not dos (esp SP4). I normally boot from a
openSUSE 13.2 rescue cd on USB, run gdisk and prep the disks, eg greate
a 260MB type ef00 partition and format vfat.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
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SLES11 SP4 Deployment Guide states this:
“Please note that booting from a USB Mass Storage Device is not supported on UEFI machines (this includes the complete ia64 architecture) and on the ppc64 architecture.”
Is this not true? Is booting from USB actually support on UEFI machines?
HP Service Pack for Proliant v2016.04.0 when flashed to USB stick using HP USB Drivekey Utility does boot on my ML350 Gen9 Server in UEFI mode using the F11 Boot Menu. This means that booting from USB device can work on UEFI machines. It means my problem is reduced to creating the ‘right’ SLES11 SP4 iso and imaging it with the ‘proper’ tool.
It would seem that the isohybrid command does not work on SLES11 SP4. For example, in theory I should be able to take the SLES 11 SP4 x86_64 installation iso and copy it to my UEFI installed SLES11 SP4 system. Then I should be able to ‘convert’ this iso for use with a USB stick by running ‘isohybrid --uefi sles11-sp4-x86_64.iso’. But this fails with the warning: unable to find efi image
I don’t think the trouble is with the tool used to flash this image to the USB stick, I think the iso has not been modified properly for UEFI booting from USB.
Any ideas how to use the isohybrid command to create a SLES11 SP4 installation iso that will work on USB stick in UEFI mode? Or does SUSE provide installation iso’s for USB use?
SLES11 SP3 Release Notes:
5.7 Installation via USB #
With SLE 11 SP3 it is possible to dump the DVD1 ISO file to a USB stick and install from that (given that your BIOS supports it). This will only work for DVD1 and not with UEFI.
On UEFI systems, the DVD1 ISO file must first be adapted using the “isohybrid” tool (from SLES 11 SP3 or later), by running “isohybrid --uefi file_name.iso” before dumping the modified ISO file to a USB stick.
SLES11 SP4 Release Notes
The section above is not included. Because it doesn’t work?
Hi
I boot a MacBook via UEFI/elilo on SLED 11 SP4… created the
image with imagewriter… (on a later release machine)
Supported in this case means raise an SR… could be the
system/hardware UEFI implementation…
Use a later operating system to run imagewriter, this will take care of
isohybrid issue.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
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Hi
Just re-tested here on a HP ProBook SLED 12 SP4, need to ensure the USB
device is in a USB2.0 port and UEFI is set to UEFI Hybrid (With CSM).
Again, image written via SUSE Studio imagewriter.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
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If I understand correctly, CSM amounts to the Legacy BIOS setting on HP servers. That is exactly what I am trying not to use. The default setting on HP Gen9 servers is UEFI (there is no CSM option, you must either leave the UEFI setting as it is or change it to Legacy BIOS). There is no problem if change the setting to Legacy BIOS - in this case SLES11 SP4 can be installed from DVD or from USB. I am trying not to use Legacy BIOS as eventually (perhaps next generation of HP servers) this option will not be available.
I am looking to install SLES11 sp4 from USB media with the Gen9 server default settings (which is UEFI). Are you saying this is not possible?
Today I will try to perform an installation with the server set for UEFI, and I’ll use my install DVD inserted in a USB DVD drive attached to a USB2.0 port on my server. I expect this to work. I don’t believe the trouble is USB, I suspect the trouble is that isohybrid isn’t producing an iso that supports UEFI boot.
Hi
Just checked again and it does boot with native UEFI, I’m saying yes it is possible, but you need to use imagewriter and a later version of SLES or openSUSE to create the USB device.
[QUOTE=malcolmlewis;33186]Hi
Just checked again and it does boot with native UEFI, I’m saying yes it is possible, but you need to use imagewriter and a later version of SLES or openSUSE to create the USB device.[/QUOTE]
Thanks. What about isohybrid? For a standard BIOS boot of SLES installation media from USB, it was required to run isohybrid on the SLES distribution iso before imaging it to a USB stick. Is this necessary for UEFI booting from USB as well? If so, it doesn’t seem to work on SLES11 SP4 (isohybrid --uefi is unable to find efi files). Perhaps it will work if I execute this on SLES12 SP1
Hi
No isohybrid run manually on the image before using imagewriter.
Use fdisk -l on the iso image… it’s all done, eg;
/usr/sbin/fdisk -l SLED-11-SP4-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso
Disk SLED-11-SP4-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso: 4.3 GiB, 4642045952 bytes, 9066496 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x126cbc6d
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
SLED-11-SP4-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso1 2384 10447 8064 4M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
SLED-11-SP4-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso2 * 10448 9066495 9056048 4.3G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFSThanks Malcom. Your comments made me realize that I am not using the SLES11 SP4 iso downloaded from SUSE. I ‘recreate’ that iso after adding a number of unattended installation files so multiple server configurations (1,2,3 logical drives as well as HP G5, G6, G8, Gen9 servers) can all be built automatically from the same media by just specifying autoyast=file|usb:////autoinst.xml.
I tested with the original SP4 iso from SUSE and it boots on my Gen9 set to UEFI from a USB2 port fine.
My mkisofs command for ‘creating’ the iso must be flawed. I will have to investigate this - strange that this iso works on USB and DVD for Legacy BIOS and on DVD for UEFI, but doesn’t work with USB on UEFI.
fdisk -l on ‘my’ iso indicates no valid partition table.
In googling for this issue I have come across SUSE Studio a number of times. Can SUSE Studio be used for what I am doing?
Hi
I don’t see why you can’t use SUSE Studio, it adds the SUSE Studio branding, lots of customization options…
The other option maybe using kiwi to create your image.
I tried Kiwi, but it didn’t work (for my purposes). I created SLES11 SP4 server (appliance?) and added my files, then ran Build, and downloaded the .raw file. I used dd to put this on my USB stick (all work was performed on OpenSUSE). My Gen9 DL380 will not boot from this stick (UEFI mode). My Gen9 ML350 (Legacy BIOS) will boot from this stick, but it is not a SLES11 SP4 installation media, it is some kind of preconfigured installed system that runs from USB stick. By the way, fdisk -l does not show any partition table. Not at all what I need. I’m looking to add files to the SLES11 SP4 x86_64 installation iso that will still work when I flash it to a USB stick and try to boot a server set to UEFI. (It already works on DVD and USB with Legacy BIOS, it only fails on USB with UEFI). The files I want to add are autoinst.xml files for HP servers. I have different files because older HP servers use the CCISS driver and newer ones use standard scsi /dev/sdx. So I have a folder hierarchy G5, G6, G7, G8, G9. Each folder contains 3 subfolders hp1x, hp2x, and hp3x. Each of these folders contain different autoinstall files for 1 logical drive, 2 logical drives, 3 logical drives. With everything on the Build media, it is a simple matter to use autoyast=file:///g9/hp1x/autoinst.xml to build a G9 server with a single logical drive and the entire install is automatic, no further interaction until login.
Just need a way to create an iso that contains the proper paritition table and partitions. Mkisofs doesn’t seem to do this.
Hi
I would save as a usb/iso image, then use imagewriter to prepare the
usb device.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
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