Install the ELILO Boot Loader
on a Hard Disk
The &architecture; boot loader is called elilo
.
It is modeled on the lilo
boot loader for the
x86 architecture and uses a similar configuration file.
However, instead of writing an MBR or partition boot record to
the disk, it copies the necessary files to a separate FAT formatted
disk partition and modifies the EFI Boot Manager
menu in the firmware to point to the files in the EFI partition.
The elilo boot loader is really in two parts.
The /usr/sbin/elilo command manages the partition and
copies file into it.
The elilo.efi program is copied into the EFI
partition and then run by the EFI Boot Manager
to actually
do the work of loading and starting the Linux kernel.
The elilo
configuration and installation is done as the
last step of installing the packages of the base installation.
&d-i; will present you with a list of potential disk partitions that it
has found suitable for an EFI partition.
Select the partition you set up earlier in the installation, typically
a partition on the same disk that contains your
root filesystem.
Choose the correct partition!
The criteria for selecting a partition is that it is FAT format
filesystem with its boot flag set.
&d-i; may show multiple choices depending on what it finds from scanning
all of the disks of the system including EFI partitions of other system
disks and EFI diagnostic partitions.
Remember, the elilo may format the partition during
the installation, erasing any previous contents!
EFI Partition Contents
The EFI partition is a FAT filesystem format partition on one of the
hard disks of the system, usually the same disk that contains the
root filesytem.
It is normally not mounted on a running system as it is only needed
by the EFI Boot Manager
to load the system and the
installer part of the elilo writes to the filesystem
directly.
The /usr/sbin/elilo utility writes the following files
into the efi/debian directory of the EFI
partition during the installation.
Note that the EFI Boot Manager
would find these files
using the path fsn:\efi\debian.
There may be other files in this filesystem as well over time as
the system is updated or re-configured.
elilo.conf
This is the configuration file read by the boot loader when it starts.
It is a copy of the /etc/elilo.conf with
the filenames re-written to refer to files in the EFI partition.
elilo.efi
This is the boot loader program that the EFI Boot Manager
runs to boot the system.
It is the program behind the Debian GNU/Linux
menu item of the EFI Boot Manager
command menu.
initrd.img
This is the initial root filesystem used to boot the kernel.
It is a copy of the file referenced in the
/etc/elilo.conf.
In a standard Debian installation it would be the file in
/boot pointed to by the symbolic link
/initrd.img.
readme.txt
This is a small text file warning you that the contents of the
directory are managed by the elilo and that
any local changes would be lost at the next time
/usr/sbin/elilo is run.
vmlinuz
This is the compressed kernel itself.
It is a copy of the file referenced in the
/etc/elilo.conf.
In a standard Debian installation it would be the file in
/boot pointed to by the symbolic link
/vmlinuz.