[Bug 1082418] Re: Ubuntu UEFI install locks out UEFI firmware (~bios) access

[Satish]

Yes, that has been my guess as well. I kept the battery but did not
switch the system on. Shall do it the next time I try it.

I looked for the CMOS battery too but I assume Fujitsu soldered it and hid it away. Also the CL1 CL2 pins weren't under the RAM area in my laptop, they were adjacent to it. Ofcourse I would still remove the RAM before shorting but I agree that this is not the way to try and make this work. Fujitsu should fix their BIOS/UEFI soon.
If I ever get back my BIOS, that is the first thing I would do - disable UEFI and install everything in legacy mode. It's a no-brainer now.

I expected to see the firmware's entry in GRUB at the very least; this
led me to the /etc/grub.d/30_uefi_firmware shell script. I noticed that
the 'efi_vars_dir' points to a location that doesn't exist. It looks for
/sys/firmware/efi/vars while in my machine it is
/sys/firmware/efi/efivars. It is empty though, so I didn't give it any
more thought. But looking at that kernel patch talking about efi vars, I
am not so sure now.

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Title:
  Ubuntu UEFI install locks out UEFI firmware (~bios) access

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu 12.10
  Release:	12.10

  apt-cache policy grub-efi-amd64
  grub-efi-amd64:
    Installed: 2.00-7ubuntu11
    Candidate: 2.00-7ubuntu11

  
  Pheonix Secure Core Tiano bios version 1.09

  New laptop Fujitsu Lifebook AH532. Windows 7 preinstalled. All
  functions worked normally when running Win7. Ubuntu 12.10 installed
  using whole disk. Installation successful Ubuntu boots and runs
  normally, however all access to the bios has now been lost. Pressing
  the default key (f2) during boot up is acknowledged by bios beep, but
  ignored and Ubuntu continues booting. In addition the 'boot choices'
  menu (f12) contains nothing but Ubuntu making it impossible to boot
  from USB or CD/DVD.

  The latter (f12) problem was overcome by opening up the machine,
  removing the ram and shorting the cl1/cl2 posts with a screwdriver.
  This restores the ability to boot from USB/CD by pressing f12 but does
  not restore bios access.

  The following recovery actions have been tried.
  1) Install Boot-Repair, run repair, no change occurred. Boot repair report here:
  http://paste.ubuntu.com/1375041/

  2) Restore Windows from Clonezilla disk image (factory settings) -
  result - bios access is no longer possible from windows either, f2 now
  launches the Windows boot menu.

  3) Update all drivers using Fujitsu driver update tool from within
  windows (which included a bios update). Result - no change, no bios.

  4) Restored Ubuntu from Clonezilla disk image - no change.

  5) Added second distro to disk. Installed successfully (uefi mode as
  that is all I have) no change to bios access.

  So overall result I have lost all bios access even from a reinstalled
  Windows. I repeat that bios access was perfectly normal before
  installing Ubuntu.

  I strongly suggest you read the contents of this thread in addition to
  the information here:

  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2086602

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
  Package: grub-efi 2.00-7ubuntu11
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-18.29-generic 3.5.7
  Uname: Linux 3.5.0-18-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu6
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Fri Nov 23 15:50:07 2012
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-11-22 (1 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
  MarkForUpload: True
  SourcePackage: grub2
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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