Rufus: Problem with Kali Linux EFI bootable ISOs

[k-su]

What could be the reason that Rufus is failing?

[pbatard]

As the message indicates, you are trying to boot in pure UEFI mode (_GPT partition scheme for UEFI_) from an ISO that does not contain UEFI boot files (only BIOS).
If you want to boot Kali, you will need to change the option to _MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI_.

[k-su]

Kali Linux has had EFI boot support since 1.0.8, so in this case looks like Rufus' EFI detection might not be working properly? Win32 Disk Imager recommended by the Kali Linux team was able to create an EFI bootable USB from the same ISO.

[pbatard]

No it doesn't. It is missing a /EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi file, which is what the EFI specifications require (for x86_64, /EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi for x86_32).

Maybe they added a CUSTOM way to boot in EFI mode, from an optical media, but they certainly did not look at the EFI specs with regards to enabling generic UEFI boot.
As you will understand, if every distro maintainer out there says _Screw the specs, we're going to do it our own way_, I'm not gonna run around and try to figure out what they did.

It is VERY EASY to make a distribution media EFI bootable: You just have to add an EFI boot loader in /EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi and make sure it can handle loading your content from FAT32. Then your users can simply copy the whole content from your ISO onto a FAT32 formatted USB and it will boot just fine (they don't even need to use Rufus to do that). Why distribution (#478) after distribution (#531) think they know better and seems to be hell bent on screwing up the official UEFI boot process these days is beyond me.

[lock[bot]]

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