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[Guide] How to add additional UEFI apps to the Clover menu (updated)

frankiee

By frankiee,
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frankiee
frankiee
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Hi there, time for my first guide after asking so many things ;)

 

Updated for newer Clover versions and with additional instructions for more apps: gdisk and RU.

 

So what may be overlooked sometimes in the whole boot loader discussion is the ability of UEFI to do more than just loading an OS. This is why I see ".efi" files as "apps" because in fact they just are, built on a special kind of API: UEFI. So, you can actually do stuff like editing, diagnosing, testing certain stuff at the lowest possible system level without booting to any OS.

 

DISCLAIMER: Use this guide at your own risk! For educational purposes only! Should do not any harm, but remember you are dealing with rather low level stuff. But at least for me everything went flawless.

 

Prerequisites:

  • Working clover installation
  • Clover Configurator or some app to edit the config.plist

 

1) Memtest

 

This is how to install the UEFI version of Memtest with Clover:

  1. Download memtest, I used this link: Image for creating boot-able USB Drive
  2. Open the archive by double clicking on it.
  3. Mount the file memtest86-usb.img within by double clicking again.
  4. Now, you should see a folder named EFI in this volume, containing a folder BOOT. Open it.
  5. The files containing it are the actual app, in 32 and 64 bit versions. Think in almost all cases we want to use the 64 bit version.
  6. Now, mount your EFI partition, using Clover configurator.
  7. Create a folder named MemTest86 in the EFI folder on your main drive.
  8. Copy all files in the EFI/BOOT folder from the mounted image to your newly created folder.

That ends the basic setup! Now, we add the correct Menu entry to the clover boot menu, so that we can actually start this app.

 

Get into clover configurator, open your standard config.plist from your boot drive and go to the GUI section. Under "Custom Entries", add an entry like this:

 

IDxDDKb.jpg

 

Please note while the path you enter is not case sensitive, you must make sure you use the backslash "\" for entering paths, and not a slash. So basically what we do is tell clover where it can find the app, give it a name, and tell clover it is a "Windows" app. Note: with older Clover versions we had to set this to "Linux", but for now "Windows" is the setting that works.

 

If you prefer to do a manual config, add this entry to your config.plist, under GUI/Custom/Entries: 

<dict>
    <key>CustomLogo</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>FullTitle</key>
    <string>MemTest86</string>
    <key>Hidden</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Ignore</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Image</key>
    <string>\EFI\CLOVER\themes\Icons\os_mint.png</string>
    <key>Path</key>
    <string>\EFI\MemTest86\BOOTX64.efi</string>
    <key>Type</key>
    <string>Windows</string>
    <key>VolumeType</key>
    <string>Internal</string>
</dict>

Now, save and reboot and you should see the newly created entry. Note that I also used a custom Icon - this is optional - in case you don't you will just see a generic windows icon instead:

 

uxzSDIE.jpg

 

And this is how it looks like:

 

Xx9iSWF.jpg

 

DvmExI9.jpg

 

PS: also noticeably faster and you get also more features with this version than with the older version, for example it does now write a log file. For more Information, see: http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?4315-Memtest86-Version-5-Beta-%28Pure-UEFI%29

 

 

2) gdisk

 

Another app you can use is the UEFI version of gdisk (aka GPT fdisk), which you can use to edit and change your partitions.

 

Warning! Install and use this app at your own risk! If you do something wrong here you might nuke your drive(s), so only use that if you know what you are doing.

 

This is how to do it (even easier):

  1. Download here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/files/gptfdisk/1.0.1/gdisk-binaries/gdisk-efi-1.0.1.zip/download
  2. Mount your EFI partition
  3. Unzip the file and copy the resulting folder to your EFI Folder, so your path goes like this "/Volumes/EFI/EFI/gdisk-efi"
  4. Get into clover configurator, open your standard config.plist from your boot drive and go to the GUI section. Add an entry like this:
TVHAikU.jpg

 

If you prefer to do a manual config, add this entry to your config.plist, under GUI/Custom/Entries: 

<dict>
    <key>CustomLogo</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>FullTitle</key>
    <string>GDisk</string>
    <key>Hidden</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Ignore</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Image</key>
    <string></string>
    <key>Path</key>
    <string>\EFI\gdisk-efi\gdisk_x64.efi</string>
    <key>Type</key>
    <string>Windows</string>
    <key>VolumeType</key>
    <string>Internal</string>
</dict>

When everything went OK you should see this after selecting the respective entry in Clover:

 

Uhs8HUD.jpg

 

 

3) RU

 

I recently found one more app that might be interesting to some, and thats "Read Universal" or in short "RU". This is a tool that enables you to debug your BIOS and read (and modify!) every imaginable data, including UEFI variables, ACPI Tables etc.

 

Warning, again! I think blindly messing around with this app is even more dangerous, but on the other hand it gives you access to a lot of potentially interesting stuff.

  1. Download here: http://ruexe.blogspot.de/
  2. The next steps are basically the same as above so make a folder in your EFI partition, copy the .EFI files and make another custom entry in your config.plist

Here are some screens:

 

EfIvc9P.jpg

 

HWKGeQ5.jpg

 

1P2QwT8.jpg

 

 

So this is what you also can do with UEFI and clover. I am curious which other useful applications might exist!

 

Anybody who knows, maybe post it here?

Edited by frankiee
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poof86
poof86
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This almost worked for me,

 

Was able to start MemTest86 with the Clover bootloader, but my screen turned black when I started te test.

I don't have this problem when I use a bootable USB.

 

Does it have something to do with environment variables that Clover sets to boot things? Can I disable this for certain boot entries?

 

A good partition tool would be a nice application to add to the list :D

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frankiee
frankiee
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So you see the Memtest menu?

 

Not sure why you are having problems, but since you managed to load it via Clover it might not be Clovers fault. And AFAIK the version used with the USB stick and the EFI version are not exactly the same.

 

At least I can tell you that I did nothing but the steps I outlined above in the guide.

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Napalm_pt
Napalm_pt
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This almost worked for me,

 

Was able to start MemTest86 with the Clover bootloader, but my screen turned black when I started te test.

I don't have this problem when I use a bootable USB.

 

Does it have something to do with environment variables that Clover sets to boot things? Can I disable this for certain boot entries?

 

A good partition tool would be a nice application to add to the list :D

 

 

I have this same problem.

But If I go to clover shell and run the memtest EFI file from there it runs perfectly...

What might be the problem?

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frankiee
frankiee
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I have this same problem.

But If I go to clover shell and run the memtest EFI file from there it runs perfectly...

What might be the problem?

 

I have run MemTest recently again, and now i have the same problem. Running it from a dedicated boot stick worked. So yeah, good question! Since this occured with the same old version I used when I wrote this guide, and with the updated one as well, it seems like something in Clover has changed, but right now I am unable to tell what it is.

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frankiee
frankiee
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I have this same problem.

But If I go to clover shell and run the memtest EFI file from there it runs perfectly...

What might be the problem?

 

The problem was that the Type was set to Linux. Set it to "Windows" and it runs again.

 

 

A good partition tool would be a nice application to add to the list :D

 

Yeah sure! What about this: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/files/gptfdisk/1.0.1/gdisk-binaries/gdisk-efi-1.0.1.zip/download ;)

 

PS: I have updated this guide accordingly

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TheIronShadow
TheIronShadow
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I have managed to get memtest working with clover. now i want to get my windows 10 pocket edition to work and also acronis true image. they are both efi bootable. the thing is. i dont get it to boot.

do you guys know how to get it to work. i have set it up in clover configurator and i see it in the clover bootloader only when i click the windows 10 pe i get a error and with acronis i can chose it but then also i get a error that the files cant be found.

here are some screenshots. the top one is acronis and the bottom one is windows 10 pe

Knipsel.PNG

Knipsel2.PNG

Edited by TheIronShadow
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frankiee
frankiee
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Sorry, I have no experience with neither Windows PE nor Acronis. But what you have to do anyways is to find the correct ".efi" application and make an corresponding entry in clover (just like with the memtest entry under GUI > Custom > Entries), like this: 

<dict>
	<key>Disabled</key>
	<false/>
	<key>FullTitle</key>
	<string>Windows 10</string>
	<key>Hidden</key>
	<false/>
	<key>Ignore</key>
	<false/>
	<key>Path</key>
	<string>\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi</string>
	<key>Type</key>
	<string>Windows</string>
	<key>VolumeType</key>
	<string>Internal</string>
</dict>

So this would be an entry for a common windows installation, maybe you have to adapt the path for "bootmgfw.efi" for windows 10 PE?

As for the acronis thing, I see a folder called "efi" in your screen, so maybe the app you are looking for is found there?

Also I have found that the "type" needs to be adapted as well. I mean for windows it is actually "Windows", but maybe you will need to adapt this as well for the acronis entry.

Hope this helps!

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dawntodon
dawntodon
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hello. I currently have a dual boot setup using Systemd bootloader and Clover as subordinate to it with Sierra.  I believe I need to update CLOVERX64.efi while booted into my Linux partition to update Clover but then I'm having trouble finding it, although I'm able to find the installer easily. I had tried to start a new topic but for some reason, I can only set the title and no content/body and posted in this thread due to its relatedness.  Thanks.

Edited by dawntodon
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frankiee
frankiee
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On 4/18/2018 at 2:50 AM, ellaosx said:

What 3 files?

Benchmark (Folder)
blacklist.cfg
BOOTIA32.efi
BOOTX64.efi
mt86.png
unifont.bin

 

I see that the image now contains additional files. Basically, you can copy the the contents of the whole EFI/BOOT folder contained in memtest86-usb.img.

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frankiee
frankiee
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On 5/12/2018 at 4:33 AM, ellaosx said:

Figured....What are those 3 files from previous release?

 

Not sure but does it matter anyways? I guess it was BOOTX64.efi, mt86.png and unifont.bin. BOOTIA32.eif should not be needed, not sure about unifont.bin and blacklist.cfg. But as I said, it cannot hurt to copy all files. When I have some time, I will update my own memtest install and take another look at it.

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Krono244
Krono244
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How to UEFI apps Boot from EFI

 

https://imgur.com/a/dxs20h8/

9B92131B-DC47-4412-95D7-C65A349B0612.thumb.jpeg.b10f40433bc74815c40b3739472ef7c0.jpeg

00BF2C8D-7832-4E62-9706-A53D353DD0F9.thumb.jpeg.f74b73a3dae79e2237808a3ffdcaf58d.jpeg

 

1) Gparted


2) Clonezilla


3) Acronis True Image 2019 Linux Base


4) Acronis True Image 2019 WinPE Base

 

I'm Japanese. I'm not very used to speaking English. I am so sorry that my explanation was poor :'‑( I hope this will help XD Please allow me to explain in detail. For more information,please see the link below.

 

detailed info.

 

Edited by Krono244
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