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TIH 2016, Grub2, NVMe

Thread needs solution

Hi all,

I'd like to keep my TIH 2016 bootable media on a multi-boot flash drive along with my other forensic and recovery tools.  Using the below grub2 boot stanza I can launch TIH via ISO in both legacy and UEFI boot mode :)

Strange problem though: I can see and access the main drive - HDD or SSD - unless it's an NVMe drive.  NVMe drives aren't detected.

Why it's strange: if I extract the contents of the same ISO to a flash drive (TIH only on the drive) and boot that way I can see NVMe drives.  The drivers are clearly there for NVMe, but for some reason aren't accessed when booting the ISO.  Path problem, perhaps?  Are the NVMe drivers outside the .dat files?

This isn't the RAID vs AHCI issue.  The machines I've tested on run their SSDs in AHCI mode (two different ThinkPads).

Really hoping for a clue.  Fixing this would make my "swiss army" flash drive nearly perfect.

Thanks, Bill

menuentry "Acronis True Image Home 2016 ISO" {
set quiet=1
set gfxpayload=1024x768x32,1024x768
set mbrcrcs=on
set isofile="/iso/AcronisBootableMedia.iso"
search --set -f $isofile
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop,msdos1)/dat10.dat quiet force_modules=usbhid
initrd (loop,msdos1)/dat11.dat (loop,msdos1)/dat12.dat
boot
}

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It's probably not going to be as simple as getting the module loaded :(

On TIH shutdown after it's come up with the NVMe SSD not detected there's an oops @ nvme_dev_list_remove.

nvme is shown as linked in so it probaby isn't a missing driver module, but something is sick when booted this way.

Well shucks, good news.  Sort of...

Media made from a trial 2017 works when ISO-booted via grub2.  It can see NVMe drives.  It doesn't oops on shutdown.

Any chance the nvme changes in 2017 will be back-ported to 2016 in an update? I've got several unused 2016 licenses and I'm too cheap to buy 2017 just for this.

Thanks and regards,

Bill

I can only speculate on this question. Given that ATI 2017 has been out for several months, I suspect that there will be no new builds of ATI 2016 unless there is a critical bug that prevents ATI 2016 from working properly according to its specifications. I would not see any new features being added.

Ian

I suspect you're right - but thanks for the reply.

Maybe this little thread will help someone else trying to do the same thing.

regards,

Bill

William - what version of the 2016 media do you have?  I havent' been using .iso's, but my bootable USB's have been picking up AHCI NVME drives (I have a 950 Pro) since build 6579.  I believe the 6581 version brought some additional changes as well. 

HOWEVER, when we build our MVP WinPE media builder recently, Mustang found that those that had "upgraded" newer versions of 2016 over older versions of 2016 are not upgrading all compoments - for instance the newer WinPE files are not being upgraded.  Perhaps this may be a similar issue for the Linux rescue media as well - I'm not sure.  If you try to grab the trial of 2016 rescue media with 6581 - perhaps it might actually pick up the NVME drive.  Honestly though, I'm not sure why the .iso would not, if the rescue media builder is capable of building a USB drive that can detec UEFI drives in AHCI mode. 

On a side note, is your multiboot drive legacy/CSM (I suspect it is).  If so - have you checked out Easy2Boot - it's awesome and requires no special formatting on the drive and can boot any .iso.  This may be your answer.  The only reason I stopped using it (it's way better than yumiboot or sardu), is it's still primarily a legacy boot tool.  It can address UEFI, but not in the way I would want it to and I'm only using UEFI systems now so I've had to retire it.  For your legacy systems though, easy2boot can be a Godsend.

http://www.easy2boot.com/

Basically, let it format any USB hard drive the first time (it can be FAT32 or NTFS - your choice).  From there, you just put the .iso's in their respective directory and that's it!  Bam - multiboot tools galore.  and, you can supplement and add "portableapps" to the flash drive too to truly make it something special for any of your Windows PE bootable .iso's.  

Hey Bobbo_3C0X1

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

I'm doing my testing with 6581.  That's where I see this odd issue with stand-alone media seeing NVMe drives but ISO-booted drives not seeing NVMe.

My multi-boot flash drives are hand built and can boot legacy or UEFI without needing CSM support.  At least CSM isn't needed for the other UEFI images that I can boot.  My own writeup, FWIW: http://www.beezmo.com/geezblog/?p=428  I'll update it once I get this working or verify that 2017 is the only way to go.

[edit] I won't be offended if that blog link gets pulled.  Don't know if linking a personal blog violates the ToS.

Most sane people won't want to do this by hand but I like to document what goes on under the hood. I will take a look at easy2boot.

Thanks again for your reply.  Much appreciated.

Bill

NO issues posting other legitimate links in this forum.  It's a user help forum and encouraged as long as it's useful and not malicious.  I'll check it out.  I've been looking for a good multiboot UEFI tool so am interested.

I haven't used an Acronis .iso in a few years as I always use USB flash drives now.  I'll have to test the 6581 .iso on my system to see if that is an issue or not though.  I'm using 2017, but can grab the iso from my account. 

Instead of usng the .iso, any chance you could create a UsB flash drive instead and create an .imgPTN from it instead to use for bootability?  Or, perhaps, instead of the Linux default rescue media, what if you build WinPE media instead?  We've built a very nice MVP WinPE builder for Acronis (try the advanced one).  Works great as long as you have the correct Winpe.zip files in your ACronis folder and Windows ADK installed (use Windows 10 ADK to build it for best compatibility).  We also through in the IRST drivers for those who are using NVME drives in RAID mode as well.  Links are in all of my posts for both the WinPE builder and the Windows ADK which is needed for creating it. 

I'll post back when I've had a chance to try booting my 950 Pro in AHCI mode from the dfault 6581 .iso.

HI William,

So good and bad news.  It works for me when burned directly to a CD so it appears that the capabilty is there, but how to figure out why not on your system, or why not in this case.  

For background.  I have a Gigabyte Gaming 3 version 1 Z170X motherboard running bios F20C.  My OS is UEFI/GPT Windows 10 x64 version 1607 (build 14393.479).  

I downloaded the .iso straight from my account. Burned it directly to disc using the Windows 10 built in "burn to disc" menu.  Shutodwn the computer with "shutdown /p" to ensure a full shutdown (I have fastboot and hibernation disasbled, but do it anyway before using backup media - just to be sure).

I only have a single 950Pro, but in RAID mode.  I've booted 2017 Linux recovery media and been able to use it on my board since the bios has it's own IRST drivers at the bios level.  I booted the CD in UEFI mode (using F12 boot override menu to ensure UEFI was selected).  It booted the CD to the UEFE Acronis menu and pressed 1 to select 64-bit Acronis 2016.  It took a little while to boot (now I remember why I don't use discs anymore), but it after about 1 1/2 minutes, it booted into Acronis.  I selected the backup option and when presented with hard drives, my NVME drive is listed as an option with all partitions.  

I went back and switched from RAID to AHCI as the SATA mode and repeated and still working.  

Are you able to boot the .iso when burned directly to disc at all, or is that where this issue lies?  Or maybe it's the tool being used to burn it to the .iso - I used to recommend RUFUS all the time, but after some issues with USB bootability (even though I use it myself), I only recommend it as an alternative when other options aren't working.  Perhaps you can try creating the .iso directlyh in Acronis, vs downloading it from your account.  And, maybe you can burn it with a different tool than whatever you're using now - or, perhaps, even a different PC - just to rule things out?

Hi Wiliam,

Interesting work your doing there.  I think your issue is not being able to boot the ISO in UEFI mode.  You might try to chainload the \efi\boot\bootx64.efi and see if that works.  I think it might as True Image ISO probably defaults to the Legacy boot mode when run in the manner you are using.

Not sure if you have any interest in this nor if it would be of any benefit to you but there is a KB article on multi-product booting of application ISO files using Grub4Dos.  This is only possible while booting in Legacy/CSM mode not as a UEFI boot but might prove to be of interest to you all the same.  See the link below:

https://kb.acronis.com/content/57232

 

 

Hi,

Thanks for joining the conversation.  To clarify (or try...)

The blog article was written before I came across the code in my OP that lets  me boot an Acronis ISO with grub2.  I now can boot via ISO in either legacy or UEFI mode.  My test laptops are configured UEFI-only so legacy boot isn't desired or possible for purposes of this test.

To verify that the missing NVMe drive is an ISO-boot issue: boot the 2016 ISO via grub2 in UEFI mode.  It boots fine, but the NVMe SSD isn't seen.  Extract the same ISO to a clean FAT32 flash drive using 7zip.  That boots in UEFI mode and can see the NVMe drive.

Since 2017 will boot via ISO and see the NVMe SSD my fix will be either to get out the credit card and buy an upgrade - or sit here and hope 2016 gets updated ;)

The desired end result is a flash drive that will boot in legacy or UEFI mode and support multiple tools: Acronis, live Ubuntu, memtest, and some other maintenance and forensics tools.

I'm almost there.

Thanks again for the thoughts and suggestions.  Keep 'em coming...

Bill

Hi Bill,

I forgot about another tool I played with some time ago.  I think it might be similar to what you're doing manually - might simplify the process and possibly worth testing as well.  I don't know if it handles .iso files directly, but should handlge extracted .iso's or .imgPTN files in the same manner as what you're accomplishing with .iso's now.

http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/127-make-dual-32-64bit-pe#TOC-Adding-other-UEFI-.EFI-payloads

Adding other UEFI (.EFI) payloads

The easiest way to add other .EFI files such as KonBoot or Memtest86 is to add rEFInd to the USB drive and boot to rEFInd first. rEFInd will then find all .efi files and allow you to boot from any of them.

Note that, unlike KonBoot or MemTest86, some EFI payloads comprise of many files and folders - you can add these to the USB drive but you must preserve the original folder structure (i.e. you cannot copy the files to different sub-folders under the root). In effect, this means you are limited to using payloads which use different files/folder names. If you use E2B and .imgPTN files however, you circumvent this limitation.

rEFInd will auto-detect any bootia32.efi and bootx64.efi files in any folder under the \EFI folder, so once we have added rEFInd, we just need to copy over any .efi files we want and rename them if required.

1. Move the existing Windows bootia32.efi and bootx64.efi files to the \EFI\microsoft folder

2. Download the rEFInd zip file from here and extract the contents of the refind folder to your USB drives' \EFI\boot folder (i.e. U:\EFI\boot should now contain drivers_aaa, tools_aaa and icons folders)

3. Rename the \EFI\boot\refind_ia32.efi and refind_x64.efi files to \EFI\boot\bootia32.efi and \EFI\boot\bootx64.efi

You should now have:

  • \efi\boot\ - contains refind files bootx64.efi and bootia32.efi (approx 157KB and 198KB) and drivers_aaa folders, icons and tools_aaa folders
  • \efi\microsoft\ - contains Windows files bootx64.efi and bootia32.efi (approx 1.3MB and 1.6MB) as well as the boot folder

4. Now you can add any .efi payload files such as PassMark Memtest86 or KonBoot - keep the efi file names as bootx64.efi and bootia32.efi but just place them in a new folder - e.g.

\efi\KONBOOT\bootx64.efi

\efi\KONBOOT\bootia32,efi

\efi\MEMTEST86\bootx64.efi

\efi\MEMTEST86\bootia32.efi

5. If you prefer a text menu, simply delete or rename the \efi\boot\icons folder: