Cannot install on Surface 3

[Zack Mitkin]

I tried installing the following

7.1 RC1

7.1 RC2

7.1 RC2 32bit

all of those boot fine from the USB, and if I go on live from USB it works flawless. When I install from USB to the internal SSD, the install process goes fine, I can run android straight after. But when I reboot and remove install drive, it won't boot, goes into bios menu and thats it. I tried installing from boot usb to another usb and it worked, and I was able to boot from it, I then tried to copy the USB partition to the SSD using bootable gparted OS, I got really excited when it booted, but System was taking up all the hard drive space (60gb) and I had like 200mb left which was useless, and idk why it did that.

I also tried 6.0 R3 which doesn't even boot from USB, stuck on "Detecting android x86"

If there is any fix anyone knows please let me know. I will be very gratefull. I've been trying to install something other than windows 10 for the past week, tried Ubuntu, Fedora, Chrome OS, and Windows 10s, which I didn't like any of them. Android is so much faster, and has such great support, it seems like the best choice.

[Chih-Wei Huang]

You may need to create EFI boot entry manually. See

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/android-x86/7Bnjxc9siLA/PQUFlZWAAAAJ



--
Chih-Wei
Android-x86 project
http://www.android-x86.org

[Zack Mitkin]

I did a clean install of 7.1 rc2 64-bit (didn't boot), then I booted into gparted and did

 

efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0p1 -p 1 -L "Android-x86" -l /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI  (mmcblk0p1 is the disk name)

I restarted and it just goes into bios, same thing as it did before the command.

[Chih-Wei Huang]

2018-01-16 10:57 GMT+08:00 Zack Mitkin <Zack....@gmail.com>:
>> I did a clean install of 7.1 rc2 64-bit (didn't boot), then I booted into
>> gparted and did
>
>
> efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0p1 -p 1 -L "Android-x86" -l
> /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI (mmcblk0p1 is the disk name)

Should be:

efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0 -p 1 -L "Android-x86" -l /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI

(mmcblk0p1 is the partition, mmcblk0 is the whole disk)

[Chih-Wei Huang]

2018-01-16 13:58 GMT+08:00 Chih-Wei Huang <cwh...@android-x86.org>:
> 2018-01-16 10:57 GMT+08:00 Zack Mitkin <Zack....@gmail.com>:
>>> I did a clean install of 7.1 rc2 64-bit (didn't boot), then I booted into
>>> gparted and did
>>
>> efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0p1 -p 1 -L "Android-x86" -l
>> /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI (mmcblk0p1 is the disk name)
>
> Should be:
>
> efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0 -p 1 -L "Android-x86" -l /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI
>
> (mmcblk0p1 is the partition, mmcblk0 is the whole disk)

I re-checked my Surface 3.
The EFI partition should be mmcblk0p2.
(mmcblk0p1 is "Windoes RE Tools")

So the correct command is

efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0 -p 2 -L "Android-x86" -l /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI

You can use blkid to check your partitions and
see which one is TYPE="vfat".

[Zack Mitkin]

 It's the same thing, I did that command after another fresh install and it still does not boot. Can you confirm that this will work on the Surface 3 (non pro)? Has anyone else got it to work?

[Zack Mitkin]

Gonna try that one now

[Zack Mitkin]

it still does not work with 

efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0 -p 2 -L "Android-x86" -l /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI

can you make sure I installed correctly?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HYK99RRRfmNcJFwv1

[Chih-Wei Huang]

Oh! You have destroyed all original partitions
include the ESP. That won't boot.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_system_partition

In short, in UEFI installation you need at least two partitions.
One for ESP and another for Android-x86.
So create two partitons: one vfat for ESP (about 100MB)
and the other ext4 for Android-x86.

[Zack Mitkin]

I'm not getting vfat in gparted... have a look: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yAHBvueeHSG4jmZl1

Do I need to do this inside the disk manager on the live usb? 

Once I do have the ESP and Android-x86 partitions made (android installed), do I need to put anything into the ESP? Because when I set it up it'll be blank? 

This is what I have so far: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yAHBvueeHSG4jmZl1

Android is installed on the second partition, and the 100mb one is empty and allocated. What do I do from here? You've been great help so far!

[Chih-Wei Huang]

When prompt "Do you want to install EFI GRUB2?", say yes,
and say yes to format ESP (if you haven't formatted it yet)
Then use efibootmgr to create EFI boot entry again.

[Zack Mitkin]

I formatted EFI to fat32 because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_system_partition says it can be fat32

I did efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0 -p 1 -L "Android-x86" -l /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI (1 because EFI was on the first partition)

I formatted to fat32, but it was EXT4 after install and had boot flag attached, it was undefined when I installed androidx86, and I got no message to format it. Only formatted the disk, and installed grub2.

Anything I could have missed?

[Zack Mitkin]

omg I finally got it working!!! Dude you are the best man alive. I've never received so much personal help from the developer, you are great! I will donate when I get next paycheck. <3 thanks so much, keep doing what ur doing!

[Chih-Wei Huang]

2018-01-16 15:14 GMT+08:00 Zack Mitkin <zack....@gmail.com>:
>
> I formatted EFI to fat32 because
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_system_partition says it can be fat32
> I did efibootmgr -v -c -d /dev/mmcblk0 -p 1 -L "Android-x86" -l
> /efi/boot/BOOTx64.EFI (1 because EFI was on the first partition)

That's alright.

> I formatted to fat32, but it was EXT4 after install and had boot flag
> attached, it was undefined when I installed androidx86, and I got no message
> to format it. Only formatted the disk, and installed grub2.

I didn't got it.
Why it was EXT4 after install?
You should install android-x86 to mmcblk0p2.
Didn't you?

No message to format ESP is OK
because you have formatted it.

BTW, did you use GPT? (you should)

[Zack Mitkin]

I dont know why it was ext4 after install. Like I said, I had two partitions, the EFI (100mb unformatted) and the androidx86 (ext4), I did the install, and installed grub2 and formatted androidx86 again to ext4 when I boot up partition manager, it shows the 100mb drive and androidx86 drive as ext4, I formatted EFI to fat32, did the command. Restarted the live usb, and installed again selected the grub2 option and when I reboot it was installed, and booted up correctly! idk how but I'm happy. It's smooth and works very very well. Battery, sound wifi, screen brightness all works!

[Chih-Wei Huang]

Cool! You are welcome.

BTW, I'm working to improve the UEFI installation.
That should avoid most issues you encountered (hopefully).
It will be available in the coming 7.1-r1.