“error setting up gummiboot-efi” on Archboot UEFI install

Question

I recently purchased an Aspire XC600, but am having trouble installing Arch. I haven't installed on UEFI before. I want Arch as the only OS on the disk.

I wrote the Archboot x86_64 image to a USB stick and booted from it successfully. The booting had to be done through a compatibility layer.

In the "Install Bootloader" step, I chose UEFI_x86_64, EFISTUB and GUMMIBOOT_UEFI. Gummiboot setup aborts with this error:

error setting up gummiboot-efi

I don't think I'm in EFI mode, because:

# modprobe efivars
# efibootmgr
Fatal: couldn't open either sysfs or procfs directories for accessing EFI variables.
Try 'modprobe efivars' as root.
#

Is the problem that I'm not in EFI mode? How can I fix that, as the USB drive can't be booted from in EFI mode? vc7 doesn't show any extra info.

Answer 1

Yes, you're not in EFI mode then as noted already; yes, you need to get there to be able to set it up (quite cumbersome chicken-and-egg but still you can do it with UEFI-bootable media; that will not need CSM/"legacy BIOS" enabled).

I'd suggest getting through Rod Smith's excellent pages on the topic which very well might save you quite some time; not sure whether there's reason to use gummiboot, I prefer refind as a boot manager for a generic case (but you well might skip it since you say no need for multiboot), elilo as a bootable media starter (especially with UEFI SB and non-signed kernels), and grub 2.00 as a "common" bootloader that lets one mess with kernel boot parameters and whatnot.

Not sure regarding Arch (I've added UEFI support into ALT Linux) but have you seen the appropriate wiki pages then?