I had a previous post asking about installing Ubuntu on a new laptop with Windows 8, and was given some pointers and some things to read. With the reading and research I've done, I felt it was more appropriate to open a new thread.
My understanding, put in simple terms, is that the problem comes in with secure boot enabled in the BIOS. Microsoft wanted to try to cover some of the security holes, so with secure boot it requires a key in a database that says it's ok to use the binary - in this case the boot loader. In this way malware attempts at modifying the boot will not "take" in that the computer will not boot.The argument is legitimately there that is also Microsoft trying to restrict what OS is being installed. It appears that Fedora and Canonical have 2 different approaches to this, with Canonical's still being questionable in terms of needing the key to be secure versus the Free Software Foundation's GPLv3 usage saying the source must be available - and in this case the argument is about the key. Everything I have read so far hasn't indicated if that issue has been resolved yet. This is being attempted so that the normal user doesn't have to have any knowledge of or any interfacing to the secure boot technology.
I have read that 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04.03(?) and 12.10 have had the ability to detect uefi and secure boot and work around it to some degree.
So, with that in mind, and given that I have a new Dell laptop with Windows 8, uefi, and secure boot enabled and that I don't want to do something to that would effect my warranty, will the Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit install CD actually boot when uefi and secure boot is enabled? What I've tried so far has not been allowed to boot.
Sorry if this sounds sort of technical - I've tried to dumb it down as best I can. I also hope that my understanding and how I have worded it here are accurate. My concern is for myself, for current users who buy a new PC and for those people with newer hardware (uefi with secure boot enabled) to be able to boot the install CD, install Ubuntu and still be able to boot everything on the system okay when all is done.
I believe this applies to systems with Windows 8, but I may be in error there.
In looking at the forum, it appears there are a lot of people who have been having problems with uefi and Windows 8 - and I believe some of those are related to secure boot being enabled in the BIOS. So obviously it is a "big" deal. I'm just looking at the simplest usage - just trying to boot the install CD, while I recognize that this "simplest usage" also goes right to the heart of the matter.
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