UEFI Blues

[Rytiou]

Alright, so I need some assistance since I haven't been able to figure out this issue of mine. Basically, I've been stuck on Windows 8.1 for over a month now on my new system (which I don't have too many complaints about) but I've been missing being on my old Nix environment. Naturally I put Arch Linux on one of my spare USB's after switching off my secure boot to Other OS. Everything was going fine until I start the boot process in which the live environment hangs on 'Triggering UEvents'. Thinking this was a bit strange I started Googling around and found out that throwing the nomodeset flag in the kernel flags got me past that hang point. With that out of the way the install process was going fine for a few minutes until the shell starts freaking out telling me that I have Input I/O errors. It does that each and every time I restart the live environment with that flag enabled. I'm pretty sure it's not an issue with my keyboard since I've used it in the past on my old setups. I think it's a problem either with my BIOS being UEFI or the extra flag I put up to get me past that hang point (or it's just me being a complete noob). Anyways if anyone has any ideas on what could be causing this issue I would greatly appreciate your suggestions. If anyone wants I can post some pictures of what's happening in case I didn't describe it well enough. Also, in case if anyone's wondering my motherboard is an Asus M5A97 R2.0. I would just simply switch my BIOS to legacy mode but sadly this motherboard lack that capability :/.

[cyberdrifter]

Alright, so I need some assistance since I haven't been able to figure out this issue of mine. Basically, I've been stuck on Windows 8.1 for over a month now on my new system (which I don't have too many complaints about) but I've been missing being on my old Nix environment. Naturally I put Arch Linux on one of my spare USB's after switching off my secure boot to Other OS. Everything was going fine until I start the boot process in which the live environment hangs on 'Triggering UEvents'. Thinking this was a bit strange I started Googling around and found out that throwing the nomodeset flag in the kernel flags got me past that hang point. With that out of the way the install process was going fine for a few minutes until the shell starts freaking out telling me that I have Input I/O errors. It does that each and every time I restart the live environment with that flag enabled. I'm pretty sure it's not an issue with my keyboard since I've used it in the past on my old setups. I think it's a problem either with my BIOS being UEFI or the extra flag I put up to get me past that hang point (or it's just me being a complete noob). Anyways if anyone has any ideas on what could be causing this issue I would greatly appreciate your suggestions. If anyone wants I can post some pictures of what's happening in case I didn't describe it well enough. Also, in case if anyone's wondering my motherboard is an Asus M5A97 R2.0. I would just simply switch my BIOS to legacy mode but sadly this motherboard lack that capability :/.

You kinda seem all over the place here man. I have that same MOBO and run Arch btw

1. Can you boot into the live media?

2. What is the exact error you're getting?

[Rytiou]

You kinda seem all over the place here man. I have that same MOBO and run Arch btw

1. Can you boot into the live media?

2. What is the exact error you're getting?

1. Yes, but only when I set the nomodeset flag during the boot process. Here's what happens when I don't (just hangs there).

2. This is the error I'm getting during the install process. Happens randomly.

[cyberdrifter]

1. Yes, but only when I set the nomodeset flag during the boot process. Here's what happens when I don't (just hangs there).

2. This is the error I'm getting during the install process. Happens randomly.

1. What did you use to create the live-image?
2. what kind of thumbdrive did you use and how big was it?
3. Are you implementing RAID, LVM, or LUKS?
4. What instructions are you following for your install?


Also, remember that with your UEFI system you have the option to boot both into UEFI, Are you sure you're booting into the correct one?

[Rytiou]

1. What did you use to create the live-image?
2. what kind of thumbdrive did you use and how big was it?
3. Are you implementing RAID, LVM, or LUKS?
4. What instructions are you following for your install?


Also, remember that with your UEFI system you have the option to boot both into UEFI, Are you sure you're booting into the correct one?

1. I used USB Writer since it's a good tool as well as being simple and effective
2. Just your standard 2GB USB.
3. No
4. Using the Wiki for reference but I can basically do it mostly from memory.
5. Yes I am booting in UEFI mode. This just happens randomly when I'm in the live environment.

[cyberdrifter]

1. I used USB Writer since it's a good tool as well as being simple and effective
2. Just your standard 2GB USB.
3. No
4. Using the Wiki for reference but I can basically do it mostly from memory.
5. Yes I am booting in UEFI mode. This just happens randomly when I'm in the live environment.

Doing an Arch install from memory...
Impressive!

1. When you say during the boot process - do you mean the live image boot, or the hard disk boot?
2. Did you verify you're in UEFI with the efivar -l command?
3. Are you sure you have a good arch image? have you tried booting on a different machine, if not I might recommend a new image.
4. I would suggest starting again and following the wiki, since you didn't follow the wiki, I have no idea how to gauge what could have went wrong...

I can tell you from experience, the solution is not enabling the nomodeset flag... That just deals with the display settings and you don't even have a terminal yet, let alone xorg...
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_mode_setting


Correction

[Rytiou]

Doing an Arch install from memory...
Impressive!

1. When you say during the boot process - do you mean the live image boot, or the hard disk boot?
2. Did you verify you're in UEFI with the efivar -l command?
3. Are you sure you have a good arch image? have you tried booting on a different machine, if not I might recommend a new image.
4. I would suggest starting again and following the wiki, since you didn't follow the wiki, I have no idea how to gauge what could have went wrong...

I can tell you from experience, the solution is not enabling the nomodeset flag... That just deals with the display settings and you don't even have a terminal yet, let alone xorg...
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_mode_setting


Correction

1. Live image boot
2. Haven't had the chance to do that yet since that error comes up before I can type anything really but I'm pretty sure I'm in UEFI mode
3. Yes I've verified that the image I'm using is good.
4. The problem is not me not following the wiki it's something that happens as soon as I boot into the live image like I've stated before.

[cyberdrifter]

Okay Rytiou,
By the logical assumptions we're following:
1. To install Arch our liveimage must be good and our machine must be good.
2. Our live image is good
3. Therefore the error must be in our machine


I'm leaning toward it being an issue with:
1. BIOS configuration
2. Hardware configuration issue


So, my next question is:
1. Are you able to boot other live media on your rig? (have you previously had anything installed on it?)
2. Is your bios set to boot legacy usb devices (this will fudge you over if not set)

[cyberdrifter]

2.) Scrap the shit motherboard, I had one and the SATA ports went out and it died within a month. Have you seen the reviews on that motherboard? You're not the only one with problems with it.

I've had the same board for for over a year with no issues

[cyberdrifter]

Not according to the research I did, it currently has a 4/5 on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767
Even better score on amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-M5A97-R2-0-SATA-Motherboard/product-reviews/B008V9959O

Maybe it was user error?


I always recommend doing research before a purchase.

You must be the lucky 1 in 1,000.

[Rytiou]

Okay Rytiou,
By the logical assumptions we're following:
1. To install Arch our liveimage must be good and our machine must be good.
2. Our live image is good
3. Therefore the error must be in our machine


I'm leaning toward it being an issue with:
1. BIOS configuration
2. Hardware configuration issue


So, my next question is:
1. Are you able to boot other live media on your rig? (have you previously had anything installed on it?)
2. Is your bios set to boot legacy usb devices (this will fudge you over if not set)

1. Yeah from what I can tell. I tried putting an Ubuntu ISO just to see if it'd boot up and surprisingly it did but I'm pretty sure it's only because they are one of the few distros that don't have issues with secure boot since they paid and what not. Only thing that happened though is that the screen was really blurry but I'm pretty sure that's just a graphics driver issue which isn't too hard to fix. Also, Windows 8.1 is the only OS that's ever been installed on here.

2. Yes