Attempts with system-boot

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 8:26pm

Hi Everyone.While reading recently about these problems with Grub booting in uefi mode, I came across information about yet another loader, which is the system itself. I tried using uefi on my laptop and ran the Arch installer, choosing the system-boot option instead of GRUB. Unfortunately, Arch dumps to bios after booting and from there I can only boot from the efi manager menu. It seems to me that something went wrong, and I’m wondering if maybe it’s a mistake that I chose to boot from Grub 2 when starting the installer. I’m not sure if anything of what I’ve written here is clear to you

joekamprad · January 24, 2023, 8:31pm

not everything … but i see you try to install archlinux not EndeavourOS… and posting it on the EndeavourOS newbie forum

It should not matter if you boot the installer with grub as long as you install the systemd-bootloader properly and indeed the OS

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 8:48pm

Yes indeed. My apologies and please move to the appropriate place, unless my predicament cannot be addressed here at all. I installed Arch using the archinstall script.
Contents of loader.conf file default arch timeout 1 editor 0
And entries

# Created by: archinstall
# Created on: 2023-01-24_19-16-07
title Arch Linux (linux-lts)
linux /vmlinuz-linux-lts
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux-lts.img
options root=PARTUUID=d8ba104b-35f0-4ec6-ad26-c102546c196c rw intel_pstate=no_hwp rootfstype=ext4

I wanted to practice it on a different system.

dalto · January 24, 2023, 8:54pm

As a heads up, the way archinstall handles systemd-boot and the way EOS does are completely different.

Echoa · January 24, 2023, 8:57pm

another heads up is the archinstall system saves your passwords for user and encryption in plain text

youre gonna wanna delete the archinstall logs

Echoa · January 24, 2023, 9:01pm

sounds like somehow you dont have a kernel installed after running the archinstall system. Thats the only reason i can think systemd wouldnt work for you is if it cant find the kernel/initramfs

Ive used archinstall a few dozen times on different systems and never encountered that issue. Where did you mount your efi partiton? archinstall assumes /boot and doesnt support anything else afaik

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 9:06pm

So that explains a lot. Most likely EOS will not cause such a problem. @Echoa The kernel is installed. The location is /boot

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 9:07pm

is it really the case that unencrypted passwords remain in the logs?

Echoa · January 24, 2023, 9:12pm

yes

github.com/archlinux/archinstall

insecure password storage

opened 07:27PM - 01 May 22 UTC

jamincollins

Security Issue enhancement

It would appear that all user passwords are stored in plaintext in file `/var/lo…g/archinstall/user_credentials.json`. Which is accessible to any user on the system (mode=644). ``` # ls -l /var/log/archinstall/user_credentials.json -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 94 May 1 18:48 /var/log/archinstall/user_credentials.json ``` At minimum suggest changing the access permissions on this file to mode=600, user=root, group=root. Better yet, store the password hash. I see that there is another issue (#1029) for allowing passwords to provided in a hashed manner. And in this issue there is some concern over supporting multiple potentially disparate hashing requirements. Given that the entry is already stored as a JSON object (python dict), one solution would be to extend the object to indicate which subsystem the entry is for, such as: ```json { "!superusers": { "wilbur": { "!password-shadow": "$6$xyz$ZmArb33D/r5Aftt/vkeJD.eOocWEgln8gW2Jn/71EUup1LDTJv0P8nL76leql7HDvsy2ObrAT6k.jQnol2pfV0" } } } ``` or ```json { "!superusers": { "wilbur": { "!password": { "shadow": "$6$xyz$ZmArb33D/r5Aftt/vkeJD.eOocWEgln8gW2Jn/71EUup1LDTJv0P8nL76leql7HDvsy2ObrAT6k.jQnol2pfV0" } } } } ``` Personally, I prefer the second form. IMO, it is easily extensible for any additional passwords that need to be convey.

github.com/archlinux/archinstall

Password of secondary encrypted partitions shown in /var/log/archinstall/install.log (be mindful of posting the log until v2.4.2)

opened 10:53AM - 03 Apr 22 UTC

closed 08:08PM - 28 Aug 22 UTC

Torxed

bug Security Issue

As pointed out in #137 in comment https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall/issue…s/137#issuecomment-1086801464. When archinstall creates a encryption key which it uses to encrypt a secondary volume, the password is seen in plain text in the log: > Marking partition for use with encryption-key: {'type': 'primary', 'encrypted': True, 'format': > True, 'start': '40GB', 'size': '100%', 'mountpoint': '/home', 'filesystem': {'format': 'btrfs'}, > '!password': 'plain.text.password.here'} Until v2.4.3 is released, be mindful of posting your `install.log` anywhere. Apologies for the inconvenience, this will be addressed in a more central manner.

Echoa · January 24, 2023, 9:14pm

if the partition layout is correct and the kernel/initramfs is in /boot then im not sure. The drop to EFI ususally means systemd-boot cant find the system.

What sort of partition layout do you have and what formats are your partitions?

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 9:15pm

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda      8:0    0 238,5G  0 disk 
└─sda1   8:1    0 238,5G  0 part 
sdb      8:16   0 119,2G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0   511M  0 part /boot
├─sdb2   8:18   0  19,5G  0 part /
└─sdb3   8:19   0  99,2G  0 part /home
sdc      8:32   1  28,8G  0 disk 
├─sdc1   8:33   1  28,8G  0 part 
└─sdc2   8:34   1    32M  0 part

Echoa · January 24, 2023, 9:16pm

Im assuming /boot is FAT32 correct?

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 9:17pm

Numer  Początek  Koniec  Rozmiar  System plików  Nazwa    Flaga
       17,4kB    1049kB  1031kB   Wolne miejsce
 1     1049kB    537MB   536MB    fat32          primary  ładowalna, esp
       537MB     538MB   1049kB   Wolne miejsce
 2     538MB     21,5GB  20,9GB   ext4           primary
 3     21,5GB    128GB   107GB    ext4           primary
       128GB     128GB   335kB    Wolne miejsce

Echoa · January 24, 2023, 9:20pm

hmmm…yeah thats bizarre

Honestly, not really sure why systemd-boot cant see your system. It seems like you have it all formatted correctly so it is supposed to just work.

have you tried running archinstall again to see if its repeatable?

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 9:22pm

I checked the archinstall log file and except for the message that the password is weak, I did not find it. Although I didn’t encrypt the partition, but I didn’t find any user passwords either
Yes, it happened every time. In addition, wanting to use GRUB, the system quite refused to boot, going into grub resuce. Could Ventoy, from which I run the installer, have something to do with all this?

Echoa · January 24, 2023, 9:27pm

Well hopefully that means they fixed it recently as it was a thing for most of the past year+

Possibly, I know the latest EOS iso has a fuss with Ventoy and i had to put it on its own USB Drive.

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 9:32pm

I start installer Cassini on Ventoy and it is all good

Echoa · January 24, 2023, 9:37pm

not on my end it just refuses to boot the iso, but why not give it a try if you have the option to not use Ventoy to see if it helps?

matadrox · January 24, 2023, 9:45pm

Generally, this was to see how it would work and whether Endeavour Os would survive it. However, if the differences in the use of system-boot are large between the two systems, this whole exercise was pointless. Arch boots, but only from the bios level. Tomorrow I will put together a new installation of Endeavour with the hope that all will be well if I give up grub. Thank you all for your help!

matadrox · January 26, 2023, 6:17pm

So indeed Endeavour Os has not the slightest trouble with system-boot. However, due to the fact that I don’t quite know how to figure it out yet, I’m having trouble with another kernel showing up in the entries. How can I make the newly added kernel visible in the boot menu?