UefiSeven: Easily boot Windows 7 on UEFI class 3 devices

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by manatails, Aug 3, 2020.

  1. infogrames

    infogrames MDL Novice

    May 9, 2022
    3
    2
    0
  2. spacednow

    spacednow MDL Member

    Aug 26, 2009
    245
    12
    10
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  3. infogrames

    infogrames MDL Novice

    May 9, 2022
    3
    2
    0
    Damn, we were so close to a Native UEFI Windows 7, what could cause this weird thing? All that I could figure is ACPI.sys, as AMD Ryzen MoBos have been reported to hang up in a faulty BSOD due to incompatibility of ACPI.sys in Windows 7.
     
  4. infogrames

    infogrames MDL Novice

    May 9, 2022
    3
    2
    0
    Hmnnn...Looks like AMD GPUs are not the only driver-affected parts, so are the Nvidia GPUs.
    Indeed, it's really a huge waste of time in getting 7 to work flawlessly in native UEFI as Microsoft leaves this kind of "Mistake" unsolved on purpose to force Windows users to update their OS to a higher version, but fresh OS installation with migration of so much software is a HUUU...GE thing to do as well.
     
  5. spacednow

    spacednow MDL Member

    Aug 26, 2009
    245
    12
    10
    Yeah, I started out trying with an RX500...Then thought I'd have better luck with Nvidia...WRONG
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  6. ExtremelyFancyUsername

    Oct 17, 2018
    220
    71
    10
     
  7. trondl

    trondl MDL Novice

    May 14, 2022
    1
    0
    0
    Hi!
    First post on MDL.
    Huge thanks in advance!

    I'm going the opposite way of most users here: a Mac Pro 5,1 with EFI and UGA (or GOP?) through a Mac EFI flashed GTX 980.
    Why I insist on win7 in EFI mode? AHCI is disabled in CSM and only 2 of 4 hdd bays are available (4+2 instead of 6 port combined mode).
    Although I've reversed most of it to have AHCI through setpci and memwrites in grub2, the system still show signs of improper configurations (veeeeery slow boot where classpnp.sys is idle for almost a minute, and a higher than normal constant cpu load on system interrupts)

    With uefiseven I get the usual C0000 unlock error, but a quick search revealed this from (remove space, cannot post links yet) alt. os. development. narkive. com/oBPmwkaS/unlocking-writes-to-vga-rom-c0000

    "[...] after some further digging through edk2 sources I came across a solution. Sharing it here just in case someone else stumbles across the same problem.
    Hardware in question was under control of Apple's EFI 1.10. It turned out that they decided to implement the EFI_LEGACY_REGION_PROTOCOL that exists just for the purpose of locking and unlocking different legacy memory regions. The following sequence of calls successfully enables writes to the area I was after (error checking and other code ommited):

    gBS->LocateProtocol(&gEfiLegacyRegionProtocolGuid, NULL, (VOID **)&mLegacyRegion);
    mLegacyRegion->UnLock(mLegacyRegion, 0xC0000, 0x10000, &Granularity);
    "

    Highly relevant to my situation.
    Has this already been implemented or is it an easy fix?

    Then there's also this post where someone claims to have made it, but no solution posted other than failed attempts at other address spaces:
    (again remove space) winraid. level1techs. com/t/solved-can-t-install-windows-7-on-uefi-class-3/36583/8

    Btw: where in the source lies the C0000 ROM address and is it configurable?

    According to lspci in Linux in UEFI mode claims: Expansion ROM at 93000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
    if there is any help in that.
     
  8. Gelip

    Gelip MDL Senior Member

    Feb 28, 2011
    325
    158
    10
    #350 Gelip, Jul 9, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2022
    OK, I solved the problem.
    Some time ago I upgraded a GOP rom video on an AMD 7450 graphics card using the GOPUpd program. Now back to the original old GOP version and now Win7 PE SE is working ;) - of course screen is glitchy
    Just convert ISO to USB FAT32 with Rufus, rename efi\boot\bootx64.efi to bootx64.original.efi and copy UefiSeven files:
    rufus.png

    P.S. With the new GOP WinPE does not start and stays on the screen:
    stay.png
     
  9. Dawid8plc

    Dawid8plc MDL Novice

    Dec 17, 2016
    5
    0
    0
    Hello, I came here to ask for help with booting up Windows 7 on a Lenovo IdeaCentre Gaming 5 PC.
    I tried to use the FlashBoot program which resulted in this on boot:

    Could not install shim for vga bios: unsupported hardware
    Press enter to continue

    I also tried to install the GPU Driver for GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER using NTLite, and disabling the built in Vga driver as well as setting the NoVesa boot flag to No, to no avail. (I'm not exactly sure if I installed the driver correctly).
    Then, I tried to use VgaShim, and then finally UefiSeven.
    This is the log file:

    UefiMain: UefiSeven 1.30
    UefiMain: You are running in verbose mode, press Enter to continue
    InitializeDisplay: Found a GOP display adapter
    SwitchVideoMode: Set mode 3 with desired 1024x768 resolution.
    PrintVideoInfo: Current mode:
    PrintVideoInfo: HorizontalResolution = 1024
    PrintVideoInfo: VerticalResolution = 768
    PrintVideoInfo: PixelFormat = 1
    PrintVideoInfo: PixelsPerScanLine = 1024
    PrintVideoInfo: FrameBufferBase = 0
    PrintVideoInfo: FrameBufferSize = 3145728
    PrintVideoInfo: Available modes (MaxMode = 11):
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode0: 1920x1080
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode1: 640x480
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode2: 800x600
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode3: 1024x768
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode4: 1280x720
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode5: 1280x800
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode6: 1280x1024
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode7: 1366x768
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode8: 1440x900
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode9: 1400x1050
    PrintVideoInfo: Mode10: 1680x1050
    UefiMain: Overwriting int10h handler with fakevesa...
    EnsureMemoryLock: Memory at C0000 already unlocked
    UefiMain: VESA information filled in, Int10h handler address=C0200 (C000:0200)
    EnsureMemoryLock: Failure locking memory at C0000 with MTRRs
    EnsureMemoryLock: Unable to find a way to lock memory at C0000
    UefiMain: Unable to lock VGA ROM memory at C0000 but this is not essential
    UefiMain: Int10h IVT entry modified to point at C000:0200
    IsInt10hHandlerDefined: Int10h IVT entry points at location within VGA ROM memory area (C000:0200)
    IsInt10hHandlerDefined: First Int10h handler instruction at C000:0200 (3D) valid, accepting handler
    UefiMain: Pre-boot Int10h sanity check success
    FileExists: Opened file '\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.original.efi' for reading
    UefiMain: Found Windows Boot Manager at '\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.original.efi'
    Launch: Loaded 'PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(0x4,0x0)/HD(1,GPT,143EC8FA-12C6-4B27-8442-454ADB44D547,0x800,0x3A97000)/\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.original.efi'
    Launch: Addresss behind FileImageHandle=8D9CFD98
    CheckBootMgrGuid: Found 9DEA862C-5CDD-4E70-ACC1-F32B344D4795
    Launch: File matches an EFI loader signature
    WaitForEnter: Press Enter to continue

    It says its unable to lock the VGA ROM memory, and if I press continue, the Windows 7 installer starts loading files, just to eventually freeze on the boot up "flag animation", and all of these methods that I've described so far have led to this.

    I would appreciate any help, as I've been looking all over the internet for a solution to this, and tried so many things (even outside the ones I described here, such as using Windows 8 files and whatnot)
    I do have Secure Boot disabled and I don't think my PC supports CSM.
     
  10. jiafei2427

    jiafei2427 MDL Member

    Nov 26, 2020
    207
    55
    10
    #352 jiafei2427, Jul 22, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2022
    CSM must be turned off under UEFI and integrated the core graphics into install.wim.
    Or add the core graphics driver of win7 under winpe.
    EDIT:Can only be installed in CSM+MBR without core graphics card.
     
  11. Dawid8plc

    Dawid8plc MDL Novice

    Dec 17, 2016
    5
    0
    0
    Yeah, as I said I dont think I have CSM as I have a 10th gen i5 CPU, and there's no such option in my UEFI, and I tried to slipstream my GPU drivers, but they only get copied into DriverStore, never to be actually properly installed. Some people did claim that they got Win 7 to run after slipstreaming drivers and with CSM disabled but I just don't know what I'm doing wrong then...
     
  12. jiafei2427

    jiafei2427 MDL Member

    Nov 26, 2020
    207
    55
    10
    Windows 7 UEFI Class 3 install on ACER E5-475G?
     
  13. Dawid8plc

    Dawid8plc MDL Novice

    Dec 17, 2016
    5
    0
    0
    I'm not really sure what you're telling me to do here - btw the link under that post doesnt work as it says "Hotlinking is prohibited!", also I'm not exactly sure how installing it in WinPE is gonna help? (I'm assuming you're supposed to use Dism there, and I mean, I used dism to install my nvidia drivers), and I dont think Win 7's WinPE is gonna boot either for the exact same reason the OS doesn't boot. You will have to be more specific, because "install" doesn't really tell me anything, as I said I already tried.
     
  14. jiafei2427

    jiafei2427 MDL Member

    Nov 26, 2020
    207
    55
    10
  15. Dawid8plc

    Dawid8plc MDL Novice

    Dec 17, 2016
    5
    0
    0
    Hm, I dont think I will be able to navigate that program as I don't quite understand that language. Also, my CPU is 10th gen, and has no integrated graphics. I also decided to take a break from this for now as I've spent a few days with more or less no progress, thanks for trying to help, though.
     
  16. jiafei2427

    jiafei2427 MDL Member

    Nov 26, 2020
    207
    55
    10
    Discrete graphics card without CSM switch. Basically no chance.The compromise is to buy a GT 730 graphics card …
     
  17. Dawid8plc

    Dawid8plc MDL Novice

    Dec 17, 2016
    5
    0
    0
    #359 Dawid8plc, Jul 25, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2022
    I mean, my GPU does in fact have Windows 7 64bit drivers, so... there should be a way to get them working, and if there isn't, I don't see how getting another GPU is gonna help in this case
     
  18. Chuterix

    Chuterix MDL Senior Member

    Apr 18, 2022
    275
    124
    10
    another way to get uefiseven to work on windows 7 install:
    1. boot back into winpe/windows 7 installer
    2. go into diskpart and assign a letter to the efi system partition (diskpart; lis vol; sel vol #; (# = Volume number of ESP) ass letter=Z: )
    3. copy bootx64.efi into ESP\Boot (there may be a bootx64.efi so rename it to bootx64.original.efi i think; i also think you can copy it with cmd line)
    4. rename bootmgfw.efi to bootmgfw.original.efi like in the instructions
    5. reboot and profit
    uefiseven experience:
    winpe/windows 7 setup works (instead of 800x600 resolution, it's 1024x768 resolution)
    setup completion and after works perfectly (post-setup originally defaults to 800x600 but in uefiseven it's only 1024x768)
    classic vista bootloader will still have moving color bars at the top of the screen
    WinRE boots normally in 1024x768 mode (albeit still-glitched vista boot screen)
    BSOD does not work
    safe mode works

    i understand that not everything works
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...