Re: Anybody have a chromebook? Can it run Debian?

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>> It is possible, but it's not easy.  I tried installing a Linux
>> distro (don't remember which one) from a thumb drive in Developer
>> Mode and the BIOS recognized it but would not boot it because it
>> wasn't signed. Google has some way of allowing developer
>> self-signing, but I never looked into how that works.
> The readers of this thread might find this blog posting interesting.
>   Don't like Secure Boot? Don't buy a Chromebook.
>   http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/22465.html

Which reminds me of a question I have about these braindead "secure"
booting systems: has any company (Google/Miscrosoft/younameit) actually
shown evidence that there are attacks out there in the wild that
subvert/replace the OS's boot sequence?

I mean, I'm willing to believe there are such attacks out there, but in
order to justify all this pain, they had better be very widespread and
very nasty, yet I haven't heard much about such things.

So I'd love to see a list of, say, "attacks we have seen in the past and
which would have been prevented by SecureBoot".


        Stefan