uefi booting

[novice]

Hello,

My motherboard has dual firmware, a BIOS and UEFI. Its an Asus m5a97.
It allows for booting into a GPT formatted disk by way of a boot menu in the firmware.

I have 3 hard drives, 2 are MBR drives with several Windows and one Linux managed by BIBM.
The other drive is EFI with Windows8.1 installed but does not boot from BIBM. It boots from the firmware loader and runs just fine.

I would like to be able to multiboot from this EFI drive but have not found a way yet.
There is, however, a UIFE boot manager called rEFIind which when installed and configured right could help.

My question; How would this UIFI boot manager affect BIBM?
So far I have the best of both worlds with BIBM managing the MBR boots and the motherboards firmware handling the UIFI boot.
But, like I said, still would like to multiboot in UIFE mode.

There is not much literature out there on this topic and whatever there is its not very consistent.
I would hope that Terabyte might consider developing a Boot and partition manager to include booting from GPT drives.
Hopeful thinking?

Yours truly
Bernard B

[DrTeeth]

On Wed, 30 Apr 2014 18:40:26 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
novice disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>I would hope that Terabyte might consider developing a Boot and partition manager to include booting from GPT drives.

I LOVE my BIBM boot manager and will not use GPT drives until or if
they are supported.
--

Cheers,

DrT

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

[Brian K]

Bernard,

What changes do you make in your UEFI BIOS so you can boot using BIBM one day and UEFI Win8.1 the next day? Interesting.

I have an Asus Sabertooth MB with the UEFI BIOS set to "Other OS" so I can use BIBM.

[novice]

Yes, I fully agree with you DrT.

To be practical, it makes little sense at this time to make use of UEFI firmware especially for those of us who like to multiboot.
The implementation of it is haphazard with every firmware manufacturer providing their own version or lack of it.
Seems to me there is no standardization which, if the experts are on, might come in the near future.
In the meantime Terabyte's tools are the best.

The reason I'm looking into this is very much due to my curiosity in anything about computers.
And also, if UEFI with booting into GPT drives becomes the standard, I'll have a bit of knowledge.
And besides, Apple has that on their computers with Windows8 going that way also.

Anyway, to update on my first message, I was able to install a second Windows8 on my GPT drive but it not pretty.
It too runs fine but the booting is kind of messy.
The first install is booted by way of a boot menu in the GUI of the UEFI firmware by tapping the F8 key and clicking Windows Boot Manager.
The second install boots when moving the drive icon with a UEFI label on it to the first position in the Boot Priority.
I should try to install a Linux distro. Maybe GRUB might be of some help here.

In the meantime my MBR's run just fine managed by BIBM.

Like to hear from anyone who might likewise be experimenting in this area.

Regards
Bernard B

[novice]

Hello Brian,

At default settings the Firmware boots to BIBM. In other words, when I turn the computer on it automatically boots to the BIBM boot menu.
If I want to boot into the GPT drives I have to interrupt this process by going into the Firmware and bring up the Boot Manager or move the drive icon with the UEFI label into first place in Boot Priority.
In Advanced mode under booting there is a setting that is either EZ-mode or Advanced mode.
The EZ-mode will bring up the GUI screen which allows for clicking on different boot items.

The manual does not mention much about booting in UEFI

So, if I read you right, you have to set your firmware to Other OS in order to default to BIBM?
Or do you have go into your firmware every time you boot and click on Other OS ?

Pretty awesome motherboard you have Brian.
Do you like it?

Cheers,
Bernard

[Brian K]

Bernard,

My Sabertooth is Z77 and my son has a Z87. We certainly like them. In the BIOS Boot tab there is Secure Boot/OS Type. In OS Type there are two choices; Other OS and Windows UEFI. In my computer I'm using "Other OS" and the computer behaves like a MBR computer. I wanted BIBM for multi-booting. My son doesn't need multi-booting so I selected "Windows UEFI" and installed Win8 in UEFI mode. His Win8 loads faster than mine. From pressing his power button to the desktop is around 15 seconds.

The Z87 has 6 Intel SATA III ports and 2 ASMedia SATA III ports.

The Z77 has 2 Intel SATA III ports, 4 Intel SATA II ports and 2 ASMedia SATA III ports.

The ASMedia SATA III ports are a real pain and I don't use them. They don't show in the BIOS. It's been over a year and I can't recall the specific problems but they changed the drive order in BIBM and Windows and I'm better off using the Intel SATA II ports. Of interest, you can connect optical drives to these ports and they work fine in Windows but Ubuntu won't boot if optical drives are connected to these ports.

[DrTeeth]

On Sat, 3 May 2014 16:24:53 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
Brian K disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>The ASMedia SATA III ports are a real pain and I don't use them.
I have often wondered why MB makers include 2 chipsets for the same
thing (SATA III in this case) instead of sticking to just one.
--

Cheers,

DrT

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

[Brian K]

ASMedia also provides 2 USB3 ports on this MB. These ports work fine. The MB has 6 USB3 ports.

A mate told me the ASMedia SATA ports work at about SATA II speed but I haven't done any testing.

[novice]

Hello Brian,

Just an update to you question regarding settings to the firmware to enable booting both UEFI and BIOS.
With UEFI you would boot onto GPT drives and partitions, where as BIOS you boot MBR drives ( BIBM)

In the firmware under Advanced set turn off secure boot to disable windows OS's to dominate.
For some reason, if secure boot is enabled and I have a UEFI compatible windows installed the firmware will not boot into another installation.

Also, yes, leave your setting in advanced mode to "other OS".

Set the firmware to EZ mode.

Now, if you want to install an OS in UEFI mode you just start in the DVD ROM and enter the Firmware to make sure the OS is UEFI compatible.
If it is compatible it will show in the EZ boot sequence with a UEFI label on it and you're ready to install by moving it to the first boot place.
Tap F8 to bring up the Boot Menu and click on the item to install the OS.
This then is basically the procedure for installing additional OS's in UEFI.

Another note; to make this work properly, you should not mix drives with UEFI and MBR (legacy).
In other words, one complete drive for UEFI (GPT) and another for MBR using BIBM if you like.

When you have several OS's installed on the different drives you set the firmware to boot first to Legacy mode so when you turn on the computer
it will boot to BIBM or the MBR installs. ( Or vice versa, what ever your preference)
If you want to boot to the EFI installs you tap F8 (firmware boot menu) or enter the Firmware and click on the desired boot entry.

This is how it works in my mobo Asus M5A97 and M5A97LE.
I suspect it would be very much the same for other Asus boards.
Other makes might be very different as I've been looking into it.

Hope this is clear.

Bernard B

[Brian K]

Bernard,

Thanks for that. It is very helpful.