Cannot write to efivars

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP








up vote
0
down vote

favorite












I have booted from an Ubuntu 17.10.1 live DVD on a 2011 MacBook Pro (in EFI mode) and I'm trying to issue the following command to disable the discrete GPU:



printf "x01x00x00x00" > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9



And I am getting this error no matter what I do:



bash: printf: write error: Invalid argument



I know this question has been asked and answered before, but I have already verified that the efivars filesystem is mounted rw and I have removed the immutability flag with chattr -i.



I can touch the file to create it, and I can delete it with rm, but any attempt to actually write data to the file at all results in a write error, whether I use echo, printf, or try to cp or mv the file from another writeable directory. Nothing seems to work.



I have also tried this in Debian and that didn't work either.



Those that are familiar with the MacBook Pro GPU bug might suggest that I boot into single user mode and issue an nvram command from there, but the laptop does not have an operating system installed to boot into (and I can't install macOS because of the GPU).



Is there no way to write to efivars anymore?










share|improve this question





















  • Did you try booting using cmd-option-r and booting to the MacOS / internet recovery option? From there, open a terminal (it's in one of the pull downs on the first page) and you can use Apple's "nvram" command to write to the NVRAM? I haven't used this for GPU issues but did while trying to disabled the Apple "bong" on bootup after a bare metal Ubuntu install to a macbook pro7,1.
    – randy
    May 10 at 19:09














up vote
0
down vote

favorite












I have booted from an Ubuntu 17.10.1 live DVD on a 2011 MacBook Pro (in EFI mode) and I'm trying to issue the following command to disable the discrete GPU:



printf "x01x00x00x00" > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9



And I am getting this error no matter what I do:



bash: printf: write error: Invalid argument



I know this question has been asked and answered before, but I have already verified that the efivars filesystem is mounted rw and I have removed the immutability flag with chattr -i.



I can touch the file to create it, and I can delete it with rm, but any attempt to actually write data to the file at all results in a write error, whether I use echo, printf, or try to cp or mv the file from another writeable directory. Nothing seems to work.



I have also tried this in Debian and that didn't work either.



Those that are familiar with the MacBook Pro GPU bug might suggest that I boot into single user mode and issue an nvram command from there, but the laptop does not have an operating system installed to boot into (and I can't install macOS because of the GPU).



Is there no way to write to efivars anymore?










share|improve this question





















  • Did you try booting using cmd-option-r and booting to the MacOS / internet recovery option? From there, open a terminal (it's in one of the pull downs on the first page) and you can use Apple's "nvram" command to write to the NVRAM? I haven't used this for GPU issues but did while trying to disabled the Apple "bong" on bootup after a bare metal Ubuntu install to a macbook pro7,1.
    – randy
    May 10 at 19:09












up vote
0
down vote

favorite









up vote
0
down vote

favorite











I have booted from an Ubuntu 17.10.1 live DVD on a 2011 MacBook Pro (in EFI mode) and I'm trying to issue the following command to disable the discrete GPU:



printf "x01x00x00x00" > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9



And I am getting this error no matter what I do:



bash: printf: write error: Invalid argument



I know this question has been asked and answered before, but I have already verified that the efivars filesystem is mounted rw and I have removed the immutability flag with chattr -i.



I can touch the file to create it, and I can delete it with rm, but any attempt to actually write data to the file at all results in a write error, whether I use echo, printf, or try to cp or mv the file from another writeable directory. Nothing seems to work.



I have also tried this in Debian and that didn't work either.



Those that are familiar with the MacBook Pro GPU bug might suggest that I boot into single user mode and issue an nvram command from there, but the laptop does not have an operating system installed to boot into (and I can't install macOS because of the GPU).



Is there no way to write to efivars anymore?










share|improve this question













I have booted from an Ubuntu 17.10.1 live DVD on a 2011 MacBook Pro (in EFI mode) and I'm trying to issue the following command to disable the discrete GPU:



printf "x01x00x00x00" > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9



And I am getting this error no matter what I do:



bash: printf: write error: Invalid argument



I know this question has been asked and answered before, but I have already verified that the efivars filesystem is mounted rw and I have removed the immutability flag with chattr -i.



I can touch the file to create it, and I can delete it with rm, but any attempt to actually write data to the file at all results in a write error, whether I use echo, printf, or try to cp or mv the file from another writeable directory. Nothing seems to work.



I have also tried this in Debian and that didn't work either.



Those that are familiar with the MacBook Pro GPU bug might suggest that I boot into single user mode and issue an nvram command from there, but the laptop does not have an operating system installed to boot into (and I can't install macOS because of the GPU).



Is there no way to write to efivars anymore?







command-line kernel permissions uefi






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked Feb 9 at 16:57









Wes Sayeed

1011




1011











  • Did you try booting using cmd-option-r and booting to the MacOS / internet recovery option? From there, open a terminal (it's in one of the pull downs on the first page) and you can use Apple's "nvram" command to write to the NVRAM? I haven't used this for GPU issues but did while trying to disabled the Apple "bong" on bootup after a bare metal Ubuntu install to a macbook pro7,1.
    – randy
    May 10 at 19:09
















  • Did you try booting using cmd-option-r and booting to the MacOS / internet recovery option? From there, open a terminal (it's in one of the pull downs on the first page) and you can use Apple's "nvram" command to write to the NVRAM? I haven't used this for GPU issues but did while trying to disabled the Apple "bong" on bootup after a bare metal Ubuntu install to a macbook pro7,1.
    – randy
    May 10 at 19:09















Did you try booting using cmd-option-r and booting to the MacOS / internet recovery option? From there, open a terminal (it's in one of the pull downs on the first page) and you can use Apple's "nvram" command to write to the NVRAM? I haven't used this for GPU issues but did while trying to disabled the Apple "bong" on bootup after a bare metal Ubuntu install to a macbook pro7,1.
– randy
May 10 at 19:09




Did you try booting using cmd-option-r and booting to the MacOS / internet recovery option? From there, open a terminal (it's in one of the pull downs on the first page) and you can use Apple's "nvram" command to write to the NVRAM? I haven't used this for GPU issues but did while trying to disabled the Apple "bong" on bootup after a bare metal Ubuntu install to a macbook pro7,1.
– randy
May 10 at 19:09















active

oldest

votes











Your Answer







StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "89"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: false,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);



);













 

draft saved


draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2faskubuntu.com%2fquestions%2f1004619%2fcannot-write-to-efivars%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest



































active

oldest

votes













active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes















 

draft saved


draft discarded















































 


draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2faskubuntu.com%2fquestions%2f1004619%2fcannot-write-to-efivars%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest













































































Popular posts from this blog

Which professions warranted travel in Medieval times?

How do so many people here on Academia.SE, and in general, afford lavish higher education programs?

Trouble downloading packages list due to a “Hash sum mismatch” error