F37 Invalid image error while booting - Fedora Discussion https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f37-invalid-image-error-while-b...

F37 Invalid image error while booting

f37 , boot

mcdoland (Roland McDoland) 1 Setembro 17, 2022, 6:20pm

So far, I’ve tried to boot these images:

Fedora-Everything-netinst-x86_64-37_Beta-1.5.iso
Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-37_Beta-1.5.iso
Fedora-KDE-Live-x86_64-37_Beta-1.5.iso

When I try to boot them on my hardware, this is the output I get:

Invalid image
Failed to read header: Unsupported
Failed to load image: Unsupported
start_image() returned Unsupported

I have tried these measures:

Verify file integrity

Toggle secure boot
Boot from USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports
Write to media using dd and Fedora Media Writer
Format media with MBR and GPT partition tables

Yet, these images refuse to boot on my hardware. The images boot fine in VMs. Fedora 36 live images boot
on my hardware just fine. What relevant info should I provide?

mcdoland (Roland McDoland) 2 Setembro 19, 2022, 2:18pm

Solved thanks to Reddit user liwindowsnux’s comment under a post by someone experiencing a similar
problem on r/RockyLinux.

You’ll need a tool (such as Rufus) to burn the installer ISO into the USB stick in ISO mode (not dd
mode) to get access to the /<USB_Stick>/EFI folder. I guess you can also use dd mode if you can
get access to the EFI partition.
After the burning process, backup /<USB_Stick>/EFI to somewhere else just in case.
Get into /<USB_Stick>/EFI/BOOT, delete the original BOOTX64.EFI and BOOTIA32.EFI.
Rename grubx64.efi and grubia32.efi to BOOTX64.EFI and BOOTIA32.EFI respectively.
Boot your system with this USB stick in UEFI mode and you should be able to boot into the
installer.

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1 curtida

adamwill (Adam Williamson) 3 Novembro 10, 2022, 5:29pm

Note, that solution will only work if Secure Boot is disabled, because it bypasses shim and loads grub
directly. The best solution is to copy over BOOTX64.EFI from the F36 shim-x64 package.

This is 2113005 – Live image made with BOOTX64.EFI from latest shim-x64-15.6-2 fails to boot on
some boards .

adamwill (Adam Williamson) 4 Novembro 10, 2022, 5:34pm

@mcdoland - can you say what your motherboard model is? Thanks!

computersavvy (Jeff V) 5 Novembro 10, 2022, 5:39pm

Sounds like it is related to this issue which lists some workarounds.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f37-install-media-dont-boot-in-uefi-mode-on-certain-
motherboards/71376

Listing the motherboard of concern may help, but it seems a fix is already in the works, just not yet here.

Something happened to quoted text

kelderek (Michael Magill) 6 Novembro 17, 2022, 9:38pm

I am having the same issue both with the Fedora 37 live CD and Ventoy 1.0.82 (which uses the Fedora 37
shims). If I swap out BOOTX64.EFI and mmx64.efi with ones from either Ubuntu or Parted Magic,
everything works great. I have also posted in Ventoy’s issues list here start_image returned Unsupported
in v3.4 · Issue #18 · ValdikSS/Super-UEFIinSecureBoot-Disk · GitHub
and here is some of the hardware I have had trouble with Fedora 37 on:
MSI Z97A Krait Edition motherboard in custom build PC (BIOS version 2.0 and latest 2.3) with Secure
Boot disabled error messages:
Invalid image
Failed to read header: Unsupported
Failed to load image: Unsupported
start_image() returned Unsupported
then it reboots

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Dell Latitude 7490 laptop (latest BIOS) with secure boot enabled error messages:
Failed to open \EFI\BOOT\∎ - Invalid Parameter
Failed to load image ∎∎: Invalid Parameter
start_image() returned Invalid Parameter, falling back to default loader
but then continues to grub and works anyway

idanka (Dankaházi (ifj.) István) 7 Novembro 20, 2022, 8:21pm

None of the disk images boot!

Invalid image
Failed to read header: Unsupported
Failed to load image: Unsupported
start_image() returned Unsupported

FUJITSU ESPRIMO P520 / nvidia gtx1650

HW probe of Fujitsu D3220-A1 S26361-D322... Desktop Computer

(ESPRIMO P520)...
A database of all the hardware that works under linux

joncole (Jonathan) 8 Dezembro 10, 2022, 10:45am

I also had this problem on a laptop with a very old fedora install. Adding here for anyone in a similar boat.

Got it to boot by pushing c at the old grub prompt to get the command line, then
set root=(hd0,gpt2)
chainloader /efi/boot/grubx64.efi
boot

nielsenb (Brandon Nielsen) 9 Dezembro 22, 2022, 7:24pm

For anybody looking for a bit more detail on the “power user” workaround from the common issues post:

Don’t do the below, just do what @adamwill says in the post below.

First, extract the boot images from the ISO you wish to modify:

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$ osirrox -indev Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-37-1.7.iso

-extract_boot_images ./ -extract /EFI/BOOT/BOOTIA32.EFI BOOTIA32.EFI

Next, move the BOOTX64.EFI file from the shim package linked in the common issues post to the
directory you’re working in, e.g.:

$ cp ~/Desktop/shim/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI .

Update the boot image with the new shim:

$ mcopy -D oO -i eltorito_img2_uefi.img BOOTX64.EFI BOOTIA32.EFI ::/EFI/BOOT/

Finally, create a new ISO with the boot configuration taken from the original ISO, the modified boot image
we made above, and BOOTX64.EFI replaced:

$ xorriso -indev Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-37-1.7.iso -outdev Fedora-

Workstation-Live-x86_64-37-1.7_BOOTFIX.iso -boot_image any replay
-append_partition 2 0xef eltorito_img2_uefi.img -update BOOTX64.EFI /EFI/BOOT
/BOOTX64.EFI

If you need help extracting BOOTX64.EFI from the shim package, you can extract the contents of the
RPM to the current directory as follows:

$ rpm2cpio shim-x64-15.4-5.x86_64.rpm | cpio -idmv

adamwill (Adam Williamson) 10 Dezembro 22, 2022, 8:35pm

That’s an unnecessarily complicated way of doing it. All you need to do is write the ISO to a USB stick
first, then just mount the relevant partition from the stick (the second one) and replace the files in a normal
way - file manager, console cp , whatever. You don’t need to go to the trouble of modifying the ISO itself
unless you need to write it to a DVD-R or something.

nielsenb (Brandon Nielsen) 11 Dezembro 22, 2022, 9:58pm

Ignore my ramblings below.

Unless I’m missing something, the partition is ISO9660 which is decidedly read only.

Believe me, I wanted it to be the case I could just copy a file over, but at least for a thumb drive made with
dd , there was no way I could make that work. Even just replacing the shim on the ISO with xorriso before
dd -ing wasn’t enough to make my board boot, the boot image jiggery pokery was required.

Perhaps Fedora media writer does something different? Perhaps I’m just dense. But believe me, I spent at
least 3 hours trying to find a not complicated way.

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adamwill (Adam Williamson) 12 Dezembro 22, 2022, 10:08pm

The first partition on the stick is ISO9660. The second partition is FAT, and that’s where all the EFI
bootloader files are - it’s an EFI system partition (it has to be, or else the stick wouldn’t boot). I just
confirmed this with a stick I have here that’s written with dd.

nielsenb (Brandon Nielsen) 13 Dezembro 22, 2022, 10:16pm

I was sure the first thing I tried was replacing the shim on the second partition and it still refused to boot
which was why I started down the road of ISO modification. But I just tried it, and it worked. Sorry for the
noise!

richardm (R M) 14 Fevereiro 8, 2023, 12:05am

FYI, this bug also impacts the Asus Z87-A board.

computersavvy (Jeff V) 15 Fevereiro 8, 2023, 12:40am

Are you selecting the second partition on the usb device to boot? That should normally boot it as uefi since
that is the efi partition on the usb stick.

ksinkar (કૌ તુભ िसनकर) 16 Fevereiro 15, 2023, 10:02pm

I am also having a similar problem. My laptop is ACER s1001. The problem that I face is similar but it has
a slightly different twist with regards to the shim. The processor on my laptop is 64bit but the EFI BIOS is
32bit. I tried after replacing the 32bit shim from the centos 32bit shim but it didn’t work.

Surprisingly Fedora 31 (64 bit) is able to boot with UEFI enabled as well as disabled.

computersavvy (Jeff V) 17 Fevereiro 16, 2023, 12:18am

કૌ તુભ िसनकर:

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Surprisingly Fedora 31 (64 bit) is able to boot with UEFI enabled as well as disabled.

At the time fedora 31 was around fedora still supported 32 bit kernels (and may not have supported secure
boot). The shim used was likely a 32 bit compatible shim.

adamwill (Adam Williamson) 18 Fevereiro 16, 2023, 1:42am

As I explained in the bug report, we did (try to) maintain specific 64-on-32 support for those odd systems
for a while. IIRC it didn’t require a 32-bit kernel, only a 32-bit shim and grub, they could boot a 64-bit
kernel (the systems themselves run 64-bit code fine, they just shipped with a 32-bit firmware for some
bizarre reason). This has likely been lost or just broken along the way as these systems are so uncommon; I
used to have one, but got rid of it some time back, so I wouldn’t know if this broke.

We certainly have supported Secure Boot since way before F31.

Anyway, problems on those systems are very likely a different thing from the problem being discussed in
this thread.

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