Re: UEFI beginner questions
On 6/7/19 7:46 PM, tuulen wrote:
Hi,
I am an ordinary GUI and mouse computer user, not a command line user. But
I want to get away from both Apple and Microsoft. I spent a lot of time
looking into Linux, Unix, BSD, and eventually I discovered Debian. And
because I like to know the details of what I am doing I also discovered
that I just naturally like Debian, too, as Debian is built upon
explanations, fine with me!
What "explanations" you are referring to?
I often find FOSS online documents to be outdated, incomplete, and
inaccurate. And, there is a huge pile of conflicting information called
the WWW...
Back in the day, there was:
https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Bach-Design-of-the-UNIX-Operating-System/PGM81513.html
FreeBSD has a current equivalent:
https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Mc-Kusick-Design-and-Implementation-of-the-Free-BSD-Operating-System-The-2nd-Edition/PGM224032.html
A current "hands-on" book that includes coverage for Debian is:
https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Nemeth-UNIX-and-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-5th-Edition/PGM143215.html
Lucas writes excellent "hands-on" books for BSD and other Unix topics:
https://mwl.io/nonfiction/os
https://mwl.io/nonfiction/networking
https://mwl.io/nonfiction/tools
I was in the process of partitioning my hard drive to install Debian when I
encountered a couple of UEFI complications. My HP Laptop with Windows 10
does not offer a way to disable the "secure boot" feature of UEFI, so that
makes Debian off limits. Then I went to the HP website but almost all of
the available HP desktops and laptops have Windows 10, with presumably the
same useless UEFI that I now have, and I did not see any Linux-compatible
HP computers as available. I am aware that there are other computer makers
and manufacturers but I am wondering what computers the Debian community
prefers.
Typically, whatever people already own.
Determining if a given make and model of computer is fully supported by
Debian from specifications, surfing the WWW, etc., is tough. If a
physical specimen is available, one option is to try a Debian Live CD or
USB flash drive.
If you buy a commercial product that comes with Debian pre-installed, it
should work:
https://www.debian.org/distrib/pre-installed
Fortunately my needs are small bandwidth-wise, no gaming, no
movies, nothing bigger than an occasional news clip or YouTube clip, so I
do not need a big, powerful computer.
My oldest running machines have Intel 2+ GHz dual-core 64-bit processors
and 945G chipsets, and are comfortable with video up to 720x480, maybe
720p. I use my Intel i7-2600S/ Q67 machine for 1080p.
I can continue to use Apple and
Microsoft computers for ordinary day-to-day uses but there are some uses,
like banking and financial matters including credit card use, etc.,
My retired Pentium 4 machines with 32-bit Debian, Xfce, and Firefox
could do that. I recycled my Pentium III and older machines because of
RAM limitations.
for
which I would very much appreciate a more secure computer and for different
reasons I have come to distrust both Apple and Microsoft.
I believe desktop security is primarily determined by user behavior.
Exploits exist for Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux, and the many common
applications that run on those platforms. An ignorant or reckless user
will be quickly "pwn3d" no matter what computer they use.
OK, so there is
a steep learning curve to using Debian, but I think I can handle learning
how to do what I need to do.
I suggest starting with this book:
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596002619.do
Any computer model suggestions?
Install Debian Stable (Stretch) into a 64-bit virtual machine on your
Windows 10 laptop.
Get the debian-9.9.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso download:
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/
I have used VirtualBox on Windows, macOS, and Debian:
https://www.virtualbox.org/
Some editions of Windows 10 will run Hyper-V on supported platforms:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/hyper-v-technology-overview
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v
If you want real hardware, most of us started with used desktop
computers. In this case, older is often better (3+ years or older), as
the newest hardware often is not supported by Debian Stable. You will
want to write your ISO to a USB flash drive:
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch04s03.html.en#usb-copy-isohybrid
https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
Thanks! Best regards, Doug
Enjoy!
David
Reply to: