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I currently have installed Windows XP and Linux Mint 17 on my laptop. My disk is MBR type because of Windows XP.
I have installed linux mint without any problems, but now I am trying to install Red Hat Based System : RedHat 7 , Oracle Linux 7 , Centos 7 , SL 7..... But getting the same error and cannot continue installation.

No valid bootloader device found. See below for details. For a UEFI installation, you must include an EFI System Partition on a GPT-formatted disk, mounted at /boot/efi.

Error message is clear,but one problem .. I have mbr disk.
I have tried differen ways to solve this problem but nothing works.

Please suggest what can I try to do in this case, maybe someone has already soved such problem.
Thank you in advance.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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The problem has been solved.
There is small link at the lower left corner "Full disk summary and boot loader...". So click on this link, and you will probably see your disk drive and green mark, this means that bootloader will be installed, just uncheck this option and click continue, warning message will appear, but just ignore it.
Now you can install RH based OS.

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The error message ("For a UEFI installation...") clearly indicates that your installer booted in EFI/UEFI mode, rather than in the BIOS mode that Windows XP certainly uses and that Mint probably also used.

The workaround you found will result in a successful installation, but without a copy of GRUB. This is probably fine, since you can then run update-grub in Mint to have Mint's GRUB detect your Red Hat installation.

As a general rule, though, you want to get the installer to boot in the same boot mode (BIOS/CSM/legacy vs. EFI/UEFI) used by whatever OS(es) already exist. This goal can usually be accomplished by using the computer's built-in boot manager, which is usually accessed by hitting Esc or a function key early in the boot process (before any boot loader or OS-specific stuff appears on the screen). With BIOS/CSM/legacy support active in the firmware, EFI boot managers usually provide two options to boot external media. One option includes the string "UEFI" and the other doesn't. Select the "UEFI" option to boot in EFI/UEFI mode, and select the option that lacks that string to boot in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode.

Note that I've emphasized the word "usually" several times in the previous paragraph. That's because there's no standardization of user interfaces or how BIOS/CSM/legacy options are activated and interact with boot media. Thus, one computer may offer relatively straightforward options for controlling the boot mode of external media and another one may leave you looking like Lex Luthor or Doctor Evil by the time you get it to do what you want. (You'll be equally ill-tempered, too!)

For this reason, my general advice is to not use BIOS/CSM/legacy support if you can help it. The boot process on most EFI/UEFI-based computers is much more straightforward if BIOS/CSM/legacy support is not activated. Of course, going EFI-only is not always possible. In your case, Windows XP doesn't support EFI-mode boots (at least, not on x86 or x86-64 computers), so you pretty much have to use BIOS/CSM/legacy support to dual-boot it. I mention my advice to go EFI-only for the benefit of others who might be using Windows 7 or later rather than XP, or in case you want to make changes to your setup in the future.

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  • Thank you. I've spent the last hour repeatedly booting in EFI mode and trying to work out why the CentOS 7 installer demands a /boot/efi partition then gives a python stack trace if denied it. Your answer was sufficient to stop this madness, much appreciated.
    – Jon Chesterfield
    Jul 29, 2016 at 21:52
  • I am facing same issue...I already have window 7, I am trying to install centOS7 with window7, but error message is generating No valid boot loader target device found. See below for details. For a UEFI installation, you must include an EFI System Partition on a GPT-formatted disk, mounted at /boot/efi. what should I do ?
    – Suman Bogati
    Nov 27, 2016 at 15:26
  • Suman, you must learn to control the boot mode for your external device. This begins with preparing the boot medium, and unfortunately, there are lots of tools to do this, with varying capabilities and details of how to ensure that BIOS and/or EFI boot loaders are included on the disk. See this page of mine for some examples. For the computer itself, controlling the boot mode varies so much that I can't cover it even remotely adequately -- you'll have to research your specific computer/motherboard.
    – Rod Smith
    Nov 28, 2016 at 14:43
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The first question here would be which master (MBR) bootloader you are using at the moment. It might be the NTFS bootlader, or grub or lilo from Mint. Whichever, I would advise not allowing the RH installer to change it.

Instead, tell the RH setup to install its bootloader into the RH partition, not the MBR. Then, edit your master bootloader settings to include that partition in the startup menu.

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  • This answer assumes a BIOS-mode installation, but the error message clearly indicates that the installer had booted in EFI/UEFI mode, which installs boot loaders in an entirely different way.
    – Rod Smith
    May 2, 2015 at 15:48
  • "the installer had booted in EFI/UEFI mode" No, I think it will produce this message in either mode. It's simply a rider to the boot failure message. I cannot understand why I have been given negative feedback when MY ANSWER DESCRIBES EXACTLY WHAT THE OP SAYS HE DID TO FIX THE PROBLEM. Please remove it now.
    – IanR
    May 3, 2015 at 16:46

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