OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Setup & Installation

UEFI: Dual Boot - Windows 11 and ArcaOS 5.1

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Rich Walsh:

--- Quote from: Neil Waldhauer on November 01, 2023, 02:20:55 pm ---If you do succeed in directly booting an old MBR/BIOS-based ArcaOS directly from rEFInd, post it here.

--- End quote ---

3 years ago while I was still working for AN, I added an undocumented feature which allows you to do exactly what you want:  seamlessly boot both UEFI and CSM-based installs with a menu entry for each in the boot manager of your choice. The only downside is that you lose the DOS video improvements that 5.1 UEFI offers.

I no longer have a CSM/UEFI machine, so I can't confirm that this feature is still in place in 5.1GA (though I have no reason to believe it has been removed). @Neil, if you'd like to try it, send me an email or PM. I'll send you the instructions. If they work for you, I'll post them here.

Pete:
Hi Dave

Well, using the UEFI shell looks like fun but could be the answer to a couple of incorrect descriptions - not sure how - in the boot list:

a] AN Launcher shows as UEFI-OS
b] rEFInd shows as Windows Boot Manager
(Note: the 2 Windows 11 installations also show the name of the disk they are installed to ie Netarac SSD or Crucial P3, so I know which of the 3 Windows Managers is which)

So, the plan was to delete those (a] and b]) entries then add them back to the boot list with the correct descriptions.

My mainboard BIOS did have an option for booting a UEFIShell but that seems to have disappeared...

Downloaded the ShellBinPkg.zip linked into the rEFInd UEFI install instructions and put a copy of shell_x64.efi into \EFI\Boot

Then I used miniLVM, aka Logical Volume Manager (Simple), to re-install AN Launcher as that would pick up the shell_64.efi and offer it as a boot option.
On reboot started AN Launcher and selected shell_x64.efi.

Oh, What Fun!!! - Find the correct fs*: where "*" represents a number
fs0: was the ESP on the SATA drive so changed to fs1: without any problem but issuing ls resulted in system hang
Issuing ls on fs2: caused the same system hang
fs3: turned out to be the correct (NVMe) ESP.

Followed the rEFInd UEFI install instructions steps 12 to 15 to:

1] use bcfg dump -b to get the list of NVRAM entries
2] delete a] and b] entries above.
3] add the rEFInd entry
4] move the rEFInd entry to the top of the boot list

As I had already (re)installed AN Launcher it now had an entry with the correct name so no further action required for that.

Result: Checking BIOS on reboot rEFInd is the 1st entry, AN Launcher is correctly listed and the unwanted entries (a] and b] above) are now gone.

Exited BIOS and rEFInd appeared onscreen.

So, all worked well but it would still be easier to make those NVRAM changes from a nice little ui in ArcaOS.


Regards

Pete

Pete:
Hi All

I seem to recall something about being able to boot both GPT and MBR volumes on the same disk somewhere in the ArcaOS 5.1.0 related docs but have not been able to find it again to check exactly what was stated.

I am wondering what exactly os2ldr.efi does... something to prepare ArcaOS to boot I guess.
Does that end up with starting \os2ldr on the ArcaOS boot drive?

If "Yes" maybe this will work for Neil

menuentry "ArcaOS-H" {
    icon /EFI/BOOT/icons/os_arcaos.png
    loader \EFI\OS2\OS2LDR.EFI
    options "H:"
}


Regards

Pete

Rich Walsh:

--- Quote from: Pete on November 02, 2023, 07:09:35 pm ---using the UEFI shell looks like fun but could be the answer to a couple of incorrect descriptions - not sure how - in the boot list:
a] AN Launcher shows as UEFI-OS
b] rEFInd shows as Windows Boot Manager

--- End quote ---

rEFInd shows as Windows Boot Manager because you didn't change the name when you were using 'bcdedit' to change its path to reFind. AN Launcher shows as UEFI-OS because the firmware found another 'BOOTx64.EFI' in your other ESP. You can delete the entry as often as you wish but it will keep coming back until you delete/rename the file.

From a command prompt run 'bootorder /v' to see the list of items in your firmware's bootlist and reorder them as needed. I wrote both 'bootorder' and 'bootdelete', and planned to write a 'bootadd' but quit AN before I got around to it. 'bootorder' made it into 5.1 but 'bootdelete' didn't, so I've attached it here.


--- Quote from: Pete on November 02, 2023, 07:25:45 pm ---I seem to recall something about being able to boot both GPT and MBR volumes on the same disk somewhere in the ArcaOS 5.1.0 related docs but have not been able to find it again to check exactly what was stated.

--- End quote ---

Perhaps you saw it 2 or 3 postings above this one... (edit: I assume you meant UEFI and BIOS installs on the same disk rather than GPT and MBR)

What really amazes me is that seemingly no one has tried to simply use 'os2ldr.efi' to boot a BIOS-based install in the exact same fashion as a UEFI install. Had they done so, they would have found that all text-mode output is hosed: inital bootup messages and all full-screen sessions are just colored dots at the top of the screen. However, the Desktop comes up just fine and Win/OS2 works as well. The fix I referred to above (if it still works) simply restores text-mode video. Neil has my instructions on how to do so. If it works, I'll post them in a new thread.

Pete:
Hi Rich

Thanks for your explanations re the incorrect boot list descriptions.

Presuming bootdelete works as well as bootorder - Yes, had a quick "play" - the only missing bootlist utility is the bootadd you mention you did not get around to writing before leaving AN.
Any plans to complete your bootlist utilities? :-)

Yes, sorry, probably not the only person to mix up the terms... I thought I'd seen something in the AN docs or wiki... Which led me to suggest the menuentry using OS2LDR.EFI with desired boot drive as the option. Pleased to read that it should work although with text mode problems.


Regards

Pete


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