UEFI: Dual Boot - Windows 11 and ArcaOS 5.1

[Dave Yeo]

It was fairly simple with this BIOS as I can edit the boot files/order in the bios. rEFIind is \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI and when it boots it gives the choices of LAUNCHER.EFI and OS2LDR.EFI from \EFI\OS2. It did also gave the choice of Linux kernels too but that seems to have broken while doing multiple AOS 5.1.x installs.
It's been awhile since I did the rEFInd install and now it is OLD_X64.EFI after installing the latest beta, I assume I could rename it. During beta testing I also lost my changes to refind.conf it seems.

[Neil Waldhauer]

Using my Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 with the EFI partition assigned drive letter Y:, I copied refind_x64.efi to Y:\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI, replacing the AN Launcher.
I copied refind.conf-sample to Y:\EFI\BOOT\refind.conf

At this point, I can reboot the computer and refind can boot OS2LDR.EFI, which presents a number of drive letters to boot.

I added an entry for my ArcaOS 5.1 boot volume F:

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# This is an entry for ArcaOS 5.1 in UEFI mode
menuentry ArcaOS-F {
    loader \EFI\OS2\OS2LDR.EFI
    options "F:"
}

After this, a menu entry for ArcaOS-F appears that can boot the F: drive

I added an entry for my ArcaOS 5.1 boot volume H:

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scanfor hdbios,internal,external,optical,manual
This adds a cryptic entry that loads the AirBoot boot manager. From Airboot, I can boot the H: drive
If I use the shutdown menu on ArcaOS 5.0 to select the H: drive, Airboot will automatically boot H:

rEFInd does not come with icons for ArcaOS
The conf-sample file implies that rEFInd will display graphics by default, but I see only text
I tried to replace the title bar with my own graphics file, but nothing happens

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banner banner.png
rEFInd can load the BIOS setup utility, which is nice

[Dave Yeo]

Yes, we need a 128x128 ArcaOS png. Did you install the icons? Here under \EFI\BOOT I have an icons directory full of png's that are probably needed for the graphics. Also a keys directory full of cer files for secure boot and a var directory where rEFInd keeps a PreviousBoot file.
There's also a \EFI\tools directory for add-ons for rEFInd, currently empty here.
Should be asking the developer for OS/2 support, should be detecting \EFI\OS2 or \EFI\OS2\OS2LDR.EFI and having an icon.

[Pete]

Hi all

@rich: Yes, installing AN Launcher to the SATA disk then selecting the AN Launcher entry in the updated BIOS boot list allows me to start Windows on the SATA disk and ArcaOS on the NVMe disk.

@All: However, decided to give rEFInd a try.

Having installed rEFInd (performed file copying) I rebooted and checked BIOS boot list: No refind.efi

I did not work out how to add the necessary entry to the BIOS boot list from ArcaOS but figured Windows 11 may have a use after all  :-)

In Windows I used the following commands in a CMD window run as Admin - brief description of command on line below

      mountvol Y: /S
mount ESP volume as Y:

      Y:
Change to ESP volume

      cd EFI\refind
Change to refind directory

      bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi
set rEFInd as the default EFI boot program


I rebooted and rEFInd came up as boot manager with various *.efi files offered for booting. Windows on SATA1 and Windows and ArcaOS on NVMe all boot fine.

Having worked out that  I only need refind_x64.efi and refind.conf in the /EFI/Boot directory has got rid of a few offerings. I also discovered that the only ArcaOS files required are these 2 files /EFI\OS2\OS2LDR.*

I have been trying to tweak refind.conf a little but logging does not seem to work - currently using level 4 with no log file in sight.

Following Neils example I created a menu entry for ArcaOS

# Menu entry for ArcaOS 5.1.0 in UEFI mode
menuentry "ArcaOS 5.1.0" {
    icon /EFI/refind/icons/os2ldr.png
    loader /EFI/OS2/OS2LDR.EFI
    options "H:"
}


However, I cannot work out how to not display the "Boot /EFI/OS2/OS2LDR.EFI" option ie creating the menu entry has doubled the ArcOS options but at least the above menu entry bypasses the "choose the boot drive" screen which is displayed if the "Boot /EFI/OS2/OS2LDR.EFI" option is selected.

I also find that it does not matter what icon is selected as it will not display anyway ie change the above icon for any of the "boot" icons supplied with rEFInd and that icon will not be displayed, the standard (?) found-this-*.efi-file icon gets displayed. Maybe I am misunderstanding something, somewhere...

Overall seems a very competent boot manager - and fairly pretty in graphics mode.
Not sure why graphics are not working on Neils system... An accidental delete of the "#" on the "textonly" line?


Regards

Pete

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Pete, I named my icon os_aos.png and it seems to display fine, picture posted on the Davids Doodles thread.
My menu entry, adapted from Neil's

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# This is an entry for ArcaOS 5.1 in UEFI mode
menuentry ArcaOS-5.1 {
    icon \EFI\boot\icons\os_aos.png
    loader \EFI\OS2\OS2LDR.EFI
    options "M:"
}


[Neil Waldhauer]

I got graphics by copying the icons directory to \EFI\BOOT\icons. My banner now shows up.

I also added an ArcaOS icon, which I named os_arcaos.png to be more consistent with the other operating system names.

I copied the os_arcaos.png over the os_unknown.png, and now I get ArcaOS for the AN Launcher and OS2LDR.EFI.

I need an AirBoot icon, so I got one from the sourceforge website. I copied it over os_legacy.png

All the icons that were displayed are now my own. I used some generic drive letter icons for the UEFI boot drives E: and F:, Otherwise, I can choose AirBoot, and boot H: and my older BIOS-based installations.

There is a whole section of the .conf file for hiding user interface items you don't want.

And it would be nice to be boot a particular BIOS partition. How would we get the UUID for each partition?

[Dave Yeo]

And it would be nice to be boot a particular BIOS partition. How would we get the UUID for each partition?

Seems that if you use DFsee, use F6 to select your partition and then use Mode=JFS-->Display Superblock towards the bottom is the Linux Vol UUID.

[Pete]

Hi All

Found out why some of my refind.conf settings were not working: I was editing the wrong file, should have been editing /EFI/refind/refind.conf but was editing a copy in /EFI/boot instead... DOH!

All seems to be working now, the "Arca" icon, /EFI/refind/icons/os_aos.png gets loaded and the "Boot /EFI/OS2/OS2LDR.EFI" option does not appear.

Wonderful what happens when you edit the right conf file.


Regards

Pete

[Rich Walsh]

And it would be nice to be boot a particular BIOS partition. How would we get the UUID for each partition?

Seems that if you use DFsee, use F6 to select your partition and then use Mode=JFS-->Display Superblock towards the bottom is the Linux Vol UUID.

This is almost certainly not what is needed - how would a bootmanager that offers no JFS support be able to find this? Partitions on GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks have externally-identifiable GUIDs, partitions on MBR disks do not.

If this is an MBR (as I suspect it is), then you'll have to use one of the other methods available to identify the partition (see the "Volume" section in 'configfile.html#stanzas'). OTOH, if this is a GPT disk, getting the GUID is easy: open MiniLVM, right-click on the partition, and select 'Copy GUID to clipboard'.

[Dave Yeo]

@Pete,Interesting, I've been editing the one in \EFI\BOOT which is where the deb installed it along with refind.conf-sample. It is also where the refind BOOTX64.EFI, BOOT.CSV, the icons, keys, and vars directories were installed. BOOT.CSV contains

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bootx64.efi,rEFInd Boot Manager,,This is the boot entry for rEFInd
There is also \tools for extensions, currently empty

[Dave Yeo]

@Rich, the UUID, not the GUID. You're correct about the lack of JFS support, I'm not sure if the UUID is also saved somewhere else such as the EBR, seems likely. Have to boot to Linux and compare the UUID's being reported.
I also wonder how Linux figures out UUID's for HPFS, FAT and FAT32 as they don't support them unlike most Linux file systems, even swap.

[Rich Walsh]

@Rich, the UUID, not the GUID. You're correct about the lack of JFS support, I'm not sure if the UUID is also saved somewhere else such as the EBR, seems likely. Have to boot to Linux and compare the UUID's being reported.

But this is beside the point. reFind isn't asking for a _filesystem_ UUID, it wants the *partition's* GUID - and there is no such thing on an MBR drive. Refer to the docs I cited above.

[Dave Yeo]

@Rich, the UUID, not the GUID. You're correct about the lack of JFS support, I'm not sure if the UUID is also saved somewhere else such as the EBR, seems likely. Have to boot to Linux and compare the UUID's being reported.

But this is beside the point. reFind isn't asking for a _filesystem_ UUID, it wants the *partition's* GUID - and there is no such thing on an MBR drive. Refer to the docs I cited above.

It appears you are correct. Just so used to wrestling UUID's, which now I understand are file system specific, in Linux.
Anyways, another consideration with directly booting an OS/2 partition from rEFInd is the system wouldn't know what drive letter it has, or is that still a problem with LVM? Used to be that only C: could be directly booted.

[Neil Waldhauer]

How would I construct a stanza for an MBR drive, with ArcaOS-H as the volume label?

menuentry ArcaOS-H {
    volume "ArcaOS-H"
    loader os2ldr
    icon /EFI/BOOT/icons/os_arcaos.png
}

This one results in "File not found"

[Dave Yeo]

How would I construct a stanza for an MBR drive, with ArcaOS-H as the volume label?

menuentry ArcaOS-H {
    volume "ArcaOS-H"
    loader os2ldr
    icon /EFI/BOOT/icons/os_arcaos.png
}

This one results in "File not found"

Well, no file system support. There is a JFS driver here, https://github.com/pbatard/efifs/releases/download/v1.7/jfs_x64.efi, I put it in \EFI\BOOT\drivers.
I assume this driver is case sensitive so need OS2LDR instead of os2ldr and I removed the HIDDEN and SYSTEM attributes from OS2LDR for testing.
Unluckily rEFInd scanned all my volumes, took a long time, so for testing, set the time out to zero. You should be able to use the don't_scan_dirs setting in refind.conf I assume.
Eventually it did find OS2LDR, gave it a different icon then expected and selecting it, I see a brief text screen where os2ldr complains about something and I ended up back in rEFInd.
I don't think it will work unless using C: as os2ldr needs to know what drive it is using, so the boot manager such as airboot needs to set the drive letter in a certain memory location IIRC. Could try with the H: parameter as the AOS os2ldr is not the IBM os2ldr and might accept the drive letter.
Personally, I will just keep using airboot by selecting the right drive in rEFInd.