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Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

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Tewkster
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Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#1 Post by Tewkster »

I have Debian 10 installed on a Dell R820. I purchased a RR3742A RAID Controller from HighPoint which is not accessible when the system boots.

The card shows up in the BIOS and the driver loads on startup. The card shows up when I run lspci and drivers are there when I run lsmod.

I think that booting in UEFI instead of BIOS mode may fix the issue.

I don't want to reinstall my system since I have too much stuff that's working the way I want it to.

What is the best procedure for migrating from BIOS to UEFI?

redleaf
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Joined: 2022-05-03 16:57

Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#2 Post by redleaf »


p.H
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Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#3 Post by p.H »

I do not understand what issue you are trying to solve. IIUC the system is currently not installed on a drive connected to the RAID controller and boots fine, so why do you need to access it before the kernel runs ?

Anyway, here are the basic steps:
Create a partition with type "EFI system" of at least 10 MB and format it as FAT. Let mkdosfs automatically select the type of FAT (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32) depending on the partition size.
Mount it on /boot/efi. Update /etc/fstab accordingly.
Install grub-efi-amd64. When prompted, install a copy in the removable media path and do not update NVRAM (it would fail if the system did not boot in EFI mode).
OR install grub-efi-amd64-bin (it won't remove grub-pc and install GRUB-EFI automatically) and run

Code: Select all

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --no-nvram --force-extra-removable

Tewkster
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Location: USA

Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#4 Post by Tewkster »

Thanks for the feedback. I also found that the module is creating an error. I'm not sure if loading the driver later in the boot process with resolve this.

dmesg|grep -i taint
[ +0.005634] rr3740a: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ +0.000009] rr3740a: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
[ +0.000002] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[ +0.000374] rr3740a: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[ +0.000012] CPU: 56 PID: 4124 Comm: hptsvr Tainted: P OE 4.19.0-22-amd64 #1 Debian 4.19.260-1
[ +0.000021] CPU: 56 PID: 4124 Comm: hptsvr Tainted: P W OE 4.19.0-22-amd64 #1 Debian 4.19.260-1

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Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#5 Post by p.H »

This is not a error, it only means that this an out-of-tree proprietary module (like the nvidia driver modules). Loading it later won't make any difference.
I repeat my question : what it the real problem that you are trying to solve ? In other words, what does not work ?

Tewkster
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Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#6 Post by Tewkster »

p.H wrote: 2022-10-10 18:20 This is not a error, it only means that this an out-of-tree proprietary module (like the nvidia driver modules). Loading it later won't make any difference.
I repeat my question : what it the real problem that you are trying to solve ? In other words, what does not work ?
I installed a RocketRaid controller (rr3742a) and the driver (rr3740a) from HighPoint to manage a RocketStor RS6438TS.
The card is listed in the BIOS of the server (Dell R820).
The driver loads on bootup after the grub menu.
When I run hptsvr, I get an error that the driver is not loaded.

# hptsvr

Driver is not loaded.


If I check lspci, the card is listed.
41:00.0 RAID bus controller: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device 3743 (rev a1)

If I check lsmod, the driver is present.
Module Size Used by
rr3740a 598016 0
scsi_mod 249856 8 rr3740a,sd_mod,usb_storage,uas,megaraid_sas,libata,sg,sr_mod

Since the driver is not loaded according to the software, I can't manage the RAID Array.

I don't have secure boot enabled since that server doesn't have that option available, at least in BIOS boot mode.

I have no idea what's causing this issue.

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Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#7 Post by p.H »

What does

Code: Select all

lspci -nnks 41:00.0
say ?
Does the system see the RAID array ?

Tewkster
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Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#8 Post by Tewkster »

# lspci -nnks 41:00.0
41:00.0 RAID bus controller [0104]: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device [1103:3743] (rev a1)
Subsystem: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device [1103:0000]
Kernel driver in use: rr3740a
Kernel modules: rr3740a

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Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#9 Post by p.H »

That means that the driver is used for the RAID controller. You did not answer: does the system see the RAID array (with lsblk, in /proc/partitions, /dev, kernel logs...) ?

I don't know this hardware, driver and management software. If you think that EFI boot may solve your issue, go ahead as explained in the first replies.

Tewkster
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Location: USA

Re: Migrating boot from BIOS to UEFI

#10 Post by Tewkster »

No it does not, the RAID manager software from HighPoint configures the RAID array which depends on the driver.

As my patience is running out with this, I decided to put the card into another machine to confirm that it's working. Everything worked as advertised with Windows 10.

Now for the test with Linux. Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora & MintLinux all failed with the same result "Driver not loaded" regardless of booting with UEFI . I doubt very much that HighPoint did much testing with that driver. The only OS I haven't tried yet is FreeBSD, it has a different driver available, so who knows.

If I could get the Windows driver to work with Linux, that would be amazing!

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