Re: [Long] UEFI support

[Johan Henriksson <mahogny@areta.org>]

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 6:55 PM, Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> wrote:

On Fri, Jan 06, 2012 at 02:41:41PM +0000, Tanguy Ortolo wrote:
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> Hello all,
>
> UEFI (often called EFI, which was the name of its previous version) is a
> new firmware interface, which is expected to replace the BIOS on new
> PCs, as at has already done so on Apple PCs. While modern operating
> system do not rely much on firmware calls for normal operation, the boot
> loader does.

As I understand it, almost all new PCs for sale today have UEFI and a
BIOS compatibility layer on top.  So this replacement has already
happened.

I recently set up a linux server and do see a need for linux to boot on UEFI without relying on BIOS. The reason is the limitations of the size of the booting harddrive. there are hacks around this (multiple MBRs) but these would upset for example a dual-booting windows. this also doesn't chime well when persuading new users to try out linux. so, in my opinion, debian should be among the first to support UEFI well and to show that linux can be first rate in hardware support.

one challenge for the installer will be how to support manual partitioning while making installation of the uefi boot partition easy. if there is none then debian should suggest to create it, with good default settings.

/Johan


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Johan Henriksson
PhD student, Karolinska Institutet
http://mahogny.areta.org  http://www.endrov.net