Re: Dell BIOS Changes

["Alexander V. Makartsev" <avbetev@gmail.com>]

On 28.01.2020 10:13, J. D. Leach wrote:

> To Whom
>       it May Concern,
>       
>       
>       Have a Dell Inspiron 3668 desktop with the latest Dell firmware
>       (1.12.2). This update, and numerous of the preceding ones, do not
>       allow ANY type of loading of Debian (or any othe Linux flavor)
>       onto the PC. In the BIOS configuration menu, no option is
>       available to boot from the DVD drive, or USB, unless a Windows
>       recovery media is detected. Linux loader programs likewise fail,
>       and Windows loads instead. PC is about two years old.
>       
>       
>       Looked all across the 'Net and have found zero fixes outside of
>       wiping the hard drive. The latest Dell support pages regarding the
>       set up of the boot sequence does not cover the firmware installed
>       on my PC.
>       
>       
>       I suspect Microsoft is back to trying to squelch the use of
>       software other than what it approves of.
>       
>       
>       Thought you might wish to be aware.
>       
>       
>       Dave Leach
>       
>       
>     
    Thanks for the heads up, and I thought Dell OEM is GNU\Linux
    friendly.
    
    I think, BIOS of your PC supports native EFI mode only, on top of
    restricting ability to manually select bootable media. (I've never
    seen a PC with restrictions like this, yet.)
    Is there an option to at least disable Secure Boot, or is it forced
    too?
    I'd try to switch hard disk with pre-installed OS to a blank one
    (temporarily disconnect all hard disks for a test, if you don't have
    a blank one) and make sure you've prepared UEFI-compatible bootable
    USB media.
    If bootable USB media was made correctly, and there is no other
    bootable disk found, it should start EFI bootloader from USB.
    And if not, it is possible that Secure Boot prevents it from loading
    by checking signature of bootloader against pre-installed in BIOS
    certificates issued by Microsoft.
    Usually there is an options in BIOS to disable Secure Boot or
    install alternative certificates.
    I've seen successful attempts to trick UEFI to load "grubx64.efi"
    EFI bootloader by placing and renaming it to
    "/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi"
    I think it is also possible to edit BCD boot loader settings to add
    one more bootloader entry to the list and chainload "grubx64.efi".
    Just like grub chainloads other bootloaders, but the other way
    around. I've not tried this, but it looks doable.
    
-- 
With kindest regards, Alexander.

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