Win7 x64 booting natively via EFI (no BIOS emulation)

[sejong]

I installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (x64) on a Mid 2010 Mac mini using EFI boot, using a USB flash drive I created with Boot Camp on a different computer. The video driver used was the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. When I installed the NVidia 320M video driver from the Lion version of Windows Support (Boot Camp drivers), on the required restart, I got EFI video with the Betta fish splash screen, but the screen turned black instead of displaying the Windows 8 Start screen. I was unable to boot into safe mode to revert to the Microsoft Basic Video driver.

Same symptoms with the two most recent drivers downloaded from NVidia (295.73).

 

[sejong]

Update: I also installed to a 2011 MacBook Air, using EFI boot. Install Windows 8 from an EFI Boot SD card. Had to disable the Intel graphics (otherwise no video - black screen). No audio (no audio device detected). All other Windows 7 Boot Camp 4.0.1 drivers installed successfully. Keyboard backlight works and is controllable from keyboard. Screen brightness is not controllable.

 

[rip1999eternal]

Win7 / Win8 on MBA 2010

ok so tried both win7 and win8.

win7: I was able to pre-load nvidia drivers into install.wim via dism command, i run commands:
mm 0017003E -PCI 8
mm 02000004 -PCI 7
fs0:
\EFI\Microsoft\bootmgfw.efi

however, as soon as i bring up the bootloader, i get a bright flickering black/white screen. This is the part of the installation where windows searches for drivers then reboots, and upon reboot it starts asking you the info to create a first account. The system never reboots. I managed to get a gui install by using the windows 8 dvd and replacing the windows 8 Consumer Preview install.wim with the windows 7 dvd's install.wim with the drivers for the Nvidia320M injected into it.

Now for Windows 8. It installs just fine, as long as i install an untampered installation and leave the video drivers alone. in fact, as long as i dont touch microsoft's display driver, everything works just fine. broadcom wifi works right out of the box, so does bluetooth (magic mouse scrolling works a little better with bootcamp drivers though) I can use bootcamp to install the drivers for the touchpad & magic mouse etc as long as i delete the folders for the drivers i dont want out of the bootcamp installation (ie nvidia, ati, i leave the cirrus folder because that's my audio driver).

If I try to install the windows 7 graphics driver - i get stuck in a reboot loop. even if i re-install with the driver already injected and i fix the registers (mm commands above), i still get the reboot loop.

I installed the beta drivers for the 320M chipset from Nvidia's site for Windows 8 after doing an 'untampered install' (see above), and although i don't get a reboot loop and everything works fine (caps lock lights up and i can even hear the volume go up and down when i press the volume keys), the screen literally just shuts off right after the boot logo. no video. again, i have sound and keyboard works, but i have noo video. I also did a second install doing the mm commands before booting into windows with the beta drivers, same result.

I just happened to grab those drivers yesterday, so i'm going to do an install for windows 8 under bootcamp with the bios emulation turned on and see if it might just be the video drivers themselves that need to be fixed. If I get the black screen using bios emulation then I know it has to do with buggy beta drivers, but if i get video with the bios emulation, then it's probably not (just) the drivers.

 

[rip1999eternal]

update on windows 8

Ok, so windows 8 installs through bootcamp like a charm. no issues whatsoever. main drawback is ide instead of ahci support. in native efi mode, i can use microsoft basic drivers. with bios emulation, windows can only use standard ide controllers.

This is on a 2010 MBA. I know that on the 2011 with the intel chipset windows natively uses ahci even with bios emulation.

 

[mac-hacks]

Problem solve for booting UEFI on Mac's. Check out Rod Smith new rEFInd tool.

Download

OSX install Guide

 

[624636]

Problem solve for booting UEFI on Mac's. Check out Rod Smith new rEFInd tool.

Download

OSX install Guide

Which problemS are actually solved ? You're just have too boot with rEFInd or you need to configure in function of your computer ?

 

[duffman9000]

Which problemS are actually solved ? You're just have too boot with rEFInd or you need to configure in function of your computer ?

It doesn't solve the immediate problems that we need solved. I believe a UEFI Windows 8 installation is possible provided you slipstream the correct display drivers. However, after the installation completes you will probably encounter instability. We have hope that one day we will be able to enable AHCI without any hacks.

rEFInd would help in booting a USB Windows installation, but who cares. That isn't a problem when we can burn a disk.

 

[rip1999eternal]

windows 8: not solved

Problem solve for booting UEFI on Mac's. Check out Rod Smith new rEFInd tool.

Download

OSX install Guide

Ok, so i tried using rEFInd with windows 8 slipstreamed drivers, took out all of the mm mods and just booted straight to the rEFInd efi boot loader. Nuttin. Same results as with the other boot loaders.

I'm going to try again with Windows 7 (injected nVidia drivers) this time and see if i get the same results.

Are there any specific instructions that i should put in the config file, because i read the site even though there are some nice improvements fro rEFIt, i don't really notice anything that fixes the display issue with Windows, but maybe I missed something.

 

[duffman9000]

Ok, so windows 8 installs through bootcamp like a charm. no issues whatsoever. main drawback is ide instead of ahci support. in native efi mode, i can use microsoft basic drivers. with bios emulation, windows can only use standard ide controllers.

This is on a 2010 MBA. I know that on the 2011 with the intel chipset windows natively uses ahci even with bios emulation.

Source? I'm been reading about AHCI all day and I'm super tired.

 

[rip1999eternal]

It doesn't solve the immediate problems that we need solved. I believe a UEFI Windows 8 installation is possible provided you slipstream the correct display drivers. However, after the installation completes you will probably encounter instability. We have hope that one day we will be able to enable AHCI without any hacks.

rEFInd would help in booting a USB Windows installation, but who cares. That isn't a problem when we can burn a disk.

windows 8 installation is actually pretty stable with all the correct drivers slipstreamed. In fact, Windows 8 works perfectly if you DONT slipstream any video drivers, except you don't have full graphics acceleration for games... but the microsoft basic display driver works just fine in efi without any modifications to the registers via the startup.nsh or booting via rEFInd. the stock windows bootloader loads everything up just fine when you dont mess with the video drivers. the windows 8 drivers work perfectly under bootcamp, i can even play AoE Online just fine without any problems. With the stock win7 drivers that come with bootcamp I end up with a reboot loop. And with 8 i get full functionality (i even have volume) but i have no screen.

My guess is nVidia has to fix their drivers to work the same way that the stock Microsoft Basic Display Driver works, and then we'd be set.

Going to try on Windows 7 to see if this rEFInd actually fixes anything...

 

[duffman9000]

rip1999eternal,
Is AHCI (finally) enabled also?

 

[rip1999eternal]

AHCI on win 8

rip1999eternal,
Is AHCI (finally) enabled also?

yeap. Microsoft Basic AHCI Drivers. From the stock install. Don't have to make any modifications to registry or anything like that. They get installed by default.

If I use bios emulation from bootcamp, however, i get stuck with microsoft standard ide controller - nvidia 320M chipset disables ahci under bios emulation.

 

[mac-hacks]

Ok, so i tried using rEFInd with windows 8 slipstreamed drivers, took out all of the mm mods and just booted straight to the rEFInd efi boot loader. Nuttin. Same results as with the other boot loaders.

I'm going to try again with Windows 7 (injected nVidia drivers) this time and see if i get the same results.

Are there any specific instructions that i should put in the config file, because i read the site even though there are some nice improvements fro rEFIt, i don't really notice anything that fixes the display issue with Windows, but maybe I missed something.

You need tweak refind.conf for OS your wanting to boot. Delete "disable" from samples provided, which should allow you to boot UEFI Windows & More Poplar Linux Os's. Depending on your graphics card & CPU, might involve other changes to refind.con.

I also change

# Which types of boot loaders to search:
# Default is internal,external,optical
scanfor internal,external,optical.hdbios,biosexternal,cd

I was able to boot Windows 7 UEFI in legacy with Nividia Quadro 4000 for Mac on 2010 MacPro. I haven't had time to try any thing else.

Do not use Boot Camp to setup Partition. From what I've notice from installing windows UEFI on Mac's. You need to have single Drive dedicated with no partition scheme prior to booting install disc. Windo's will not install using Microsoft UEFI if EFi was created by OSX.

Clean HD from partition scheme. You can open CMD from Repair on Windows Install Disk and run:

: diskpart
: list disk
# select disk you wanting to install on
: clean

then go back and reformat disk from Windows Installation Menu

 

[rip1999eternal]

installing windows in uefi - partitioning without losing everything --

The windows installer can actually install to a disk with os x already in it, you don't really have to wipe your hard drive. But the procedure has one thing in common with the above: don't use bootcamp.

I don't use bootcamp to create my partition for windows, since in the partitioning process what bootcamp does is actually creates a hybrid gpt/mbr partition. Windows won't install to this if i boot it in UEFI.

So in order not to lose anything, i just shrink the main os x partition using disk utility and leave some free space at the end of the drive

After this, i mount the EFI partition (as a preventative measure in case i wiped an efi installation) to a temporary /efi directory using:

mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /efi

and just go into the /efi/EFI folder in finder and delete the Microsoft folder to get rid of the BCD file created if there was one, so that when i do another uefi install i don't have 2 windows 7 entries in there. This only needs to be done if I've done a previous uefi installation and had to wipe it and forgot to delete the bcd directory from the EFI partition.


Once all that's done, i just boot via uefi from usb and install windows, create partition in empty space. Since i just used Disk Utility to shrink the main os x partition, no hybrid mbr was created and the disk is pure gpt, so i can create another gpt partition without any problems for windows and install to it.

Windows will install to the created partition, and install it's efi boot loader to [efi partition]/EFI/Microsoft and [efi partition]/EFI/boot

If i want to use your bootloader (or any other) and not have to manually enter in bless commands each time i want to boot to windows i just need to replace the bootx64.efi in [efi partition]/efi/boot with yours (or whatever bootloader i want) and rename refind.efi to bootx64.efi. I can even do this with grub.efi. (already tried to chainload windows with it. also fails). Doing this, to boot your loader all i have to do is hold option at boot time. Instead of getting one menu i get two. Apple's, then yours. Yours comes up and detects windows just fine, but keep in mind - i'm not booting windows legacy - it's booting up in full efi from bootmgfw.efi. the only issue i have is video. like i said, everything else loads up just fine. You might want to take a look at some of the previous posts, i believe page 10 and 11 talk about why windows doesn't load the graphics up. it's explained much more in depth by d3v1l's posts, found all over the place.

----------

found it:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/696523/

post # 47

 

[duffman9000]

yeap. Microsoft Basic AHCI Drivers. From the stock install. Don't have to make any modifications to registry or anything like that. They get installed by default.

If I use bios emulation from bootcamp, however, i get stuck with microsoft standard ide controller - nvidia 320M chipset disables ahci under bios emulation.

That's music to my ears. I've wanted to replace my MBP's HDD with a 512GB SSD as soon as the drive was actually affordable. $609 shipped from B&H is pretty affordable.

However, no AHCI has been a major disappointment and I refuse to use a mod that disables sleep. Hopefully this emulation BIOS non-sense will be put to rest forever when Windows 8 is released.

 

[rip1999eternal]

That's music to my ears. I've wanted to replace my MBP's HDD with a 512GB SSD as soon as the drive was actually affordable. $609 shipped from B&H is pretty affordable.

However, no AHCI has been a major disappointment and I refuse to use a mod that disables sleep. Hopefully this emulation BIOS non-sense will be put to rest forever when Windows 8 is released.

i never really noticed if sleep worked or not... maybe it did but i never really paid any notice. on another note, something i DID notice is that bootcamp control panel loads up but you can't bring up the options dialog box, so to change the settings for your trackpad (provided you slipstreamed the multitouch drivers ) you have to edit the registry key HKCU\Software\Apple Inc\Trackpad\(forgot what the key name is but it's the only one there) to whatever you want it to default is 0x28 (the setting i want is 0x29 - tap to click with doubletap right click), log out, and back in. when bootcamp ctrl panel loads up again trackpad'll work like a charm the way you want it to. 0x29 if you only want doubletap right click & tap to click. if yours is another setting you need to install a regular bootcamp installation, set the trackpad the way you want and note down the hex value of that registry key and change it to that when you install under uefi.

 

[mac-hacks]

@ rip1999eternal

You were able to install Windows 7 & 8 to free space on Drive with OSX already install? Thats the way i install Ubuntu, that makes sense.

I notice when i tried 1st & 2nd Windows 8 per-release, it kept reformatting /dev/disk0 with recovery partition, I was trying to install to /dev/disk1.

I had to remove all other drives except HD i was using to install on. I would have to reformat with Microsoft Install Disk, cause it kept getting error on installation. If EFI was formatted with OSX.

Today was 1st day I was able to get Windows 7 UEFi install. I never tried the above procedure you describe. Plus i was using refit to boot in past. I need little more time to play around with rEFInd.

What changes did u make to refind.plist?

 

[rip1999eternal]

@ rip1999eternal

You were able to install Windows 7 & 8 to free space on Drive with OSX already install? Thats the way i install Ubuntu, that makes sense.

I notice when i tried 1st & 2nd Windows 8 pre-release, it kept reformating /dev/disk0 with recovery partition, I was trying to install to /dev/disk1.

I had to remove all other drives except HD i was using to install on. I would have to reformat with Microsoft Install Disk, cause it kept getting error on installation. If EFI was formated with OSX.

Today was 1st day I was able to get Windows 7 UEFi install. I never tried the above procedure you describe. Plus i was using refit to boot in past. I need little more time to play around with rEFInd.

What changes did u make to refind.plist?

none. just finished trying to install windows 7 finally. it doesnt work. same error as before - a flashing screen.

Windows 8 consumer preview won't try to reformat anything. it'll just add it's bootloader to [efi partition]/EFI/Microsoft and copy in it's bootx64.efi to /[efi partition]/EFI/Boot. What it will do is create a microsoft recovery partition of about 128MB right before the partition you create in the free space you have behind your os x partition, which doesn't really affect anything. so it basically creates 2 partitions when you hit *new in the dialog where you choose what disk you want to install to. so in reality instead of having 3 partitions when you install, you'll have 4: --[efi][osx][microsoft reserved][windows7/8]--
another thing i did way back when, and i only did this because i needed to copy over the startup.nsh file back when i was doing the mm mods, was that i formatted the efi partition to fat32 under windows.
to do this in the beginning before i started creating disks i hit shift+f10 to get a command prompt -> diskpart -> list vol, noticed my efi partition didn't have a letter assigned to it, sel vol x (the 200mb one with no letter), format fs=fat32 quick label=EFI, assign. I remember getting a few errors before doing that. after i did that, i never got any errors about the efi partition again. I just had to make sure the /efi/microsoft directory was empty since the installer instead of rewriting the bcd file just adds onto it, so i end up with a list of windows installations that i've wiped if i don't erase it.

as far as rEFInd is concerned, i'm hoping mac-hacks has some input on the matter, as i'm only getting the same black and white flashing screen that i would with the regular bootloader and when using the mm register mods via the shellx64.efi.

bottom line as it stands right now:
windows 7: the sh dont work.
windows 8: works as long as i use microsoft basic video drivers.

 

[mac-hacks]

I use DVD to install Windows 7 UEFI, which will give you 3 options to choose from rEFInd menu. I use Dedicated HD and remove all my other drives.

I choose 3rd DVD disk from menu, which is
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D7631334_4994359_37569

"Boot Legacy OS from EFISECTOR"

I changes to rEFIne.conf :
- delete "disable"

menuentry "Windows 7" {
	loader \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
        disable
}

- change "Which types of boot loaders to search" to

scanfor internal,external,optical.hdbios,biosexternal,cd

 

[rip1999eternal]

I use DVD to install Windows 7 UEFI, which will give you 3 options to choose from rEFInd menu. I use Dedicated HD and remove all my other drives.

I choose 3rd DVD disk from menu, which is
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D7631334_4994359_37569


I changes to rEFIne.conf :
- delete "disable"

menuentry "Windows 7" {
	loader \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
        disable
}

- change "Which types of boot loaders to search" to

scanfor internal,external,optical.hdbios,biosexternal,cd

The legacy option all the way to the right is bios booting. if you select that one and install to a blank hard disk, it'll write an mbr to the beginning of the disk - it won't be GPT. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a GPT disk to boot up a mac - it can be purely mbr and have only windows on it, the efi firmware'll pick it up at boot and load the bios compatibility layer and proceed to boot windows. Check to see if your disk is mbr or gpt. easiest way to do this is to boot from an osx install dvd, load up disk utility and it tells you what your disk is on the bottom right in the details when you select it - Master Boot Record or Guid Partition Table.

 

[srs5694]

Hi,

I'm Rod Smith, the author of GPT fdisk and the one who's forked rEFInd from rEFIt. I'm afraid that rEFInd doesn't really offer anything over rEFIt for booting Windows in EFI mode on a Mac; I didn't change any of the code that relates to actually launching EFI boot loaders, and I didn't add anything that affects hardware initialization. Most of the changes I've made to rEFInd relate to the manual configuration options in refind.conf and to the handling of menus with more options than can be displayed simultaneously. As rip1999eternal suggests, if you get sudden success installing Windows via rEFInd without using any other special techniques, chances are you've done so by booting it in BIOS compatibility mode.

If you want to be sure of your boot mode, though, you can use rEFInd. To do so, you'd set the "scanfor" option in refind.conf to exclude the BIOS boot modes, at least for the medium you want to use (say, "cd" for an optical disc or "biosexternal" for an external BIOS-bootable USB flash drive). For instance, to configure rEFInd to locate EFI boot loaders for any medium but to exclude all BIOS boot loaders, you'd set:

scanfor internal,external,optical

You could add "manual" to the list, if you like, but that's not likely to add anything useful, at least not for Windows installation purposes. You can then be sure that any installer you launch via rEFInd will run in EFI mode.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I hate to see you all chasing a false lead!

 

[mac-hacks]

figure out what happen in my case. I use iPartition to create my partitions which will write bios emulation from bootcamp to MBR. I also use Areca PCIe controller with different EFI firmware & drivers which show ACHI.

I should have double check mbr code after installation. I assume since i use "Boot Legacy OS from EFISECTOR" it was using EFI. I've never been able to boot EFISECTOR in past with refit.

 

[duffman9000]

Hi Rod,

I examined your app yesterday and from your very well written explanations I knew that rEFInd wouldn't be of much use. I'm still going to use it, thanks!

 

[srs5694]

I should have double check mbr code after installation. I assume since i use "Boot Legacy OS from EFISECTOR" it was using EFI. I've never been able to boot EFISECTOR in past with refit.

"EFISECTOR" is probably the name of a partition. Unless I made some accidental change, the fact you could boot it with rEFInd but hadn't been able to do so before probably reflects some change in your local configuration coincidental with the installation of rEFInd.

 

[mac-hacks]

Hi,

You could add "manual" to the list, if you like, but that's not likely to add anything useful, at least not for Windows installation purposes. You can then be sure that any installer you launch via rEFInd will run in EFI mode.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I hate to see you all chasing a false lead!

If i create USB Installer for WIndows 7 or 8 & add the "bootmgfw.efi" to \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\

Could you post example for rEFInd.conf, for Winodws7 Here what i have now, I get black screen w/ Windows 7, but windows 8 will load.

timeout 5

scanfor internal,external,optical,cd  

default_selection 1
graphics off


menuentry "Windows 7" {
	loader \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
}

EOF