On Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:02:10 +1000 Basil Chupin <blchupin@iinet.net.au> wrote:
On 15/06/12 00:09, Malcolm wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jun 2012 23:33:45 +1000 Basil Chupin <blchupin@iinet.net.au> wrote:
I read - at least I am sure that that is what I read - that one would be able to disable this UEFI-thingie if one doesn't want to use it. Meaning that if one was to only use a Linux system then one wouldn't need this crap. Is this right or wrong?
Hi Correct, only for new systems/hardware that users wish to run Windows 8 as well as other OSes.
Usage of correct terminology here seems to be of vital importance considering all the kerffuffle being written so far by people in this thread :-) .
Are you saying that the problem only affects those who want to DUAL BOOT (or run anything-Windows in a VM environment) with anything-Windows when using any Linux distro as their main operating system? or are you saying that this crap will apply to any new mobos in the coming months which not only may want to use Windows 8 but to any other operating system of whatever flavour including a Linux system which they may want to install?
Yes, just dual/multi boot with windows 8 on bare-metal (I would guess this two year old system would meet the requirements). Now, the virtualization method is an unknown for me, I guess kvm, xen etc would work as long as the kernels have the signed key. Not sure about a vm machine, I would guess as long as the BIOS is capable (and they have paid for keys?)
On this DELL E5510 my concern is that it appears I can't disable..... and it's only a concern, I only run linux on this machine...
Which is what is confusing. If you only run Linux then why would you want to disable it? - especially as you are not using one of these yet-to-come UEFI enabled gizmos? (Actually, my mobo has this UEFI on it but I haven't looked at it yet.)
Because the indications are that you can disable it.... in my case that appears from my earlier screenshot it's not possible, it's almost as though it's an OTP (One Time Program) I can enable but not disable (which also indicates I cannot update my BIOS unless it's signed by DELL).
I am still confused by the fact that there has not been much stomping of feet and gnashing of teeth about this matter and that people at Fedora have made decisions about this while openSUSE has only this week suddenly woken up that something has to be done about this (if anything that is); not to mention that FOSS has been silent about it (at least I haven't seen any articles re their thinking) and the EU has not been stirring the pot about it.
Is all this just a storm in a tea cup or a serious thing?
BC
Because Fedora don't expect their users to have to stomp around in the BIOS to change things. To me on this system I have openSUSE (Default), SLED 11 and soon to be SLES. I turn my computer on and it boots to openSUSE as I'm only running elilo. If I want the others I hit the F12 key to get to the BIOS boot menu and select from there. My assumption is that if I had windows 8 on it and the ability to disable the signed keys I would need to press F2 to get to the BIOS setup, disable the signed key system, reboot and then select my 'unsigned' system to boot (I'm also assuming this would be the case for windows 7?) Having openSUSE with a signed key negates the BIOS routine.... Now if you custom compile stuff (eg kernel modules [which would include vm stuff?]) you either buy your own key (to avoid the BIOS step) or self sign (method??) and move forward. Maybe some more details on your M/B, have you browsed the BIOS to look for any signed firmware option? I actually like this UEFI and having a gpt partition system (no more extended partition) and 128 partitions all in a row.... Now the above comments are all observations on my part from reading the articles and my BIOS.... Maybe I need a flow chart of my booting and BIOS At present if I was to enable a signed key system with windows 8, openSUSE and SLE along with virtualization, the way I see it I would need signed keys from; 1 - DELL 2 - Microsoft 3 - openSUSE 4 - SUSE 5 - VirtualBox 6 - Me for any customized kernel modules -- Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 3.0.31-0.9-default up 1 day 11:19, 3 users, load average: 0.28, 0.36, 0.34 CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org