32-bit UEFI and atom netbook

[Eliminateur]

Hello,
i have an issue that i can't install mint(or ubuntu for that matter) on a certain atom Z3735F netbook that requires a 32-bit UEFI.
i've used isorespinner.sh to generate the ISO the same way i did for ubuntu... but it doesn't work with the mint XFCE ISO, as soon as i reboot it goes into the EFI shell.

¿how do i install mint with the 32-bit EFI loader?

[ARSManiac]

i have an old notebbok too (ASUS Eee Pc Intel Atom 1.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM - 32bits), and i tried several distros on it includng LMDE 5.
What i do is just use Ventoy on a USB and put as many distros i wanna try on it!
For ex. for the notebook i put these: AntiX Linux, Q4OS Linux, Puppy Linux (BusterDog), Bhodi Linux, Elive Linux, Sparky Linux, LMDE 5 and Windows 7 iso; all in one USB with Ventoy!
My notebook is 32-bit UEFI and Ventoy just works very well booting any iso on it!
That my method.
For the record, the distros that had better performance on that notebook were AntiX, Q4OS and Puppy, i stayed with AntiX Linux!
Why? Because for ex. i really liked LMDE 5 but it's a bit heavier with cinnamon so i installed IceWM as a windows manager on it but still cannot reproduce 720p videos without stuttering, those 3 distros that i mentioned above were the only ones that i could reproduce 720p videos without any issues!
I hope i could help you with this specific case, i too love tinkering with those old atom notebooks xD

[Wilop91]

Hello
From what I see on internet you have a 64 bit processor so you should be able to install and run a 64 bit version of Linux (apart from the performance issue mentioned above...). Hower it seems like the BIOS of your laptop can only boot 32 bit. Correct?

If this is the case, there are several ways to work around this issue but I used in the past the following method:
Mount your Live USB stick on a working laptop
Check the folders on your Live USB stick - you will find a folder called/EFI/boot/
In this folder there MUST be a 32 bit EFI file to be able to boot called bootia32.efi
Find this file and copy it in the folder
Take the USB stick and boot on your Atom laptop
W.O.
EDIT: I forgot some details so I had to review my notes but .... you first need to download a 32 bit ISO file, open it with your Archive manager (an ISO is like a Zip), find the file bootia32.efi and copy it on your local laptop so that you can repair your USB stick with a 64 bit version.

[pbear]

Never done myself, but someone in a prior thread (couple years ago now) said this worked: https://github.com/hirotakaster/baytail-bootia32.efi.

For more information, do an internet search for bootia32.efi.

[Eliminateur]

i have an old notebbok too (ASUS Eee Pc Intel Atom 1.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM - 32bits), and i tried several distros on it includng LMDE 5.
What i do is just use Ventoy on a USB and put as many distros i wanna try on it!
For ex. for the notebook i put these: AntiX Linux, Q4OS Linux, Puppy Linux (BusterDog), Bhodi Linux, Elive Linux, Sparky Linux, LMDE 5 and Windows 7 iso; all in one USB with Ventoy!
My notebook is 32-bit UEFI and Ventoy just works very well booting any iso on it!
That my method.
For the record, the distros that had better performance on that notebook were AntiX, Q4OS and Puppy, i stayed with AntiX Linux!
Why? Because for ex. i really liked LMDE 5 but it's a bit heavier with cinnamon so i installed IceWM as a windows manager on it but still cannot reproduce 720p videos without stuttering, those 3 distros that i mentioned above were the only ones that i could reproduce 720p videos without any issues!
I hope i could help you with this specific case, i too love tinkering with those old atom notebooks xD

you know a funny thing is that the "prepared ISO" with isorespinner fails to boot with ventoy, i had to burn it to a usb in particular.
i will try antix linux.

i will also try that bootia32.efi

[Eliminateur]

i copied(actually overwrote the existing one) bootia32 to the installation pendrive, and after installation and reboot it still fails with the shell, it's like it never installed the 32 bit grub on installation

[mcroger]

Otherwise the situation seems comparable to mine: Mac Pro 64 bits CPU, 32 bits EFI.

You could possibly find some inspiration here, mutatis mutandis (the noefi boot options should not be necessary e.g.)

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=333755

Or in French on Pila's blog, who has applied it as well.
https://pila.fr/wordpress/?p=1511

[Eliminateur]

those are... quite a few steps, i was hoping for something much simpler than having to manually partition and copy files, as i need to replicate this fast over a large quantity of these devices.

i've tried that artix distro but the UI is not to my liking, it needs to be as close and familiar to windows as possible for this use case.

[The Muffin Man]

I have an Acer Aspire One with an Atom N270 in it. (with and SSD and 2GB of RAM)
I run 64 bit Linux Mint XFCE on it. I burned the iso with RosaImageWriter (which creates more than Rosa installs) to a USB stick and installed it.
It does pretty good.

http://wiki.rosalab.ru/en/index.php/ROSA_ImageWriter

[Eliminateur]

yah but your atom netbook probably does not have this 32-bit uefi issue

[The Muffin Man]

Most BIOSs will let you boot Legacy (ie, turn UEFI off)
Not sure if your will.
FWIW, I ran 64-bit KDE Neon on an Asus EEE model like yours, except it had a Celeron chip. I think it may have even been an earlier model than yours.

[Eliminateur]

these baytrail devices are EFI-only, the only solution is 32-bit efi boot loader on the 64 bit os.

[timbol]

There's a similar thread here viewtopic.php?f=46&t=370165
Debian 10 and 11 32-bit work out of the box, LM/LMDE 32-bit won't without work but that's detailed in there

[Wilop91]

i copied(actually overwrote the existing one) bootia32 to the installation pendrive, and after installation and reboot it still fails with the shell, it's like it never installed the 32 bit grub on installation

It's not clear what you have done. If your pen drive has a 64-bit version of LM, the file bootia32.efi should not exist (the folder should contain only 64 bit files). Anyway, I understant the LM installation procedure completed normally, but the issue appears when you reboot (i.e. after removing the pen drive). Correct?

This laptop was having Windows before you started the LM instalation? Which version? You erased everything or kept Windows?

Further you need to tell us what you see in the boot section of your BIOS.

And also the complete brand and model details of this laptop (you said its an "atom Z3735F processor" but thats not sufficient)

Can you make a picture of the screen when you boot from the hard drive (you said its an "EFI shell"?

W.O.

[ARSManiac]

A lot of the issues i had with MBR partitions, EFI and UEFI i solved with Rufus, but since i ditch Windows i use a Windows 7 VM to use full suite of Office and Rufus... Works like a charm to me! You could also use Unetbootin, is very good too!

[Eliminateur]

i copied(actually overwrote the existing one) bootia32 to the installation pendrive, and after installation and reboot it still fails with the shell, it's like it never installed the 32 bit grub on installation

It's not clear what you have done. If your pen drive has a 64-bit version of LM, the file bootia32.efi should not exist (the folder should contain only 64 bit files). Anyway, I understant the LM installation procedure completed normally, but the issue appears when you reboot (i.e. after removing the pen drive). Correct?

This laptop was having Windows before you started the LM instalation? Which version? You erased everything or kept Windows?

Further you need to tell us what you see in the boot section of your BIOS.

And also the complete brand and model details of this laptop (you said its an "atom Z3735F processor" but thats not sufficient)

Can you make a picture of the screen when you boot from the hard drive (you said its an "EFI shell"?

W.O.

I specified that i use linuxium's isorespinner script and treetoobit as well.

The pendrive has the bootia32 because of said script that preps the iso.

and yes, it happens upon rebooting after install.

It had windows 10/7, it's a full erase install everytime.

the boot section shows "ubuntu" twice, one for the shim the other for the bootx64 efi files

the model won't do much good as it's a locally manufactured national brand that's a rebadge of who knows what oem, it's a commodore cloudbook P14, no other details exist.

I'll screencap as soon as i can, but it's a regular EFI shell since it fails to boot with any of the EFI files as they are 64bit....

[Wilop91]

Hello
In the Boot section of your Bios, did you tried both entries - Ubuntu shim and Ubuntu bootx64.efi?
I would rather test second option? When you "edit" this option in your Bios, what are the details?

Anyway I think you can "edit" both entries and have them point on the file to be used to boot (shimx64.efi or bootx64.efi) using the "add" function. But for this you first need to be sure they are available on your hard drive (you can check this with a "live" session).

PS: I not very familiar wit the "shim" option - I think it is for "secure" boot but I'm not sure...

W.O.

[Eliminateur]

Hello
In the Boot section of your Bios, did you tried both entries - Ubuntu shim and Ubuntu bootx64.efi?
I would rather test second option? When you "edit" this option in your Bios, what are the details?

Anyway I think you can "edit" both entries and have them point on the file to be used to boot (shimx64.efi or bootx64.efi) using the "add" function. But for this you first need to be sure they are available on your hard drive (you can check this with a "live" session).

PS: I not very familiar wit the "shim" option - I think it is for "secure" boot but I'm not sure...

W.O.

both entries do the same: nothing, as they're x64 files
BIOS has boot edit functionality, you can only move around or disable entries or force boot specific entries.
Manually booting the 32bit efi i end up in a grub shell, a little bit better but still far from working

[Wilop91]

Hello
On your installed LM (i.e. on your hard drive) there is a boot folder (ou need to start a "live" session for this). This folder should contain a folder called EFI. Can you tell me if you have such a folder and what is its contents?
In the EFI folder I have a file shim64.efi and another called bootx64.efi
If you have such files, can you add a new entry in the Bios Boot section and point to them directly?
W.O.

[Eliminateur]

Hello
On your installed LM (i.e. on your hard drive) there is a boot folder (ou need to start a "live" session for this). This folder should contain a folder called EFI. Can you tell me if you have such a folder and what is its contents?
In the EFI folder I have a file shim64.efi and another called bootx64.efi
If you have such files, can you add a new entry in the Bios Boot section and point to them directly?
W.O.

Wilo, those files cannot boot on this computer, as those are 64 bit EFI and as i've said before, this computer is a 32b EFI.

I have those files as well as bootia32.efi
Boot order already has that file in it, hisch upon boot i'm greeted by a grub shell.

i'm trying ubuntu mate atm (which does the same) and if i select:

Code: Select all

root=(hd0,gpt2)
configfile /boot/grub.cfg

then the system boots correctly, but even if i do a update-grub, once i reboot i'm back at the grub shell