intel/x64: format / install scripts need to be rewritten

Question

intel/x64: format / install scripts need to be rewritten

peterwilli opened this issue 2 years ago · comments

edit sorry I apparently hit ctrl+enter, and it sent my issue right away, so I sent an empty message before completing it.

Hey there, it's me again. Thought I'd check how viable it is to run on Desktop after having good results with the Odroid.

I tried to compile using the usual settings:

export SKIFF_WORKSPACE=laptop
export SKIFF_CONFIG=intel/x64
make configure
make compile

After that, I kind of had to guess but I figured this would make me proceed to get an image flashed (I used a USB drive):

export SKIFF_DISK=/dev/sdb
make cmd/intel/x64/format
make cmd/intel/x64/install

Sadly, the USB flash drive doesn't boot on any PC I tried it on. Did I get something wrong? Thanks!

Christian Stewart · Answer 1 · Tue Aug 16 2022 06:55:45 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

@peterwilli Hey, I haven't tested intel/x64 in a while.

That said, it doesn't install any bootloader, so without some other kind of bootloader it won't boot properly.

Regardless, the partition layout used there is outdated (not the same as the one I'm using on my devices) anyway.

So those two scripts for intel/x64 need to be rewritten.

Workaround: for now, please follow these steps:

Using gparted: clear partition table with gpt partition type.
Create a fat16 partition labeled BOOT with size 300MB.
Create a ext4 partition labeled SKIFFOS with the rest of the disk.
Extract this (Refind) to the EFI partition with tar -xf efi.tar.gz: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aGSzp4aiS6PmkWLHIch3WqVEtKx6_yXb/view
Install to the SKIFFOS partition with below commands:

export SKIFF_WORKSPACE=laptop
export SKIFF_PARTITION=/dev/disk/by-label/SKIFFOS
make cmd/apple/macbook/install

... yes, you're not using a macbook, but that script will install it correctly to the ext4 partition.

This should get you a working bootable USB disk since your bootloader will recognize Refind as EFI on the first partition.

This is also how I boot my desktop & laptop (intel machines).

Peter Willemsen · Answer 2 · Tue Aug 16 2022 19:08:44 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

... yes, you're not using a macbook, but that script will install it correctly to the ext4 partition.

😂

I love the out of the box thinking here.

Could I update it? Sounds like a good PR for me to do it one I get it to boot.

Peter Willemsen · Answer 3 · Tue Aug 16 2022 19:54:08 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I sadly couldn't run it after following the instructions. Could it be because I have an AMD CPU? I sadly have no PC with Intel lying around to test it out.

Gparted after the steps:

boot partition tree:

/run/media/peter/BOOT
├── EFI
│   └── refind
│       ├── BOOT.CSV
│       ├── drivers_x64
│       ├── icons
│       ├── keys
│       ├── refind.conf
│       └── refind_x64.efi
└── startup.nsh

Christian Stewart · Answer 4 · Wed Aug 17 2022 00:43:55 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

AMD and Intel are compatible

Hmm could you try editing the BOOT partition and enabling the boot flag?

Also: actually on my desktop machine, I'm using Grub to start Refind and then Refind boots skiff. (a bit convoluted I know). But it should be possible to efi boot straight to refind.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/404877

This is a guide on how to make a Refind USB stick, if you follow those instructions, does it boot to the refind menu at least?

If that doesn't work, can you try installing Grub to the USB stick?

If you get it to either the refind or grub menu I can give you instructions on how to add the skiff partition and complete the setup. Just trying to figure out how to get your machine to recognize it as bootable.

Peter Willemsen · Answer 5 · Wed Aug 17 2022 16:29:01 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Hey there,

Flashing the image did make me able to boot in Refind. I simply did sudo dd if=refind-flashdrive-0.12.0.img of=/dev/sdb where /dev/sdb is my flash drive. It shows the boot menu. I ended up with the following partitions:

I'll now try to see if I can add SkiffOS to it using the previous instructions, maybe it works now 🤔

Christian Stewart · Answer 6 · Wed Aug 17 2022 16:30:55 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I think the only difference here is the "boot" flag is set on that first partition.

Maybe also the esp flag and remove the msftdata flag

Peter Willemsen · Answer 7 · Wed Aug 17 2022 16:32:43 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I think the only difference here is the "boot" flag is set on that first partition.

Maybe also the esp flag and remove the msftdata flag

I remember trying it, but not getting it working after all. However, I also found out that one of my USB ports was loose, so it could be it worked all this time, but I randomly didn't get a good connection, so I went back and tried something else while the former would've work (my apologies if that's the case).

Peter Willemsen · Answer 8 · Wed Aug 17 2022 16:43:35 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I managed to boot from Refind and select the SkiffOS bzimage (from the 'SKIFFOS' partition I made after flashing Refind on it and using the mac install script) but it got stuck at this screen, seemingly not reading from the drive anymore.

Christian Stewart · Answer 9 · Wed Aug 17 2022 16:46:09 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

@peterwilli can you try using intel/desktop in your config? It has the settings to use the disk labeled SKIFFOS.

You don't need to rebuild, just set skiff config and make compile, then install to the SKIFFOS partition again.

Also; what graphics are you using?

Peter Willemsen · Answer 10 · Wed Aug 17 2022 17:11:54 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

What do you mean by what graphics am I using?

Also, it didn't work sadly, I redid make compile using the following settings: export SKIFF_CONFIG=intel/x64,intel/desktop,skiff/core

I'll make sure to rebuild just in case, it's not the first time that made things work after all!

Christian Stewart · Answer 11 · Wed Aug 17 2022 17:22:12 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

What type of graphics card? Nvidia, or something else?

Peter Willemsen · Answer 12 · Wed Aug 17 2022 18:32:01 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

What type of graphics card? Nvidia, or something else?

My laptop has a RTX3080 and I think the desktop PC has an integrated GPU as there's no dGPU.

Edit: the desktop was still stuck after rebuilding the whole thing, but haven't tested on laptop yet because I needed it to be up right now (can't reboot).

Christian Stewart · Answer 13 · Thu Aug 18 2022 01:54:20 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

If you check the SKIFFOS partition, is there any skiff/journal dir on it? If so, can you send?

I'm pretty sure it's not stuck but rather the graphics driver is missing.

Peter Willemsen · Answer 14 · Thu Aug 18 2022 04:30:53 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I found these inside the root folder on SKIFFOS partition

Christian Stewart · Answer 15 · Thu Aug 18 2022 07:39:03 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I mean - can you please send me a copy of the journal directory inside the skiff dir?

tar -cvzf ./logs.tar.gz ./skiff/journal

Thanks :)

Peter Willemsen · Answer 16 · Thu Aug 18 2022 17:28:03 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I mean - can you please send me a copy of the journal directory inside the skiff dir?

tar -cvzf ./logs.tar.gz ./skiff/journal

Thanks :)

Oops, sorry! Here it is: logs.tar.gz

Christian Stewart · Answer 17 · Mon Aug 22 2022 09:52:10 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

@peterwilli sorry - just remembered to get around to this, will have a look this evening.

Christian Stewart · Answer 18 · Mon Aug 22 2022 15:58:40 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

@peterwilli Added nvidia driver (novueau), radeon & amd drivers: 62915d7

To apply the changes to your current build (without rebuilding):

git checkout master
git pull
git submodule update
make compile

... Buildroot should automatically re-configure linux & add the new modules.

Peter Willemsen · Answer 19 · Mon Aug 22 2022 21:45:45 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

@peterwilli Added nvidia driver (novueau), radeon & amd drivers: 62915d7

To apply the changes to your current build (without rebuilding):
git checkout master
git pull
git submodule update
make compile
... Buildroot should automatically re-configure linux & add the new modules.

You really did all that? Holy sh*t idk how to thank you, you go to great lengths to support even the most obscure setups! I'll try it this evening.

Christian Stewart · Answer 20 · Tue Aug 23 2022 13:37:35 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

@peterwilli No problem!

Christian Stewart · Answer 21 · Fri Sep 02 2022 19:53:26 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Completed adding the new format/install scripts:

Added refind to buildroot which compiles rEFInd from source
Added format + install scripts for intel/desktop
Added more kernel modules to support more hardware

Updated docs: https://github.com/skiffos/SkiffOS/tree/833a097/configs/intel/desktop

This makes a bootable USB stick.

Peter Willemsen · Answer 22 · Sat Sep 03 2022 15:12:29 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Sorry for not trying yet. I was really busy. I'll start a build right now with the new source ode and see how it goes