AWS AMI - Non UEFI instance types

Product support balenaOS
1

Hi,

I have successfully built and launch EC2 instance from our balena images (generic_x86 2.98.33). The default setting in the balena-generate-ami script (balena-yocto-scripts/balena-generate-ami.sh at master · balena-os/balena-yocto-scripts · GitHub) sets the boot mode to uefi and that works great for instance types that support uefi.

However I need to use P instance types which do not support uefi. I have change the AMI_BOOT_MODE in the script to legacy-bios. The new AMI still works on the instance that support uefi but it does not work on the non uefif instance types. The instance does not initilize.

Has anyone had a similar issue or know of what might be causing?

Thanks,
Gerard.

2

Hi Gerard, just a note that we have now started to publish public balenaOS AMI images for the Generic x86_64 (GPT/MBR) device types.

aws ec2 describe-images --filters Name=name,Values=balenaOS*
{
    "Images": [
        {
            "Architecture": "x86_64",
            "CreationDate": "2022-12-20T15:23:44.000Z",
            "ImageId": "ami-0799401323b99ed4c",
            "ImageLocation": "491725000532/balenaOS-2.108.3-rev1-generic-amd64",
            "ImageType": "machine",
            "Public": true,
            "OwnerId": "491725000532",
            "PlatformDetails": "Linux/UNIX",
            "UsageOperation": "RunInstances",
            "State": "available",
            "BlockDeviceMappings": [
                {
                    "DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                    "Ebs": {
                        "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                        "SnapshotId": "snap-052741b691251d183",
                        "VolumeSize": 8,
                        "VolumeType": "gp2",
                        "Encrypted": false
                    }
                }
            ],
            "EnaSupport": true,
            "Hypervisor": "xen",
            "Name": "balenaOS-2.108.3-rev1-generic-amd64",
            "RootDeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
            "RootDeviceType": "ebs",
            "VirtualizationType": "hvm",
            "BootMode": "uefi",
            "DeprecationTime": "2024-12-20T15:23:44.000Z"
        }
    ]
}

However as you say these are UEFI images. We currently don’t support/test non-UEFI AMI images, but I would suggest you try with the Generic x86_64 (MBR) device type.

4

Thanks, will give that a go