[Discuss] UEFI

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

Matthew Gillen wrote:
> I do intend to dual boot fedora/windows 7 (I have no intention of ever
> going to 8).  Is there any advantage to leaving UEFI enabled?

Short answer: no.

Long answer:

UEFI is the system firmware. It replaces the legacy PC BIOS. You can't 
disable it.

UEFI boot is the boot method using EFI paths to devices as opposed to 
"legacy" BIOS device enumeration. This is a big deal for servers, not so 
much for consumer kit.

UEFI secure boot is an extension to the UEFI boot mechanism that 
requires signed binaries for each link of the boot chain. Windows 7 
cannot be booted with UEFI secure boot.

Legacy boot emulates the PC BIOS boot device enumeration mechanism.

Operating systems installed with UEFI secure boot cannot be booted 
without UEFI secure boot. It may be possible to switch between legacy 
and UEFI boot but this entails digging into the EFI shell.


> Has anyone tried to take an existing linux system (non-UEFI) and move it
> over to new hardware (specifically, UEFI-enabled)?

This process is problematic whenever the source and target hardware are 
not 100% identical. I recommend not even trying when UEFI is involved 
unless you are familiar with the EFI shell.

-- 
Rich P.