Bug #14959

Test UEFI boot with a Tails installed with UUI

Added by intrigeri 2017-11-11 14:37:33 . Updated 2018-02-16 21:33:28 .

Status:
Resolved
Priority:
Elevated
Assignee:
intrigeri
Category:
Installation
Target version:
Start date:
2017-11-11
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Test
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Installation Assistant
Deliverable for:

Description

We’ve wondered a few times whether UUI created devices that start in UEFI mode, and I could find no test report:

If it indeed doesn’t work, then it would be nice to at least let users know what they can expect and what they should do: most computers are in UEFI mode by default nowadays, so having doc optimized for the minority case means most people will have to go through troubleshooting before they manage to start their intermediary Tails. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why UUI causes so much trouble for our help desk. I hope I’m wrong!


Subtasks


Related issues

Related to Tails - Feature #9202: Assistant: Test Windows scenario Resolved 2015-04-08
Related to Tails - Feature #14447: Consider using Win32 Disk Imager to install from Windows In Progress 2017-08-24
Related to Tails - Bug #8992: USB sticks installed with UUI fail to boot in UEFI mode: "no configuration file found" Resolved 2015-03-02
Related to Tails - Bug #13206: Install by cloning sometimes silently fails from a stick installed with UUI Rejected 2017-09-29
Blocks Tails - Feature #13244: Core work 2017Q4: Foundations Team Resolved 2017-06-29

History

#1 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 14:37:42

  • related to Feature #9202: Assistant: Test Windows scenario added

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 14:37:50

  • related to Feature #14447: Consider using Win32 Disk Imager to install from Windows added

#3 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 14:37:56

  • related to Bug #8992: USB sticks installed with UUI fail to boot in UEFI mode: "no configuration file found" added

#4 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 14:38:04

  • related to Bug #13206: Install by cloning sometimes silently fails from a stick installed with UUI added

#5 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 14:41:41

  • Assignee set to intrigeri

It would be great to have this data point before our sprint on revamping the install/upgrade & disk format (early February). I’ll try to get access to a Windows system. But implementations of UEFI firmware differ so much that it would be really useful if someone else could test booting on other hardware and report back.

#6 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 15:03:02

Crap, my best chance to get access to a Windows system failed (said Windows system is currently broken & won’t boot). Either I’ll find a Windows at a conference next week, or I’ll need to deassign me. Either way, as said above more test results would be good, so if you can please do test this.

#7 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 16:00:19

  • Status changed from Confirmed to Resolved
  • Target version changed from Tails_3.5 to Tails_3.3
  • % Done changed from 0 to 100

Done, and:

  • on a ThinkPad T460 (with broken screen, hence the missing info) configured to boot in UEFI mode first, indeed it fails: I land in a GRUB shell and there’s a “WARNING: …” message. I’ll follow up on Bug #8992. No need for more tests as it’s quite obvious, after debugging a bit, why this can’t possibly work;
  • on a MacBook Pro 8,1: I see an entry in the Mac boot loader but selecting it produces no visible result and I’m stuck in there.

#8 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 16:00:28

#9 Updated by intrigeri 2017-11-11 16:10:18

FTR, interestingly with a simple workaround that I’ll report on Bug #8992 both systems boot fine in UEFI mode, despite the fact that UUI created a MBR partition table on the USB drive (I tried creating a GPT myself but UUI replaced it), so obviously the system partition is not a proper ESP. I guess we’re lucky these firmware implementations don’t follow the UEFI specs to the letter :)

#10 Updated by sajolida 2018-02-16 21:33:28

I can boot a Tails installed with UUI on my MacBook Pro that otherwise don’t detect my USB stick if installed using dd (Bug #12146).