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Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode [SOLVED]

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dpotter
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Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode [SOLVED]

#1 Post by dpotter »

I am trying to install Debian 11 xfce. I have put the live iso file on a usb stick by copying it in the way recommended in the installation instruction on the Debian website. When I try to load the Debian installer in UEFI mode I get an error message saying

"Failed to open \EFI\BOOT\mmx64.efi - Not Found" It then says "Something has gone seriously wrong: import_mok_state() failed" and my PC then powers down.

It seems that there is a missing file on the installation medium mmx64.efi which should be in the directory \EFI\BOOT\ on the installation medium. However, the usb disk is read-only, and I cannot find a way to copy the necessary file to the stick. Could someone tell me how to make the usb key writable, so I can copy and paste that mmx64.efi file ?

I don't think there is anything wrong with the usb stick or the iso file that I copied on to it. I can boot fine in mbr mode. The installer works in that mode and would let me go through the installation process.

I have secure boot disabled on my PC. I have installed different Linux distributions in the past and have not had any problem.
Last edited by dpotter on 2021-09-23 10:17, edited 2 times in total.

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Northpoint
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Re: Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode

#2 Post by Northpoint »

Hello,
I have to say that making a good working bootable usb is my downfall also. My thinking is that perhaps the file structure on the usb is not correct or you pulled the usb before it had time to flush everything to the stick.

What I do now is, I have a 16 gig stick and use Ventoy to make it. Its pretty easy to use.

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

I think you will like it. Let me know :)
Get your linux on.

dpotter
Posts: 6
Joined: 2021-09-14 10:20

Re: Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode

#3 Post by dpotter »

Thanks Northpoint. This program seems very useful. I will certainly give it a try.

dpotter
Posts: 6
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Re: Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode

#4 Post by dpotter »

I finally managed to find out how to edit the iso file to get it to boot. Here are the steps I took:

Note: I think you might need to have disabled Secure Boot first of all for this to work.

Insert the installation stick and type the following command at the prompt to get the path of the partition on which the iso file resides:

sudo fdisk -l


Mount the partition on which the iso file resides (in my case this was sdc2, but this will differ for different setups):

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdc2 /mnt -o uid=1000


Navigate to the directory /mnt/efi/boot on the usb stick:

cd /mnt/efi/boot


There are two files in this directory: grubx64.efi and bootx64.efi.
Rename the file grubx64.efi to bootx64.efi:

sudo mv grubx64.efi bootx64.efi


This will obviously replace the existing file boox64.efi. This does not seem to matter.

Unmount the usb drive:

sudo umount /mnt

You should now be able to load and run the Debian efi installation program successfully.



I gained inspiration from the following posts:

https://vitux.com/how-to-manually-mount ... on-ubuntu/

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... t-mm64-efi
Last edited by dpotter on 2021-09-18 13:14, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode

#5 Post by p.H »

dpotter wrote: 2021-09-16 15:57 I think you might need to have disabled Secure Boot first of all for this to work.
Right. The original bootx64.efi is actually shimx64.efi, which provides compatibility with the secure boot.
dpotter wrote: 2021-09-16 15:57 Mount the partition on which the iso file resides (in my case this was sdc2, but this will differ for different setups):

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdc2 /mnt -o uid=1000
It is not the partition which contains the ISO filesystem (read only) but the EFI system partition.

dpotter
Posts: 6
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Re: Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode

#6 Post by dpotter »

Thanks for your feedback p.H.

I think I have a lot to learn about Secure Boot and MOK management. It is something I have not had to worry about before, and this is definitely a learning experience! But I am getting there.

dpotter
Posts: 6
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Re: Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode

#7 Post by dpotter »

Update. Out of curiosity, I decided to write the ISO file I had previously downloaded and stored on my hard drive to a different USB stick. This is the same ISO file referred to above. This stick was newer than the stick I had previously used. The downloaded ISO image that was stored on my hard drive had not been altered in any way by me. The editing that I discussed above was done to the image after it had been copied to the old USB stick. Apart from the USB stick used this time being a newer stick, I also used the 'dd' command to copy the image to the USB stick, rather than using 'cp' to do the transfer as previously.

Lo and behold, I was able to boot the Debian installer with no problem at all. Strange. Anyway, I have successfully installed Debian 11.
Last edited by dpotter on 2021-09-23 10:14, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Unable to boot installation media in UEFI mode

#8 Post by sunrat »

Congratulations! Please edit the title in your first post adding [SOLVED] so it may help other users.
“ computer users can be divided into 2 categories:
Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
Remember to BACKUP!

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