With computers now shipping with UEFI Secure Boot enabled, users of any OS other than Windows 8 will want to know how to circumvent it. Jesse Smith of DistroWatch tells how he did it here. The Linux Foundation describes its approach here. If you want to boot an OS other than Windows 8, you'll want to figure this out before you buy that new computer.
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Member since:2011-01-28
kaiwai,
"The incompatibility therefore has nothing to do with 'secure boot' so why is the issue even raised in the first place? a crappy UEFI implementation"
It confusing as hell to understand who or what you are actually responding to here with these "incompatibilities". The OP (which is you ironically), was explicitly talking about disabling secure boot to run another OS. The second poster (Morgan) said that might not always remain an option. My posts brought up the point made in the article that secure boot restrictions aren't likely to be listed when consumers buy their hardware.
"The implication that is at least implied by your posts (and others) that motherboards vendors are going out of their way to screw over Linux users."
I still have no idea what you are talking about. *I* don't think manufacturers are going out of their way to screw over linux users.
"Why should it receive the same attention when such a miniscule number of Linux users make up their customer base?"
Well that's my point. Linux is a niche, most manufacturers don't bother supporting it explicitly.
"It doesn't say it on the product page itself..."
That's what the author said, but I don't think he specified where he bought the product? Anyways the point was that consumers need to be more vigilant, which is true even when secure boot is in the manual. Some potential linux users won't know why their live linux media stopped working and they might even blame linux itself without even being aware of the secure boot restrictions on their machine.
Edit:
Doing some detective work here, if I'm not mistaken, your comments are actually referring to this sub-thread. Well that makes a bit more sense, even if it's not related to my posts.
http://www.osnews.com/thread?544479
I don't think it's a bug so much as something erroneously having slipped through the certification process. If you want to view bugs as a legitimate way of bypassing certification requirements...well I'm not going to argue with you about it.
Edited 2012-12-09 18:26 UTC
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Member since:
2005-07-06
The incompatibility therefore has nothing to do with 'secure boot' so why is the issue even raised in the first place? a crappy UEFI implementation - join the list of crappy motherboard vendors doing the same thing purely out of laziness rather than some sort of 'evil master plan' to 'screw over Linux users'.
The implication that is at least implied by your posts (and others) that motherboards vendors are going out of their way to screw over Linux users.
Why should it receive the same attention when such a miniscule number of Linux users make up their customer base?
It doesn't say it on the product page itself but if you go to the downloads section and read through the manual it makes several references to UEFI, how to get access to the UEF command line, how to UEFI boot off a USB thum drive etc. The issue ISN'T UEFI at all given that we've finally got a firmware that is properly documented and designed rather than a hacked together mess BUT if a vendor fails to test and debug their firmware then the issue has nothing to do with UEFI but the poor implementation of UEFI byt he said vendor and in all due respects the same thing can and has happened with traditional BIOS - I'm sure you remember not too long ago the Foxconn motherboard fiasco in reference to ACPI being deliberately incompatible with Linux. Having a traditional BIOS doesn't some how give you the magic of being protected from not being screwed over by lazy companies.