Windows 8 (or, more likely, UEFI) warning.

[Bruce Labitt]

I'm confused about UEFI.  So let me ask a couple of basic questions.

1.  If UEFI is the "boot up system" does this mean that if I buy a modern
"Runs on Windows 8" high end mother board i7 + gpu and a blank hard drive
(SSD) I can't install linux distros at all?  Or distros with kernel < 3.0?
or ?

2.  Why would motherboard manufacturers do this?  Don't they sell world
wide where there other OS's?  Please  don't launch into a flame-fest, I'm
merely curious as to what the motivation would be for the mfgrs behavior.

3.  If 1 is true, what are the 'grass-roots' aka 'cheap' work a rounds ?
     a. wait and use less modern stuff <-- not desirable
     b. magic incantations / offerings   <-- possible
     c. Subject for a GNHLUG meeting ?  Local expert?

At some point I need to modernize my computing platforms to get into GPU
computing, so I'd like to get a lot more capable machine.  I am still
harboring the fantasy that it is still possible to "assemble one's own
desktop computer" running linux.  Is it still possible?  Or are those days
over?

Bruce



On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 8:54 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen
<rozzin at geekspace.com>wrote:

> Brian Chabot <brian at datasquire.net> writes:
> >
> > UEFI is why I switched to Fedora.  It was the only distro at the time
> that
> > supported UEFI out of the box, and even then, it was a little clunky.
>
> It's why I switched to buying Linux preinstalled.
>
> --
> "Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))."
>
> > On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 1:50 PM, Ken D'Ambrosio <ken at jots.org> wrote:
> >
> >     Wouldn't boot to Linux.  Well, okay.  Let's try Windows 8.  Wouldn't
> >     boot to *Windows*.  First it tried to do a repair of some sort --
> failed
> >     miserably.  Then it wouldn't get further than the "Dell" splash
> screen.
> >     Eventually wound up disabling UEFI secure boot, which allowed it to
> go
> >     into Windows -- whereupon I gave it back to the by-now very nervous
> >     laptop owner, and let the damn WiFi be.
> >
> > Lucky you!
> >
> > I bought a new system from Best Buy (I know, I know...) and tried to
> dual boot
> > it to Mandriva.  Somehow I ended up bricking it.
> >
> >     Bottom line -- I think we, as Linux weenies, are gonna have to play
> >     with damn UEFI and get a feel for it.  Is it uniform across vendors?
> >
> > Yes, we will.  Right now, I know of no decent boot editor utilities and
> none
> > at all that run from within Linux.
> >
> >
> >
> >     Can I always go for the "disable secure boot" option (which would,
> >     presumably, allow me to boot Linux)?
> >
> > I think that may be vendor specific and possibly even windows
> installation
> > specific.
> >
> >  At the moment UEFI documentation is junk.  Cross
> platform implementation is
> > even worse.
> >
> > Brian
>
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