[Discuss] Disabling UEFI and dual booting Linux and Windows

[richard.pieri at gmail.com (Rich Pieri)]

On Sun, 4 Nov 2012 13:37:04 -0500
John Abreau <abreauj at gmail.com> wrote:

> A suggestion that we test it ourselves to see how it behaves, instead
> of trying to choose which of many conflicting sources to arbitrarily
> believe without question, is not the same as "buying into the hype". 

No, it isn't. But saying "some web site I read said something doesn't
work" and taking it at face value is. A fair bit of the anti-UEFI
sentiment comes from this kind of "evidence".

I'll bet more of you have Secure Boot capable computers than you
realize. Dell has been shipping UEFI Secure Boot firmware since August,
maybe earlier, and the most recent "BIOS" firmware updates for most
current models add Secure Boot to the options. If you've purchased Dell
in the last couple of months or installed one of these firmware updates
then you're running with UEFI Secure Boot. It's turned off, of course,
just as I've been describing all along.

Flipping the switch may be a trick depending on what the OEM has done
with the firmware settings. This has nothing to do with UEFI Secure
Boot per se. OEMs have been hiding firmware settings for as long as
OEMs have been making x86 computers. This is, and always has been, a
case by case thing.

But if you want real hassles, try dealing with Intel Rapid Storage
Technology (RST). That's a pain in the ass at best and a nightmare at
worst when Linux is involved.

-- 
Rich P.