(MAC OS) Clear Linux fails to find and open bootloaderx64.efi - Live Image

[tomas-ramos21]

Describe the bug I'm currently trying to use Clear Linux live image. However, while booting I get message saying the boot-loader wasn't found. Which doesn't permit me to try the system out. I will attach a image for reference.

I'm using a MacBook Pro mid 2017 without touchbar. Which has a partition with OS X and another with Ubuntu. Moreover I'm using rEFInd upon starting the laptop to select the OS to use.

While creating the USB pen with the live image, I followed the instructions provided in the website as well as trying the ".sh" script provided to ensure compatibility. The script provided the message "SUCESS" for all the parameters confirming my machine should be compatible with the system.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install Ubuntu on MacBook Pro 2017
2. Create Live USB in OS X
3. Install rEFInd
4. Boot from Clear Linux live image pen

Expected behavior Clear Linux should start, allowing the user to login into the system.

Screenshots

Environment:

• Clear Linux OS version: clear-27700-live
• Bundles: None

Additional context Although Macbook Pro 2017 is known to have some issues with the linux kernel, these are mostly related to device drivers (e.g. Keyboard) and not with the system installation. However, I'm unaware if it could have any influence on Clear Linux's boot-loader.

[tomas-ramos21]

I have tried installing the Clear Linux* on my Macbook as first OS. Meaning I removed the previous installation of OS X and Ubuntu. However the error still persists.

When trying to boot with the installer image, by selecting the installation option from the menu, the computer's screen just turns black. I have also tried previous versions of the both ".img" and ".iso" images. No success as well when using previous versions.

One small but maybe important detail is that the computer only has USB-C entries.

[nesiusra]

@bryteise @ahkok

Adding some people here. I suppose first we should verify if this is MacBook/rEFInd specific or a more general problem with the live image.

[bryteise]

Hrm that error message looks odd since it has the EFI\namespace component duplicated. Are the options for being used correct? I really haven't touched this tooling though so I'm not sure what the cause is. It looks very likely to be something that is rEFInd specific.

[tomas-ramos21]

@bryteise @ahkok @ikeyd I have contacted the developer of rEFInd tool, since he is obviously much more of an expert in this case than I will ever be. He has been very helpful providing his opinion in less then 4 hours. I will resume it for you.

rEFInd Creator Analysis

• The "dppath" and "path" messages are not from rEFInd but from the boot loader
• It's possible that Clear Linux has renamed "grubx64.efi" or "grub.efi" causing the issue
• UEFI in the early days used to be "finicky" about the filenames passed to them, which can cause confusion with the filename such as the duplication seen here
• bootloaderx64.efi could have the sort of bug that early versions of UEFI had
• It's possible that my Mac's EFI has some bug or is finicky. However, unlikely because it works with ubuntu, FreeBSD and other distros. Moreover, rEFInd is used on Macs because it works really well
• Perhaps bootloaderx64.efi is to blame and trying to launch itself for some reason, but is getting confused and adding its absolute path twice when doing so

Suggestions

• Booting in some other way, or use an emergency disk to check out your ESP
• Examine the directory tree to see if perhaps the doubled-up directory name reflects an on-disk reality
• Check if EFI/org.clearlinux directory is on the ESP
• Installing an EFI filesystem driver for whatever filesystem holds the Linux kernel
• Launch bootloaderx64.efi directly, bypassing rEFInd. However, if bootloaderx64.efi boots Linux directly the option to launch OS X will lack

Notes

• If rEFInd is not used to boot, the messages in the screenshot above are never seen. However, the problem still persists meaning the rEFInd could help us understand what is problem by providing feedback from the UEFI

Suggestions Tried & Results

• Booting without rEFInd: Causes the screen to stay black and nothing else happens
• Examine directory Disk for Duplicated path: The duplicated path did not exist in reality. Therefore I "created" a duplicated path to match the one search by the boot loader. It results in an endless loop of the boot loader loading and searching those 3 paths in the screenshot.
• Check if EFI/org.clearlinux directory is on the ESP: It did not exist in ESP. Therefore I created it, and moved the boot loader there, but the error persisted.

I have yet to try some of the other suggestions. I will post them here once I have tried them out.

@bryteise it may be worth to mention that I have also tried to launch Clear Linux without rEFInd and it still doesn't work. I tried using systemd, which had the same "Black Screen" result but no message. Nonetheless, if you are referring to the load options please refer to the image below. The boot also hangs at this point and nothing happens.

[nesiusra]

Thank you so much for the legwork you're doing here. Please keep us posted.

[bryteise]

Could you edit the options and remove the quiet option (sorry it is likely in the middle of that string) and see if you get any further messages?

Note Clear Linux puts shim (/efi/org.clearlinux/loaderx64.efi) as the /efi/boot/bootx64.efi application by default and that loads systemd-boot (/efi/org.clearlinux/bootloaderx64.efi) which is our bootloader. In theory you should just be able to boot the kernel directly though too (not sure how that is done via rEFInd).

Maybe I'll just steal @nesiusra's macbook and try and get it to boot the live image tomorrow lol.

[tpleavitt]

@bktan8 , please take a look

[gilsonolegario]

I successfully booted ClearLinux with rEFInd with the following entry:

# ClearLinux entry
menuentry "ClearLinux OS" {
    icon \EFI\boot\icons-hidpi\clearOS.png
    loader \EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
    options root=PARTUUID=41ea1729-9588-4d89-a8a1-9e24e5f7468b console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 init=/usr/bin/initra-desktop  initcall_debug tsc=reliable no_timer_check noreplace-smp kvm-intel.nested=1 rootfstype=ext4,btrfs,xfs intel_iommu=igfx_off cryptomgr.notests rcupdate.rcu_expedited=1 rcu_nocbs=0-64 rw module.sig_unenforce
    graphics on
}