EFI problem installing Debian 12 in an ASUS laptop (The attempt to mount a file system ... at /boot/efi failed)

[davidss]

Hi,

I'm trying to install Debian 12.7 by USB in an ASUS M1502YA (https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-home/v ... /techspec/) and I'm finding what seems to be not an uncommon problem: "The attempt to mount a file system with type vfat in XXX at /boot/efi failed.". I've seen a couple of posts that could be related but I haven't made sense of my BIOS settings, if that's where the solution lies: I've tried with Secure Boot Control enabled/disabled, also SVM mode; I don't see any options about legacy mode. I haven't had to install Debian in several years so I'm not familiar with these kinds of issues. Any suggestions? I imagine I can run some diagnostics from the Live USB if needed. Would switching to Debian 12.1 or similar be a worthwile attempt?

Thanks a lot

[rolf3945]

Well, that laptop is brand new hardware and possibly requires backports or even testing to make it work. Anyhow, installing 12.7 is worth a try, maybe it fails.

And one thing is for sure: forget about legacy install. I am pretty sure you won't find a CSM setting any more in the bios. On brand new hardware this is no more present. You have to go through an efi installation. I own an Acer laptop built 4 years ago, no more CSM support in the bios. Its gone forever.

My suggestion: disable Secure Boot, makes things easier. And forget about SVM, that is a setting required to be able to run Virtual Machines like in VBox, kvm/qemu. Not relevant for the installation.

Make sure you boot your installation device in efi mode. That means it must have a prefix EFI.

Good luck

[Aki]

Hello,

"The attempt to mount a file system with type vfat in XXX at /boot/efi failed."
[..]

This error is reported by the partman program (used to partition disks by the debian installer):

Code: Select all

template: partman-target/mount_failed
Type: boolean
Default: true
# :sl2:
_Description: Do you want to resume partitioning?
 The attempt to mount a file system with type ${TYPE} in ${DEVICE} at
 ${MOUNTPOINT} failed.
 .
 You may resume partitioning from the partitioning menu.

This means that the partman program cannot mount the /boot/efi partition of the $DEVICE disck you are installing Debian on.

You may have done something wrong when partitioning the disk you are installing Debian on.

There was also this earlier post on the same subject:

• The attempt to mount a file system with type vfat at /boot/efi failed

Hope this helps.

--
note: please report the error in the subject of the first post; i.e.:

EFI problem installing Debian 12 in an ASUS laptop (The attempt to mount a file system with type vfat in XXX at /boot/efi failed)