How to specify UEFI when creating new Linux VM?

Discussion in 'Linux Virtual Machine' started by LincolnB1, Oct 20, 2016.

  1. LincolnB1

    LincolnB1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Question Summary: How do I tell Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac to create a new Linux VM with the UEFI (i.e., Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and GPT, rather than with legacy BIOS and only MBR?

    Background: As a newcomer to Linux, I wanted to learn bash (i.e., Bourne-Again Shell) and to practice using bash to administer a Linux VM. So I decided to create a new Linux VM on which I would learn bash and practice it.

    I asked a friend which free distro had the most comprehensive documentation. He said "openSUSE". I chose to install openSUSE version Leap 42.1 for two reasons: (a) the alternative version, openSUSE 13.2, would not be maintained by openSUSE beyond the first quarter of the following year; and (b) Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac supported Leap 42.1, according to the PD12 for Mac User's Guide.

    In reading about Leap 42.1, I learned about the advantages of UEFI and GPT (i.e., Globally unique identifier Partition Table). For me, chief among the advantages were these two:
    • UEFI would allow me to boot Linux from disks greater than 2 TB in size that had been partitioned with the GPT.
    • Using GPT would free me from MBR's limit of four primary partitions.
    So I downloaded the DVD .iso image file for installing openSUSE Leap 42.1. And then I created an "empty" VM, that is, a VM without an installed operating system. As I configured the VM, I faced two choices. First, under what operating system would I say this VM was designed to operate? (I assumed this choice affects what drivers will be loaded by the Parallels Tools that will eventually be installed in the operating system when it is run for the first time.) I chose to configure the OS as openSUSE Linux:
    OS OpenSUSE Linux.png
    When I made this choice, I considered choosing SUSE Linux Enterprise instead. Why? Because version Leap 42.1 is a departure for openSUSE: Leap 42.1 is the first version of openSUSE that uses source from SUSE's commercial product SUSE Linux Enterprise. (See https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Leap.) But I took a snapshot of the empty VM before trying to install Leap 42.1 on it. So if either my first installation or my first run fails, I can go back and reconfigure the VM as designed for SUSE Linux Enterprise, as shown in this image:
    oS#03 | operating system SUSE Enterprise Linux.png

    The second configuration choice was: Should I configure the VM to use EFI Boot? Here I chose to not select EFI Boot, because, I reasoned, the first boot would be from the installation DVD image, not from the hard drive, and I imagined the installation DVD would not have the UEFI boot code:
    oS#03 | boot order.png
    Then I used a Web search engine with a number of strings, to see if I could find any advice on how to make sure that a new Linux VM had UEFI. Although I found several Webpages giving advice for UEFI in Linux VMs under competing products such as VMware and VirtualBox, I could not find any advice for Parallels Desktop VMS, Linux, and UEFI. I also searched this Parallels Linux Guest forum, but the only posts I came up with were disappointing and discouraging: two were from Parallels Desktop ex-users in 2013. The first of these wrote, "Parallels clearly doesn't care about their linux users, so I dropped them. I have working UEFI ... with VirtualBox." The other wrote, "I switched to VMware. ... UEFI works, too."

    So I am left wondering if, in 2016, Parallels has decided that it does, indeed, care about its Linux Guest users and will, indeed, support openSUSE Leap 42.1 -- as the PD12 for Mac User's Guide says it does -- with UEFI and GPT. And if Parallels will support openSUSE Leap 42.1, then how do I tell Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac to create a new Linux VM with the UEFI and GPT?
     

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    Last edited: Oct 20, 2016
  2. Elric

    Elric Parallels Team

    Messages:
    1,718
    > How do I tell Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac to create a new Linux VM with the UEFI (i.e., Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and GPT, rather than with legacy BIOS and only MBR?

    I believe that it is possible to choose "customize settings before installation" in the New VM Wizard and enable option "Use EFI Boot". It should boot from DVD successfuly. Booting from CD is supported in UEFI.
     
  3. LincolnB1

    LincolnB1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Thanks for posting your belief, Elric.
    Before reading your post, I had tried setting the checkmark of the option Use EFI Boot in the Parallels Desktop configuration of the VM. When the ensuing installation process got to the window Suggested Partitioning, I clicked on the button labelled Expert Partitioner:
    oS#03 | Suggested Partitioning.png
    The Expert Partitioner showed me that the first partition, sda1, was of Type EFI boot and Filesystem Type FAT, and had the mount point /boot/efi/:
    oS#03 | Expert Partitioner.png
    The Installation Settings also showed Boot Loader Type: GRUB2-EFI and Enable Secure Boot: true:
    oS#03  Installation Summary.png
    This accorded with the specifications in the openSUSE documentation for UEFI and GPT.
    However, I am not certain that this was due to my setting the checkmark of the option Use EFI Boot in the Parallels Desktop configuration of the VM. It may also be that when I set the operating system to be openSUSE Linux in the Parallels Desktop configuration of the VM, by default the created VM would have UEFI and GPT. I suppose I or some other user (or, dare I say it, a Parallels support staffer) could test this by removing the checkmark from the option Use EFI Boot when creating a new VM with operating system openSUSE Linux.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2016
  4. Elric

    Elric Parallels Team

    Messages:
    1,718
    Well, if I correctly understand your concern, this is how UEFI works: it creates a separate FAT-partition with EFI Boot Loader.

    The OS-types for Linuxes differ very little from each other. The EFI-partition is definitely created by installer due to selection of EFI-bios
     

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