Re: HP ProBook x360 11 G1 EE incompatible with grub

[hoan]

hello,

specific quoted

"So I can tell being 100% sure that the HP ProBook x360 11 G1 EE
distributed to students in France will *NOT BOOT* any of the common,
grub-based, Linux USB keys, but that it will happily boot the same keys
when grub is replaced with syslinux."

I am sure to interpret your result as this :

On any laptop wise,even with uefi boot alone ,you can boot any current 
live iso by doing this.

Let me prove by an experiment ( sdb here is only used to boot grub via 
bootx64.efi )

sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -m 1G -enable-kvm -bios OVMF64.fd /dev/sdb 
-cdrom tails-amd64-3.3.iso

1 boot any grub uefi usb you have ; once presented with the grub menu : 
do not validate any choice, type c to get into

grub console.Then type in grub shell

2 set root=(cd0)  ###to set root at cdrom as if it were booted from cd
3 syslinux_configfile /isolinux/isolinux.cfg    (the path position of 
isolinux.cfg is distro dependent of course)
4 validate your choice in isolinux_config :tail
That's it
Replace tails.iso by any live_iso of your choice, including those i386 
type ; use xorriso to find out where is isolinux.cfg 's path ...you get 
booted.

Of course if one knows booting liveiso manually like this ,it's 
certainly not difficult to include in a config file
and if that works,then certainly there are no "grub locking" whatever on 
your laptop.

Remarks
a I have no Macs nor HPwise ;that's why I emulate. Those funny beast 
only recognise -at least at boot time- hfs/afs  or hpfs  and fat/ntfs
   The tails.iso was built as hpfs/ntfs awared while almost all other 
distro are simply iso9660 awared ( Fedora lies apart with hfs awared)

b A laptop recognises refind/refit  does recognise grub : they are in 
the same world.

c blackseen after validate enter on grub menu does not mean grub not 
working !
To me grub is perfect ,the way we use it is only to blame.
Most of the time blackscreen is due to bad video driver not loaded in 
time ,and this happens just after typing return to validate a line in 
grub menu. But that is another story if the distro + kernel + 
grub_hand_passing  has a mishap.

d I 've emulated isoimage on cdrom here, but it 's not a must .You can 
emulate using -hdb live.iso in place of cdrom.Just set root
at (hd2) for ex. Use ls in grubshell to find out dynamically. I chose 
cdrom to prove universality of liveiso oldpal 's HPA isolinuxbin
Remember syslinux on fat is just isolinux on iso9660 ; they all belong 
to the old world bios legacy but stiil rock solid.

  Use grub's bootx64 or bootia32 ro boot.efi  then pass hands to kernel 
using isolinux.cfg : grub  has finished its job here;
any bad behaviour after that belongs to distro's management of loading OS

On 10/12/2017 18:38, Michel Bouissou wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In some (south-west) regions of France, high-school students are
> currently given (for free - I mean : from our taxes) HP ProBook x360 11
> G1 EE (Education Edition) laptop computers.
>
> These computers come with Windows 10 and an HP EFI BIOS v. 01.09 to
> 01.11 that has no support for legacy CSM boot mode.
>
> I believe that either this UEFI BIOS has been purposely “locked against
> grub”, or there is a serious bug.
>
> After having disabled Secure boot, I have discovered that none of the
> usual (curent, latest versions as of 2017/12) Linux live USB sticks
> (among : Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Manjaro, PartedMagic) was able to boot on
> this machine.
>
> All these live USB keys normally boot using grub.
>
> Symptoms are as follows :
>
> - UEFI BIOS selection displays the USB key as "Windows boot manager"
> instead of the USB key make / model one is used to see on other machines ;
>
> - Selecting this just causes the screen to go black with a blinking
> cursor and... that's the end.
>
> - After a while I discovered that a rEFInd key
> (http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/  ) IS ABLE to boot, and that it "sees"
> the Linux key if both inserted at the same time.
>
> - But trying to chain from rEFInd to the Linux key fails (black screen
> of death with blinking cursor)
>
> - Then I discovered that a Tails Linux key (https://tails.boum.org  )
> boots easily with no problem at all on the machine... And this one boots
> from syslinux.
>
> - I also tested and found that rEFInd is also able to chain to a Tails
> key properly.
>
> - Then I made another experiment and try to "doctor" some Linux keys
> that couldn't boot (namely : Parted Magic and Manjaro) to remove grub
> from them and replace it with syslinux. It was not an easy task, but
> once done, it allowed both distros to boot easily and seamlessly.
>
> - It is worth specifying that, as soon as grub is replaced with
> syslinux, the machine's BIOS doesn't call the key "Windows boot manager"
> anymore, but properly displays its brand and model.
>
> So I can tell being 100% sure that the HP ProBook x360 11 G1 EE
> distributed to students in France will*NOT BOOT*  any of the common,
> grub-based, Linux USB keys, but that it will happily boot the same keys
> when grub is replaced with syslinux.
>
> I cannot tell for sure if this is a purposeful lock on the machine BIOS
> or a serious bug somewhere, but I felt that it deserves to be
> documented, reported and investigated.
>
> Please copy me on replies, I'm not subscribed to this mailing-list.
>
> Best regards.
>
>
> ॐ
>
> -- Michel Bouissou <address@hidden> OpenPGP ID 0xEB04D09C 
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