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I'm struggling to get a Chromebook loaded with a new OS. The Chromebook is a Toshiba CB35-B3330, and it has a 64-bit Intel Celeron N2840. I'm struggling because I can't get any useful information on the reason for the failure (i.e., I'm told it fails, but there are no messages or log files detailing why it failed).
When I check the output of crossystem, it reports X86 and not X86_64:
$ crossystem --all | egrep -i "(x86|64)"
arch = x86 # Platform architecture
I'm guessing the EFI is following Chrome OS, meaning its 32-bit, too. I haven't really followed BIOS and EFI development in about 20 years, so I'm kind of uninformed when it comes to exact details of interactions and operations.
Can a 64-bit OS be loaded on a 64-bit processor when the firmware is 32-bit?
jww
Posted 2016-02-04T21:26:21.710
Reputation: 1
1This is possible. A lot of the new Intel Atom based tablets have the same limitation. (Note that by possible I mean its possible to have a 32 bit EFI loading a 64 bit platform - I am not saying you can put a different OS on a Chromebook - I have not looked into this) – davidgo – 2016-02-04T21:34:45.863
@Ramhound - Have a look at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2252391 and https://blogs.intel.com/evangelists/2015/07/22/why-cheap-systems-run-32-bit-uefi-on-x64-systems/
– davidgo – 2016-02-04T21:37:50.587Thanks @Ramhound. "A 64-bit processor can run a 32-bit OS though..." - I'm trying to use the full register set of x86_64. i386 has 8 registers, while x86_64 has 16 of them. Hence the reason I am trying to determine if its a valid configuration. – jww – 2016-02-04T23:23:35.303
Thanks @davidgo. "This is possible. Note that by possible I mean its possible to have a 32 bit EFI loading a 64 bit platform..." - OK, thanks. Do you know how to check if its an available option on a particular machine (like a Toshiba Chromebook CB35-B3330), rather than in the general sense? – jww – 2016-02-04T23:25:45.050
2The ability to boot a 64-bit OS on a system with a 32-bit EFI depends on two things: the presence of a 64-bit CPU and boot loader features. It's not a feature of the firmware itself; instead, the 32-bit GRUB (or other boot loader) you launch must have the ability to launch a 64-bit kernel. This is equivalent to a 16-bit BIOS-mode GRUB launching a 32- or 64-bit kernel. Such cross-bit-depth booting is less well-supported in the EFI world than in the BIOS world. Personally, I don't recommend it if you can avoid it; it's much easier to boot a kernel of the EFI's native bit depth. – Rod Smith – 2016-02-07T15:21:52.537
I gave the Toshiba Chromebook away and bought a Lenoveo Ideapad. I'm having similar problems. Here's some more information about 32-bit EFI... How to install Ubuntu 14.10 on a new Lenovo Ideapad, Ubuntu/Debian on a Lenovo Ideapad 100s and 32-Bit UEFI Boot Support.
– jww – 2016-06-30T12:28:17.847