On 07/09, Murari wrote:

When I start my laptop (or restart it) and select the Arch Linux entry in the gummiboot menu, I sometimes only see a blank screen instead of any error messages or any of the usual boot text.

This is a known issue, and yes, it's hard to describe or pin down. Some UEFI firmwares just don't seem to play nice with the kernel every couple versions or so. The systems that are effected seem almost random, which is probably why it's been around for so long. There are two workarounds that seem to work for people: - Downgrade the kernel and wait until the next update. - Build a kernel with ABS. For some reason this resolves the issue on some machines. And I don't mean build a *custom* kernel---for some reason, simply downloading the PKGBUILD for the 'linux' package, running makepkg and installing it seems to eliminate boot problems for some people. Personally, after this happened to me a third time I just started booting in legacy mode with Syslinux. -- "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams

Thanks! It's nice (or maybe not...) to know that this is a problem with only the EFI stub loader. I do have a standalone grub entry which I haven't used in ages. I guess I will just add that to the gummiboot menu as a fallback and wait for the next kernel update. On 9 July 2014 23:43, Mike Cloaked wrote:

On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 10:30 PM, Bigby James wrote:

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On 07/09, Murari wrote:

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When I start my laptop (or restart it) and select the Arch Linux entry in the gummiboot menu, I sometimes only see a blank screen instead of any error messages or any of the usual boot text.

This is a known issue, and yes, it's hard to describe or pin down. Some UEFI firmwares just don't seem to play nice with the kernel every couple versions or so. The systems that are effected seem almost random, which is probably why it's been around for so long. There are two workarounds that seem to work for people:

- Downgrade the kernel and wait until the next update. - Build a kernel with ABS. For some reason this resolves the issue on some machines. And I don't mean build a *custom* kernel---for some reason, simply downloading the PKGBUILD for the 'linux' package, running makepkg and installing it seems to eliminate boot problems for some people.

Personally, after this happened to me a third time I just started booting in legacy mode with Syslinux.

Another option that seems to work reliably is to use your normal uefi boot loader/manager to chainload grub and let grub boot the kernel if uefi boot fails due to the well-known stub loader bug. The problem appears to be only when booting uefi with the efi stub loader, whereas grub does not use the efi stub loader and appears not to be affected. On my own systems with rEFInd, I have a refind stanza that chainloads a grub standalone entry, and if there is a problem uefi booting a specific kernel on that machine, then I can simply reboot to the grub entry and let that boot the kernel. Having that as a fallback boot method should allow you to boot a kernel if it turns out that your machine is affected by the efi stub loader bug. Then simply wait for the next kernel or rebuild your kernel as per the previous post and check if that helps.

-- mike c

-- Murari

I believe the problem is with the stub loader and not the boot manager (going by bug reports on both the arch linux bugtracker and on kernel.org) but thanks anyway! On 10 July 2014 11:14, arnaud gaboury wrote:

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On 9 July 2014 23:43, Mike Cloaked wrote:

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On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 10:30 PM, Bigby James wrote:

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On 07/09, Murari wrote:

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When I start my laptop (or restart it) and select the Arch Linux entry in the gummiboot menu, I sometimes only see a blank screen instead of any error messages or any of the usual boot text.

Not sure it will solve your issue, but did you give a try at rRFInd [1] ? I use this boot manager on some dual booting machines with no issues. The documentation [2] is really awsome.

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/REFInd [2] http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/

-- Murari

On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 2:25 PM, Bigby James wrote:

On 07/10, Murari wrote:

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Thanks! It's nice (or maybe not...) to know that this is a problem with only the EFI stub loader. I do have a standalone grub entry which I haven't used in ages. I guess I will just add that to the gummiboot menu as a fallback and wait for the next kernel update.

If that's your backup plan, just remember that you'll need a tiny BIOS GRUB parititon[1] on the disk to get GRUB to boot from a GUID partition table in legacy mode.

[1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub#Preliminary_requirements

There is no need to do that. I don't have any bios grub partition and there is no need to run grub in legacy mode when using it as a backup for uefi efi stub boot. You can do it as a grub standalone boot - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#GRUB_Standalone -- mike c