efifs VS WoeUSB

See also UEFI drivers that can read a bunch of other file systems (btrfs, ext2/3/4, HFS, ISO, NTFS, UFS/FFS, XFS, ZFS, etc):

* https://efi.akeo.ie

* https://github.com/pbatard/efifs

The UEFI spec specifies (§13.3) that firmware is only required to read FAT32/16/12, which is generally why your /boot/efi is VFAT/FAT32.

In theory you would still need a FAT32 efi 'stub' partition with the exFAT filesystem drivers which you have to load before loading the WinPE loader (bootmgfw.efi).

I am pretty sure that that I am doing something incorrectly with the configuration files for the rEFInd bootloader, but everything else should be correct. However, as I write this, I barely realized did I not use the following commands recommended from the "Usage" section from the aforementioned website where I downloaded the zfs_x64.efi driver file for rEFInd:

I found the drivers here https://efi.akeo.ie/ . Which means, that any EFI bootloader able to load them will be able to use them. They are not for bootloader, but it is the firmware which will use them. As i said, i am little bit afraid that it will not work on any board as some manufacturers have pretty buggy firmware when talking about infrequently used features. Also i am bit unsure they will work with secure boot as they are gpl3 thus will be never signed by Microsoft and i don't know what UEFI requirements for drivers are in this regard.

Even for those using systemd-boot with custom efi drivers to provide functionality, it's worth noting that those drivers are being developed downstream of GRUB.

I think you can also add btrfs filesystem support for sd-boot by including the EFI drivers for it on the EFI partition instead, from https://github.com/pbatard/efifs/releases I think. Haven't tried it myself though.

EFI doesn't actually mandate FAT for the system partition. The system partition can be any filesystem that the firmware supports.

Of course, pretty much all EFI implementations only support FAT, so it's a bit of a moot point; the only one I'm aware of that supports anything else is the one on Intel Macs, which also understands HFS+.

You can find a huge selection of EFI filesystem drivers at https://efi.akeo.ie/ but they're derived from GRUB and hence GPL, so don't expect the likes of American Megatrends to be bundling these any time soon.

Windows uses some weird install process where it needs two partitions for the install media. Basically the whole installation is too big for FAT32 so IIRC the way to have it work is to split the ISO in two having the bootable part on one partition and a lot of the installation content on another.

https://github.com/WoeUSB/WoeUSB

https://github.com/WoeUSB/WoeUSB - you give it an MS iso and where to put it on a USB stick and it will do the job using NTFS, which doesn't have snags with >4GB files.

For flashing Windows I had luck with woeusb.

You want to repost your support request as issue on the WoeUSB issues github page.

instead I needed to use a tool called WoeUSB to create the drive.

Download, install and use woeusb to flash the ISO file to a thumb drive. Then boot from the thumb drive (you might have to use the BIOS boot menu to choose USB boot) and install windows onto the main storage device. You will likely have to use the Windows installer formatting tool before you can choose the installation destination.