[solved]Lenovo thinkcentre M720Q - fail to boot install stick UEFI

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AndyMH
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[solved]Lenovo thinkcentre M720Q - fail to boot install stick UEFI

Post by AndyMH »

Just got a new toy to replace my aging T430. Cannot get the M720q to boot UEFI from an install stick.

T430 - booting LM20.3 cinnamon in legacy mode. Used it to burn a LM21.1 iso to a stick with the usb imagewriter. Confirmed it booted on the T430 (BIOS set both, UEFI first), confirmed it was UEFI with efibootmgr. Note BIOS did give me a choice of either ubuntu (which didn't work) or the drive (which did).

On the M720q (which shipped with win10) disabled secure boot and turned off TPM 2.0. BIOS set UEFI. The F12 boot menu gave me the choice of USB HDD, partition 2 (which is the EFI partition). The stick boots to grub, select LM21.1, get the plymouth splash screen but after a while:

Code: Select all

unable to find a medium containing a live file system
attempt interactive network boot
Enabled CSM in BIOS, that then gave me boot choices of auto, uefi only, legacy only. Selecting legacy will result in a successful boot (but confirmed legacy with efibootmgr). Any attempt at UEFI boot fails. I have tried with the stick in the front panel usb port and one of the rear panel ports - no change.

Only warning that shows when booting legacy is "SGX disabled by BIOS".

Are there any other settings in BIOS that I need to change?

Things I have yet to try:
  • ventoy
  • booting from DVD (similar problem on my home built desktop - could not get it to boot a mint stick UEFI, but it was happy booting UEFI and installing from DVD).
  • booting from an external usb drive with mint (20.3) already installed in UEFI mode.
I know it is possible, jwiz has one booting LMDE in UEFI mode:
viewtopic.php?f=247&t=326450&p=1856658& ... q#p1856658

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System:    Host: minibox42 Kernel: 5.6.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.6.6 Distro: LMDE 4 Debbie 
Machine:   Type: Mini-pc System: LENOVO product: 10T700BGGE v: ThinkCentre M720q serial: <root required> 
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 312D v: NOK serial: <root required> UEFI: LENOVO v: M1UKT50A date: 02/17/2020 
Mine has an i5-8500T not the i5-9400T.

Yes I will post an inxi, but a bit of a faff unplugging and re-plugging everything.

While I could install legacy, my desktop would not boot legacy off an nvme drive, I will be fitting an nvme drive in the M720q and don't want to find out I have the same problem.
Last edited by LockBot on Sun Aug 06, 2023 10:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
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AndyMH
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Re: Lenovo thinkcentre M720Q - fail to boot install stick UEFI

Post by AndyMH »

Solved, after a fashion
  • no problems booting the mint iso from a ventoy stick, mint booted up, efibootmgr confirmed UEFI boot.
  • no problems booting LM20.3 UEFI from an external usb drive.
Still left with why wouldn't the mint install stick boot UEFI when created with mint's usb imagewriter?

For info, inxi:

Code: Select all

mint@mint:~$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-56-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.5 tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Mini-pc System: LENOVO product: 10T8S00S00 v: ThinkCentre M720q
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 35 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 312D v: SDK0J40697 WIN 3305161621723
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: M1UKT21A date: 10/24/2018
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i5-8500T bits: 64 type: MCP
    smt: <unsupported> arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 1.5 MiB
    L3: 9 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/3500 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800
    4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 bogomips: 25199
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-S GT2 [UHD Graphics 630]
    vendor: Lenovo CometLake-S driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: HDMI-A-1
    empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3e92
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.0x11.3")
    s-diag: 583mm (23")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-1 mapped: HDMI-A-1 model: LG (GoldStar) ULTRAWIDE
    serial: <filter> res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 72 size: 673x284mm (26.5x11.2")
    diag: 730mm (28.8") modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Lenovo
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-cnl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a348
    class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-56-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15bc class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 267.32 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: SD9TB8W256G1001 size: 238.47 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 7101 scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: KIOXIA TransMemory
    size: 28.85 GiB type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: PMAP scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 3.82 GiB used: 28.1 MiB (0.7%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 27.8 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 2087
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
    1: deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 21.1 _Vera_ - Release amd64 20221217]/ jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 230 Uptime: 1m wakeups: 0 Memory: 7.63 GiB
  used: 1.05 GiB (13.7%) Init: systemd v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers:
  gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: gnome-terminal
  inxi: 3.3.13
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
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Re: [solved]Lenovo thinkcentre M720Q - fail to boot install stick UEFI

Post by sanmig »

AndyMH wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 11:37 am Still left with why wouldn't the mint install stick boot UEFI when created with mint's usb imagewriter?
I dunno, but a Mint 21 boot stick does not conform to the UEFI specs.
UEFI must have just 1 single partition in the MBR partition table (the EEh protective partition entry), if any.
But Mint 21 has a second entry, marked as bootable (80h) with a contradictory empty (00h) type ID (and a valid GPT header in the 2nd sector).
- A picky UEFI-boot may refuse.
Ventoy does better.
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Re: [solved]Lenovo thinkcentre M720Q - fail to boot install stick UEFI

Post by AndyMH »

Looking at the mint stick with disks it shows three partitions, 1 = iso9660 (the compressed image), 2 = EFI format fat12 and 3 = ext4. Gparted shows the whole drive as a single iso9660 partition.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
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Re: [solved]Lenovo thinkcentre M720Q - fail to boot install stick UEFI

Post by sanmig »

Disks shows only the partitions, but not what a BIOS (very simple) or UEFI (sophisticated) would look for. Of course Disks and GParted grab information from the drive structure, like flags, obviously from different points, but both will not check consistency of the drive structure or boot information.

As I said above, I dunno, it is pure speculation:

The Mint stick is GUID partition table structure and dual boot, MBR and UEFI.
This is not a problem for the original (BIOS) MBR boot, which is: Trust and execute any code starting at 0000h.
Even the MBR partition table doesn’t really matter in this case, my BIOS-only machine boots the Mint stick although the PT info is nonsense, it boots because the boot code is good.

However, the Mint 21 stick wants it all, MBR, UEFI and GPT.
But the line between GUID (GPT) and UEFI is blurred (as if Mi$o would have been involved …), the (not MBR friendly) “standard” is controlled by the “UEFI Forum, Inc.”.

Usually a UEFI FW is made to boot whatever partition is called EFI and readable (FAT), regardless of disk structure (MBR/GPT), but the “standard” isn’t that friendly.
Not playing by the rules may have bad consequences, especially in mixed (MBR / UEFI) situations or “legacy mode”, depending on the manufacturer (and pressure?).
Quote from Mi$o:
Can a disk be both GPT and MBR?
No. However, all GPT disks contain a Protective MBR.
The quote is from a very interesting source: Windows and GPT FAQ:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previ ... dfrom=MSDN

-> The protective MBR is defined by the “standard”, the UEFI Forum,
scroll to:
Chapter 5 GUID Partition Table (GPT) Disk Layout
https://uefi.org/sites/default/files/re ... _03_18.pdf

In 5.2.1 it says: “The boot code on the MBR is not executed by UEFI firmware.
- 
It doesn’t say the MBR PT must be ignored.
A Mint 21 stick is GPT and its (MBR) PT is not conform with the “standard”.

Very informative site (above my head):
https://wiki.osdev.org/UEFI
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Re: [solved]Lenovo thinkcentre M720Q - fail to boot install stick UEFI

Post by gbvoris »

Sounds like my problem, Dell will not boot to USB.
Where do I find VENTOY?
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Re: [solved]Lenovo thinkcentre M720Q - fail to boot install stick UEFI

Post by AndyMH »

A google away:
https://www.ventoy.net/en/download.html
You can either download the iso, burn it to a stick boot from it and then install ventoy to the same stick (I think that's what I did originally) or download the tar.gz, somewhere in there is a linux gui installer, you probably have to make the file executable. There are a number of posts on the forum on 'how to'.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
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