Odd (?) USB Flash Drive bootup messages with IFL 4.05...

[ComputerOwl]

Hi everyone,

I've spent a LOT of time trying to research this, but haven't found anything directly helpful yet. Hopefully I didn't "miss" any obvious previous posts/etc on this question (?)...

For fast background, I've been super happily using (mainly) Image For Linux (IFL) for almost 5 years now, most recently version 3.64.

I'm 99% using it for "simple" Windows 10 imaging purposes. I've found (at least for me) that IFL is very simple & fast & reliable, so I (personally) "prefer" it over IFW.

Recently I bought the 4.x Bundle upgrade and finally got around to testing it out this weekend on a test/practice computer.

I went thru my regular/routine process to create the "new" IFL 4.05 bootable UFD (USB Flash Drive).

By the way, I usually use the ifl_nonet_en_gui_x64 version, as I did this time.

When I booted to the new IFL 4.05 UFD, it "flashed" the following three lines at the top left of the display for about 3 to 4 seconds or so - then eventually booted up OK (seemingly) into the IFL start screen:


Failed to open \EFI\Boot\? - Invalid Parameter
Failed to load image ??: Invalid Parameter
start_image() returned Invalid Parameter, falling back to default loader


Any ideas on why I'm getting these messages/errors?

As I mentioned, it seems to eventually start ok - as it indicates it is "falling back to default loader". And I did some simple/fast image validation tests that worked fine.

But I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before over the last 5 years with IFL...

Are these "normal" and "can be safely ignored" messages (?).

I have tried a LOT of things in my testing/research on this to "resolve" these "error" messages, such as re-creating the IFL 4.05 UFD on two other computers with same results/messages.

I also successfully created the IFW TBWINRE UFD which boots with no issues.

I also tried creating the IFL 4.05 UFD with the "network" installer package and get the same above messages. I even had inadvertently grabbed the 4.03 CUI installer files a while back - and I now created a 4.03 CUI UFD and also got the exact same above 3 message lines.

I'm planning to do more testing/research, but I need to take a break for now...

But, this seems like a fairly uniform and consistent result so far - at least on the three Dell Precision 3640 workstations I've been testing on.

If anyone might have some insight or thoughts on this I'd greatly appreciate it!

In particular, whether this is "known" behavior and can be "safely ignored" --or-- whether this is something to be more concerned about and any ideas on how to hopefully (?) resolve these apparent errors (?). For example, I've already upgraded the BIOS/etc on the main practice/test PC...

If I may need to reluctantly consider using IFW instead of IFL, that is an option. But I've had excellent success with IFL for years...

Thanks everyone!

PS Please forgive any typos/etc! Note: I may not be able to reply to any questions/etc immediately, but I will definitely try to see if there are any replies/etc as soon as I'm able! Thanks again!

[TeraByte Support]

the uefi boot item you choose from your system may have some garbage in the parameters. you can use tbosdt various uefi commands to look at them "help list uefi" .. it's the bootitems you want to look at.

[Bob Coleman]

If what's being booted here is an IFL UFD, why is a boot item involved?

[TeraByte Support]

If what's being booted here is an IFL UFD, why is a boot item involved?

UEFI has boot items you see in the BIOS.

[ComputerOwl]

Thanks TeraByte Support for the reply and info!

I'm not overly familiar with TBOSDT, but the following is some basic info I was able to get from the main test PC via the following command:


>>list uefi bootitems -a -d
0) 0x0000 0001h Windows Boot Manager
1) 0x0001 0001h UEFI: Samsung SSD 990 PRO with Heatsink 4TB
2) 0x0002 0001h UEFI: Kanguru FlashBlu PMAP


Let me know what type of potential issues/garbage I should look for (?) and/or if there is a different TBOSDT command that may be more helpful (?).

Note: I will include the results of the list uefi bootitems/dump command at the bottom of this post for reference (?).

FYI - I got these list uefi command outputs in this post from a IFW TBWINRE flash drive on the main practice/test PC - as I wasn't quite sure (?) how to save/capture the output from the IFL 4.05 Linux TBOSDT terminal window - but the command outputs from both the IFL & IFW bootable flash drives looked very similar to my untrained eye (?).

Please forgive my unfamiliarity with this, but would some of the "glitches" that may cause the way above boot messages/errors be on the actual physical IFL UFD drive or in the PC UEFI/BIOS firmware parameters -- and/or possibly an interaction between the IFL UFD and the PC UEFI/BIOS firmware parameters?

I'm just trying to better understand what to look for - and "where"...

I greatly appreciate your time and patience in trying to offer some ideas on this!


FYI - here is the output from the list uefi bootitems/dump command if this might be helpful (?):

>>list uefi bootitems /dump

Boot0000:
01 00 00 00 74 00 57 00 69 00 6E 00 64 00 6F 00 ....t.W.i.n.d.o.
77 00 73 00 20 00 42 00 6F 00 6F 00 74 00 20 00 w.s. .B.o.o.t. .
4D 00 61 00 6E 00 61 00 67 00 65 00 72 00 00 00 M.a.n.a.g.e.r...
04 01 2A 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..*.............
00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 55 97 EE 04 5C BC CF 89 . ......U...\...
D6 ED CF 67 3B CC 0B 00 02 02 04 04 46 00 5C 00 ...g;.......F.\.
45 00 46 00 49 00 5C 00 4D 00 49 00 43 00 52 00 E.F.I.\.M.I.C.R.
4F 00 53 00 4F 00 46 00 54 00 5C 00 42 00 4F 00 O.S.O.F.T.\.B.O.
4F 00 54 00 5C 00 42 00 4F 00 4F 00 54 00 4D 00 O.T.\.B.O.O.T.M.
47 00 46 00 57 00 2E 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 00 00 G.F.W...E.F.I...
7F FF 04 00 57 49 4E 44 4F 57 53 00 01 00 00 00 ....WINDOWS.....
88 00 00 00 78 00 00 00 42 00 43 00 44 00 4F 00 ....x...B.C.D.O.
42 00 4A 00 45 00 43 00 54 00 3D 00 7B 00 39 00 B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.
64 00 65 00 61 00 38 00 36 00 32 00 63 00 2D 00 d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.
35 00 63 00 64 00 64 00 2D 00 34 00 65 00 37 00 5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.
30 00 2D 00 61 00 63 00 63 00 31 00 2D 00 66 00 0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.
33 00 32 00 62 00 33 00 34 00 34 00 64 00 34 00 3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.
37 00 39 00 35 00 7D 00 00 00 4D 00 01 00 00 00 7.9.5.}...M.....
10 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 7F FF 04 00 ............

Boot0001:
01 00 00 00 C2 00 55 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 3A 00 ......U.E.F.I.:.
20 00 53 00 61 00 6D 00 73 00 75 00 6E 00 67 00 .S.a.m.s.u.n.g.
20 00 53 00 53 00 44 00 20 00 39 00 39 00 30 00 .S.S.D. .9.9.0.
20 00 50 00 52 00 4F 00 20 00 77 00 69 00 74 00 .P.R.O. .w.i.t.
68 00 20 00 48 00 65 00 61 00 74 00 73 00 69 00 h. .H.e.a.t.s.i.
6E 00 6B 00 20 00 34 00 54 00 42 00 00 00 04 01 n.k. .4.T.B.....
2A 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 *..............
03 00 00 00 00 00 AB D5 C7 35 53 96 64 04 4D 11 .........5S.d.M.
62 68 AB 24 14 00 02 02 04 04 30 00 5C 00 45 00 bh.$......0.\.E.
46 00 49 00 5C 00 42 00 6F 00 6F 00 74 00 5C 00 F.I.\.B.o.o.t.\.
42 00 6F 00 6F 00 74 00 58 00 36 00 34 00 2E 00 B.o.o.t.X.6.4...
65 00 66 00 69 00 00 00 7F FF 04 00 01 04 60 00 e.f.i.........`.
EF 47 64 2D C9 3B A0 41 AC 19 4D 51 D0 1B 4C E6 .Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.
53 00 61 00 6D 00 73 00 75 00 6E 00 67 00 20 00 S.a.m.s.u.n.g. .
53 00 53 00 44 00 20 00 39 00 39 00 30 00 20 00 S.S.D. .9.9.0. .
50 00 52 00 4F 00 20 00 77 00 69 00 74 00 68 00 P.R.O. .w.i.t.h.
20 00 48 00 65 00 61 00 74 00 73 00 69 00 6E 00 .H.e.a.t.s.i.n.
6B 00 20 00 34 00 54 00 42 00 00 00 7F FF 04 00 k. .4.T.B.......
00 00 42 4F ..BO

Boot0002:
01 00 00 00 80 00 55 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 3A 00 ......U.E.F.I.:.
20 00 4B 00 61 00 6E 00 67 00 75 00 72 00 75 00 .K.a.n.g.u.r.u.
20 00 46 00 6C 00 61 00 73 00 68 00 42 00 6C 00 .F.l.a.s.h.B.l.
75 00 20 00 50 00 4D 00 41 00 50 00 00 00 02 01 u. .P.M.A.P.....
0C 00 D0 41 03 0A 00 00 00 00 01 01 06 00 00 14 ...A............
03 05 06 00 19 00 04 01 2A 00 01 00 00 00 3F 00 ........*.....?.
00 00 00 00 00 00 75 62 E8 00 00 00 00 00 73 A7 ......ub......s.
5E 68 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 ^h..............
7F FF 04 00 01 04 36 00 EF 47 64 2D C9 3B A0 41 ......6..Gd-.;.A
AC 19 4D 51 D0 1B 4C E6 30 00 37 00 30 00 30 00 ..MQ..L.0.7.0.0.
39 00 42 00 34 00 34 00 45 00 32 00 42 00 44 00 9.B.4.4.E.2.B.D.
31 00 32 00 33 00 36 00 00 00 7F FF 04 00 00 00 1.2.3.6.........
42 4F BO

[TeraByte Support]

use /a along with that to see if there is one for that UFD (attach the UFD at boot but don't boot from it).

[ComputerOwl]

Thanks again for looking at this!

I think the following is what you asked for...

For the two USB Flash drives (UFDs) listed below that were plugged in at the same time - I added comments in [brackets] to indicate which UFD is which below (IFL vs IFW)...

NOTE: I went ahead and ran the below command tests TWICE (fully rebooting between each test). The "only" difference between the two tests was "which" front USB port the IFL 4.05 UFD was plugged into. I indicate the USB port positions/etc in the [comments] below. I did two tests because I wasn't sure if which USB ports were used made a difference or not (?)... (The IFW 4.05 WINRE UFD "stayed" in the same port, #1, for each test - and was booted from for each test - as indicated below).


Test #1:

>>list uefi bootitems -a -d
0) 0x0000 0001h Windows Boot Manager
1) 0x0001 0001h UEFI: Samsung SSD 990 PRO with Heatsink 4TB
2) 0x0002 0001h UEFI: Kanguru FlashBlu PMAP [IFW 4.05 WINRE UFD booted from - front USB port #1 of 3 going left to right]
3) 0x0003 0001h UEFI: Kanguru SS3 PMAP [IFL 4.05 NOT booted from, just plugged in - front USB port #2 of 3 going left to right]



Test #2:

>>list uefi bootitems -a -d
0) 0x0000 0001h Windows Boot Manager
1) 0x0001 0001h UEFI: Samsung SSD 990 PRO with Heatsink 4TB
2) 0x0003 0001h UEFI: Kanguru SS3 PMAP [IFL 4.05 NOT booted from, just plugged in - front USB port #3 of 3 going left to right]
3) 0x0004 0001h UEFI: Kanguru FlashBlu PMAP [IFW 4.05 WINRE UFD booted from - front USB port #1 of 3 going left to right]


Let me know if the above is what you had in mind - and if it offers any clues?


Before I forget to ask, is the "newer" version of IFL 4.x a lot different "under the hood" (so to speak) than the previous 3.x versions? Such as the boot process/etc (?)... Just wondering....



FYI - I'm super interested and curious in trying to get the IFL 4.x UFD to work/boot more cleanly (if possible/needed)...

However, there is no urgency at all with these questions (for me), as I can still use IFL 3.64 if needed and it looks like IFW 4.05 WINRE UFD is working nicely enough when/if needed (either short term or long term)...

So, this is more of a learning/curiosity thing for me... Let me know if you can think of any other tests/etc to try?

I really appreciate the time & help!

PS If you may want the list uefi bootitems /dump data from the above two tests, let me know, as I do have them if they could be helpful (?)....