Manjaro and UEFI

[phitsc]

I have a last-year Windows 8 Laptop which I'd like to dual-boot with Manjaro. While installing and dual-booting Linux Mint 17.2 (with UEFI, using GRUB, secure boot disabled) works flawlessly using Linux Mint's installer, the same is not true for Manjaro 15.09. This guide (which I have not followed) mentions that UEFI support is also provided in the Graphical Installer. This doesn't seem to be the case though, at least in my case. Anyone have an idea why that is?

Manjaro comes with two GUI and one CLI installers. I have tried both GUI installers with the same (negative) result.

[ewemoa]

Didn't manage to get passed a certain point, but perhaps the following will be of some help...

I tried booting from one of the XFCE 15.09 isos and saw a screen of text with some lines offering among other things a UEFI option.  The text I saw was something like:

Manjaro Linux x86_64 UEFI DVD (default)
Manjaro Linux x86_64 UEFI DVD (nonfree)
UEFI Shell x86_64 v1
UEFI Shell x86_64 v2
EFI Default Loader
Reboot Into Firmware Interface

FWIW, to get this to show up, I needed to enable UEFI in my BIOS as I try to avoid using UEFI whenever possible.


Update

One notebook I tried with didn't get far beyond the initial text menu, but a second notebook reached the graphical desktop.  This was the case for both the DVD media as well as a USB stick with the content of the DVD media on it.

I noticed that there's a 15.10 Fluxbox edition, so just tried that.  Was able to get to the graphical desktop on the "problematic" notebook.


On a related note, there appear to be a few prerequisites such as disabling secure boot and installing to GPT-using storage.

Don't know if it will help and it's a bit dated, but FWIW:

https://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=7138.0

[phitsc]

Thanks ewemoa for the feedback. Very much appreciated!

Looks like installation might be a bit more complicated than I had hoped.

[ewemoa]

FWIW, I try not to dual/multi-boot these days -- swapping out the storage media seems to work better (though physically more work).  May be that's not so practical for your case...

Good luck in any case.

[phitsc]

FWIW, I try not to dual/multi-boot these days -- swapping out the storage media seems to work better (though physically more work).  May be that's not so practical for your case...

Good luck in any case.

I'm afraid it isn't. I'm not the only one using the machine.

I have just destroyed my Windows Secure Boot installation following various guides for installing Manjaro with UEFI. And it still doesn't work.

Being a nerd just sucks sometimes.

[ewemoa]

Do you have a good method for restoring?

[phitsc]

Interestingly enough, it is, after all, actually booting Windows. I first get presented a screen with a big lock icon, telling me about some Secure Boot problem. But when I then press Enter, I get some kind of message box where I can press Enter again, and Windows will then boot I don't currently see what is particularly secure about that. In this case, I do not complain though. I could try to restore it, but I'm really not keen on re-installing everything, having spent so much time trying to dual-boot it with Manjaro already.

[phitsc]

Just tried to install the latest Manjaro release from the 26th of October. Noticed that one of the installers it comes with (Calamares) was updated. And guess what: the installation worked!!!

I can now dual-boot Windows and Manjaro using UEFI with secure boot disabled. Manjaro sometimes reboots when starting up, but will then run the second time it boots.

[ewemoa]

Congratulations!

Odd about the flaky behavior.

BTW, did you choose the systemd option or the OpenRC option?

[phitsc]

I can't remember having to choose one of them. I've installed the Gnome distribution. I guess that comes with systemd?

[ewemoa]

May be so.  FWIW, when I examined the Fluxbox-related downloads, I had a choice between systemd and OpenRC:

  http://sourceforge.net/projects/manjarolinux/files/community/Fluxbox/2015.11/

[ewemoa]

On a side note, have you found a good place to look for security-related announcements?

All I've located is:

  https://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?board=6.0

I much prefer something like:

  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Security_Advisories

where each individual advisory / announcement can be accessed in reverse-chronological order.