Grub2 fails to chainload Windows 7 with error "invalid signature"

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I've built a new UEFI 64-bit system with both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.10 installed (on separate hard drives). I'd like to be able to boot Windows 7 from the grub menu, but I have so far been unsuccessful in getting grub to chainload it.

After getting the grub menu, I choose the option for the command line and I can see that bootmgfw.efi is at (hd1,gpt1)/efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi. However, when I attempt to chainload I get an error:

grub> chainloader (hd1,gpt1)/efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
error: invalid signature

I am not sure whether I chose the UEFI boot option when I installed Linux from the LiveCD, and so I am wondering if the grub I have is perhaps unable to chainload in this manner? In any case I am not sure how to get the chainload to work.

atomicpirate

Posted 2012-03-24T12:03:42.663

Reputation: 141

Answers

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As I began to suspect when I was writing my question, the issue is that Linux was installed using MBR, so that grub was unable to chainload an EFI Windows 7. I reinstalled Linux, this time making sure to select the UEFI boot option for the LiveCD from BIOS. With Linux now installed with an EFI grub, I was able to add a grub menu entry for Windows 7 and chainload successfully.

I used this link to create the menu entry for Windows 7.

After doing sudo vi /etc/grub.d/40_custom and adding the menu entry to the end of the file, don't forget to run sudo update-grub.

atomicpirate

Posted 2012-03-24T12:03:42.663

Reputation: 141

If you found the solution to your own problem, go ahead and mark it "answered" by clicking the checkmark next to your answer. It may help someone in the future :) – Raystafarian – 2012-03-25T11:54:58.467

Ha yeah I will do that as soon as the site lets me; yesterday when I tried to accept my own answer it informed me I need to wait a day, and just now it says 10 hours remain. But I'll take care of it tomorrow. – atomicpirate – 2012-03-26T02:00:50.493