[lug] GRUB2 Compatibility: Mostly Fedora/Ubuntu, Some BIOS/UEFI

[philburt stortsky]

i've been using grub2 (with Cenots) for some time on my best machine, which lacks uefi (don't think i have any machines with it, poverty, though here it beats middle class most places.  most of my hardware is from dumpsters, and i moved to where people don't throw out slightly old computers (where i was in boulder, people threw out perfectly good tools that looked brand new, not to mention tool boxes!)  The point is, those of us who are disabled etc. are still using plenty old machines.  this weekend i'm setting up a p4 with pfsense for firewall, perfectly reasonable with gigabit fiber service which was graciously provided for me by one who knows i need it.  i imagine globally there are many old computers, being more usefull than if in a land fill, not that we don't all love new toys.

"We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, affliction or infamy. We kill when, because it is easier, we countenance or pretend to approve of atrophied social, political, educational and religious institutions instead of resolutely combating them."
- Hesse


> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 7:40 PM
> From: "Steve Litt" <slitt at troubleshooters.com>
> To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> Subject: Re: [lug] GRUB2 Compatibility: Mostly Fedora/Ubuntu, Some BIOS/UEFI
>
> On Wed, 19 Jul 2017 15:01:06 -0600
> Zan Lynx <zlynx at acm.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> > I believe that you're right that BIOS compatibility mode isn't tested.
> > Why would it be, when UEFI is better by any measure.
> 
> For instance:
> 
> * Buggy UEFI "firmware" can permanently brick your hardware if you "do
>   the wrong thing" in Linux. I've never heard of that with MBR.
> 
> * UEFI sets up a 2 way feedback loop between hardware boot, firmware
>   boot, and user software. Feedback loops are intrinsically harder to
>   troubleshoot.
> 
> * If you back up the first 512 bytes on a disk device booting with MBR,
>   you KNOW you've got the whole thing. With UEFI, you must go through a
>   whole rigamarole to know how much to back up.
> 
> * UEFI encourages "secure boot", which discourages the installation of
>   most Linux distros. Some implementations have no way of making
>   "secure boot" optional.
> 
> > These days it's like trying to run DOS on a modern system.
> 
> http://www.logicalfallacies.info/relevance/appeals/appeal-to-novelty/ 
> 
> SteveT
> 
> Steve Litt 
> July 2017 featured book: Quit Joblessness: Start Your Own Business
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/startbiz
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