UEFI and Ubuntu Linux

[Robert Heller]

At Sat, 27 Jan 2018 15:32:16 +0800 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> Hello.
> 
> I am currently running UbuntuMATE 16.04 LTS on various computers; UEFI
> and otherwise.
> 
> In performing a system update on this one (a computer that has UEFI,
> which is bypassed to run Linux), yesterday, I observed that the
> packages to be installed/updated (I am not sure which), included a
> number of packages relating to UEFI.
> 
> In checking using Synaptic, I found that 12 packages relating to UEFI,
> are available, with a few of them, installed.
> 
> When I first installed Linux on this computer (it took me about two
> years to get Linux properly running on this computer, due to three
> separate system components, and with the infamous change from GNOME2
> to GNOME3, designed to drive people away from GNOME, to MATE), with me
> finally finding that  Ubuntu Linux 12.04 (at the time ) was the only
> non-MS operating system to have available, the necessary hardware
> drivers - DragonflyBSD was the only other non-MS operating system that
> had a driver for the CPU (Haskell architecture), but, it did not, and,
> still does not, have a driver for the graphics (for which, Ubuntu uses
> nouveau), and, when I posted a query on the DragonflyBSD list,
> recently, asking whether the recently released version of the OS now
> had drivers for the graphics, the response was mostly (and, most
> loudly), of the nature  "DragonflyBSD has a pretty set of wings - who
> cares whether it works - we are not interested in a working OS!".
> 
> In getting non-MS operating systems installed on this machine, I had
> to go through a procedure to bypass the UEFI, so Win8 is installed in
> a UEFI compartment, which never gets accessed, and takes up about
> 250GB of the HDD, due to unmovable components, and UbuntuMATE is
> installed and run, within the non-UEFI, "Legacy BIOS" compartment.
> 
> So, after all of that, ... does the existence and availability of the
> packages relating to UEFI, mean that now,
> 
> 1.  Ubuntu Linux (including UbuntuMATE) from 16.04 onward (especially,
> for when it is released, 18.04), can be installed directly into the
> UEFI compartment, and not need to use the Legacy BIOS compartment,
> and, thence,

Yes.

> 
> 2. Performing a new install of Ubuntu Linux (including UbuntuMATE)
> from 16.04 onward (especially, for when it is released, 18.04), can
> replace - meaning eliminating and replacing - factory installed
> installations of MS Windows, that are installed via UEFI?
> 

Yes.

"Modern" versions of Grub / Linux installers understand about UEFI and can
deal with it without needing various workarounds. (Although CentOS 6 is
*slightly* wonky in needing the grub.conf file copied to the UEFI partition on
each kernel update on the one server I maintain that uses UEFI boot.) You will
need a FAT formatted EFI partition (it can be very small), since the UEFI boot
code only understands the FAT file system. This will be where the first 
"chain" of the boot loader will live (the part loaded by the boot ROM).

> Thank you in anticipation.
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
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