EFI support

Postings relating to old VirtualBox pre-releases
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nike
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EFI support

Post by nike »

Feel free to discuss EFI support in 3.1 beta here.
Technologov
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Joined: 10. May 2007, 16:59
Location: Israel

Re: EFI support

Post by Technologov »

Docs: **please update**
EFI (Extended Firmware Interface) ---> EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface)

=============
Which guest OSes are supposed to run on this ? (Win 2008 Server ?)

This feature is funny, because it is the first feature, that is available on virtualized hardware before physical PCs. (no one of my PCs support EFI !)
In the past virtualized hardware always lagged behind physical one.

Main use cases:
-Virtualization of Mac OS X Server (in the far future)
-support of bootable >2TB Had Disks.
nike
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Re: EFI support

Post by nike »

Firmware in 32-bit only at the moment, so only 32-bit boot applications supported.

Guest known to work (to some extent):
- Fedora 11 netinst and LiveCD ISO ( can be problems if http://osdir.com/ml/fedora-extras-commi ... 03900.html not applied), X using EFI frambuffer in progress
- EFI shell

Known not to work:
- Windows (stock ISO come with UDF filesystem, which we currently don't have drivers for)
- OS X Server (many reasons)

Feel free to test your favorite distribution/OS if it comes with EFI loader and let us know results.
Technologov
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Re: EFI support

Post by Technologov »

What are the main use cases in your opinion for EFI ? (in general, not just VirtualBox) except >2TB bootable HDDs ?
nike
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Re: EFI support

Post by nike »

See at least following:
- EFI applications/drivers development
- implementing EFI support in guests
- booting guests needing EFI, you_know_who :)
Technologov
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Re: EFI support

Post by Technologov »

Some info about Fedora on EFI:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/EFI
umoeller
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Joined: 10. May 2007, 10:25

Re: EFI support

Post by umoeller »

Thanks for spotting the wrong acronym in the docs. Will be fixed.
Technologov
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Re: EFI support

Post by Technologov »

Not only in the docs, but in the GUI too. (System->Motherboard->Enable EFI -- mouse roll-over, EFI description help)
Hachiman
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Re: EFI support

Post by Hachiman »

Some notes about installing from LiveCD Fedora 11 and 12 (x86) in EFI:
1. 3.1 beta 1 has 8-bit color depth driver for EFI mode (here with 32-bpp driver).
2. starting the FC11/12 live CD can confuse a bit. After nice picture with Fedora logo the black screen is appear :( . Press Host-F2 to enter the console enter root
with empty password.
3. X-server needs some tuning for starting.

Code: Select all 

# X -configure
# vi xorg.conf.new 
# mv xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# liveinst

what need to be edited in xorg.conf is Display subsection of the Screen section at the end of config file.

Code: Select all 

 SubSection "Display"
 Viewport 0 0
 Depth 24
 Modes "1024x768"
 EndSubSection
and check that driver in the Device section is fbdev

Code: Select all 

Section "Device"
 ### Available Driver options are:-
 ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
 ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
 ### [arg]: arg optional
 #Option "ShadowFB" # [<bool>]
 #Option "Rotate" # <str>
 #Option "fbdev" # <str>
 #Option "debug" # [<bool>]
 Identifier "Card0"
 Driver "fbdev"
 VendorName "InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH"
 BoardName "VirtualBox Graphics Adapter"
 BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection
--
Kind regards
Sr. Software Engineer
Oracle Corporation
Vasily Levchenko

PS. Happy VBoxing.
lewellyn
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Re: EFI support

Post by lewellyn »

I'm unable to use the EFI support on a Solaris host. /opt/VirtualBox/amd64/vboxefi.fv seems to have not been installed. Was this omitted from the .pkg by accident? There is a version of it at /opt/VirtualBox/vboxefi.fv so I'm curious if this only works on 32-bit hosts so far.
Edit: DOH! I'm an idiot. Just read nike's post #3 to this thread... Which leads to the next question: How do I start VBox in 32-bit mode? ;)
Hachiman
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Re: EFI support

Post by Hachiman »

lewellyn wrote:I'm unable to use the EFI support on a Solaris host. /opt/VirtualBox/amd64/vboxefi.fv seems to have not been installed. Was this omitted from the .pkg by accident? There is a version of it at /opt/VirtualBox/vboxefi.fv so I'm curious if this only works on 32-bit hosts so far.
It's missed by mistake it isn't depend on host bitness. Please download missed binary from http://virtualbox.org/download/testcase/vboxefi.fv and put it to /opt/VirtualBox/amd64. Sorry for inconvenience.
--
Kind regards
Sr. Software Engineer
Oracle Corporation
Vasily Levchenko

PS. Happy VBoxing.
lewellyn
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Re: EFI support

Post by lewellyn »

Awesome. Love the VirtualBox logo used for EFI. :) Now, to figure out why I can't get any guests to install... (I suspect user error, based upon the time here... ;) )
Hachiman
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VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
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Re: EFI support

Post by Hachiman »

(I suspect user error, based upon the time here... ;) )
rigth.

What the guest you're trying to install, btw?
--
Kind regards
Sr. Software Engineer
Oracle Corporation
Vasily Levchenko

PS. Happy VBoxing.
Hachiman
Posts: 94
Joined: 18. Dec 2008, 21:04
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Linux, Solaris, NetBSD

Re: EFI support

Post by Hachiman »

Have received question about rEFIt. yes, it could be started at VM, but with "modifications". The problem with rEFIt is a lack of support big amount of filesystems in our firmware, e.g. iso family is ISO9660 and limited Rock Ridge. So "modification" is burning new image using refit-0.13-bin.tar.gz from http://refit.sf.net with mkisofs

Code: Select all 

# mkisofs -R -o refit.iso refit-0.13-bin
When the burned refit.iso is loaded. It's important for rEFIt where it was launched (it won't find its config if will be launched from root or different folder)

Code: Select all 

Shell> fs0:
fs0:\> cd efi\refit\
fs0:\efi\refit\> refit.efi
It might be useful to read EFI shell manual Efi Shell getting Started Guide or Command Reference: EFI Shell Commands also.
--
Kind regards
Sr. Software Engineer
Oracle Corporation
Vasily Levchenko

PS. Happy VBoxing.
nike
Posts: 47
Joined: 7. Jul 2008, 00:00
Primary OS: Ubuntu 8.04
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: OS/2 1.2, Windows 3.11, OSX
Location: SPB
Contact:

Re: EFI support

Post by nike »

BTW, beta 3 will have 64-bit firmware too (FW bitness detected based on guest type, or can be set manually with VBoxManage).
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