I use only Debian and net-inst image to install linux, and I use text install 😄
- When partitioning primary disk where will be Debian installed, create first partiton of size 256-512M as
EFI System partition
- this will set this partition as Bootable, and FileSystem=vfat
. - Don't forget about swap partition if you have not much too much RAM (at least of size of RAM), I usually create 4-8GB as 2nd partition on disk.
- You can optionally create partition for
/boot
that have about 1-2GB , FS=ext4
, - Or just use whole disk as
/
, FileSystem=ext4
- I almost always choose this setup - it's the most optimal.
If your terminal (T620 in my case) don't want boot freshly installed Debian then your terminal have crippled BIOS
(I think most terminals have this problem actually) - bios have hard-coded what (and where) efi file to look for.
Those crippled BIOSes look for file in EFI Partition
:
EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
You need to create this path and copy grub binary (and rename it) to match path & filename that bios looking for.
Solution to fix this can be done:
- at last step of install (when you get asked to reboot),
- After running debian installer again (after reboot), go up to stage of setting up disk & partitions and then switch to anoter terminal...
If you choose 1
option then you'll need to remember what your disk have device name and which partition number is EFI parttion (it should be first one).
Switch to another terminal e.g. 2nd one CTRL+F2
(or 3rd F3
, etc...).
Get list of disks and partitions - it won't work if you want to do this at end (option 1
) because installer will unload already fdisk
, so you have to remember where you have EFI parttiton.
fdisk -l
(If you get fdisk: not found
then you have to remeber where is EFI partition)
EFI partition should be first and smallest (around 256-512M), filesystem FAT16/32
or EFI System
(in my case it's sda1)
~ # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 119.24 GiB, 128035676160 bytes, 250069680 sectors
Disk model: SK hynix SC311 S
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 312C13F0-C108-4F70-9718-918EE40A9A4E
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 999423 997376 487M EFI System
/dev/sda2 999424 8812543 7813120 3.7G Linux swap
/dev/sda3 8812544 250068991 241256448 115G Linux filesystem
[...]
Now we need to mount it, create directory and copy grub efi file to path that bios is looking for:
First mount EFI partition:
~ # mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt
Next, go to EFI directory (I also check what I have there with ls
too):
~ # cd /mnt
/mnt # ls
EFI
/mnt # cd EFI
/mnt/EFI # mkdir boot
/mnt/EFI # ls
boot debian
/mnt/EFI # ls debian
BOOTX64.CSV fbx64.efi grub.cfg grubx64.efi mmx64.efi shimx64.efi
/mnt/EFI # cp debian/grubx64.efi boot/bootx64.efi
/mnt/EFI # cd /
If you didn't get any errors then it should work after reboot, now umount
partition and flush buffers using sync
.
~ # umount /dev/sda1
~ # sync
Now you can go back to terminal with installer (usually it's 1st terminal, use Ctrl+F1
to switch back) if you fixed this at end of install.
If you're running installer again then just type in console: reboot
to reboot already.