NUC7PJYH UEFI Booting with noinitrd or initramfs

[CCarb]

I'm having trouble booting a "Live" USB. This image claims to be bootable on legacy bios and UEFI only hardware.

It does boot fine on legacy bios (UEFI class 0) machines but it hangs on "Loading Linux.." on my NUCS (UEFI class 3)

I tried 2 different bootloaders.

The permanent SSDs on these NUCs both are running Debian Stretch dual-booting with other OSs but they have initrd images

*The current Live USB I am testing was designed / is configured for running with no initrd or initramfs, relying only on /sbin/init to get inital rootfs mounted.

I flipped on and of the legacy bios flag on the ESP partition and added commandline bootparams as well as recompiled the kernel.

My question is does the UEFI firmware of this box need to see an initrd or initramfs image at boot time; configured in the bootloader?

Thx

[idata]

Hello cpcnetworking,

I understand that you are currently experiencing problems when installing the Linux* distribution.Regarding this, I would like to let you know that, when installing some Linux* distributions, there are some details and configurations that must be changed in the BIOS for a successful installation. Please refer to the link below which shows the different BIOS changes needed for the installation, you can refer to the ones for Ubuntu*:https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022600/mini-pcs.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022600/mini-pcs.htmlOver there you can check the settings that must be changed and how it needs to be configured in order to install the desired operating system.I hope this helps.Regards,David V

[CCarb]

Not having a problem installing...

I have a couple of these units currently working with Debian linux distributions, dual-booting with other linux distros;.

My general question was really about the UEFI booting through a bootloader on these boxes..

The only reason I am asking here is to get some general information on the capabilities or limitations of the NUC7PJYH UEFI booting with a bootloader, not the UEFI shell or EFI stub

I'm currently testing a distro on a USB bootable disk that does not use initrd or initramfs but defaults to /sbin/init which is an executable on the rootfs

I tested with 2 prominent bootloaders and the booting stops / seizes.

Let me pose the question as a one-liner:

Are there any limitations be it security or otherwise that would limit booting a Linux distro with no initrd or intiramfs; defaulting to the /sbin/init executable.

Thanks for the response, I realize this may be out of scope for these products. Intel NUCS are very capable of handling OS other than Windows

.

[CCarb]

David

FYI re the link you included in your last post

..there is no legacy boot option on the NUC7PJYH; it is UEFI-based only

I'll look into this a little further myself

Thx

[idata]

Hello cpcnetworking,

Thank you for your response.Regarding this, Intel does not test nor validates Intel® NUC on Linux, however we know that a lot of NUC owners are using it successfully on many different Linux distros. Intel suggests you check your Linux distro's website and forums at http://forums.debian.net/ http://forums.debian.net/ for peer assistance with this issue.Regards,David V

[CCarb]

This has nothing to do with linux distros or otherwise ...regarding the UEFI firmware capabilities of this specific product

The manufacturer should be able to answer a question(s) about the capabilities / limitations of its UEFI firmware

[idata]

Hello cpcnetworking,

Thank you for your response.What you are doing is modifying the Kernel differently from its default values. Also, this distribution has not been tested in the NUC, which means that we cannot guarantee whether it will or not work. You can contact our developer's zone and see if anyone else has asked a similar question, or else, ask it yourself in the forums. You can also refer to the Debian* forums which link was provided before. Here is the link for our developer's zone: https://software.intel.com/en-us https://software.intel.com/en-usRegards,David V