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On 18/10/2021 18:31, Michael Everitt wrote:
On 18/10/2021 18:28, Paul Sutton via list wrote:Hi All I had an e-mail from a potential new Linux / Free software user in Cornwall, she hasn't started with it yet, but I did suggest starting off with LinuxMint as it seems to 'just work'. Plus for new users it is pretty easy to use, has good support (forum,irc etc) as well as a strong user base. I just wondered if anyone in that area would be able to provide some install help please. I know the install guide is at https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ But I don't know much about this EFI/UEFI thing. So if that needs disabling or whatever you do. I can't help with that. Once it is installed myself and others can try and provide some support remotely. If anyone can respond who is local to Fowey, I can put you in touch. Thanks PaulHow far into Cornwall - we have the Plymouth LUG approaching ... EFI should be mostly covered by the Mint installation procedure, although, getting to boot a non-native install media could be tricky. Who's conversant with the latest Windoze tom-foolery?! Cheers, veremitz/Michael.
EFI has got nothing to do with Windows... it's just the modern replacement for crappy old BIOS firmware and has actually been the standard on all new PCs for well over a decade. The last thing anyone wants to do is turn it off and willingly go back to prehistoric firmware literally from the last century...
It gets confused a lot with Secure Boot which is part of the UEFI spec: that's the bit which mandates the system boots from a signed installation image and nothing more. You can be the person who signed that image if you set it up that way but more normally and in the default state it will indeed trust a valid Microsoft signature. All of this is optional and can be disabled but even that's not necessary as most of the sensible Linux distros have had support for Support Boot as well for ages. Mint for example has supported the default installer image booting with Secure Boot on since 19.1 a couple of years ago so there won't be any problems. Unless you're mixing in an Nvidia CPU as well in which case there will be problems but that's because of complicated Linux kernel tainting issues and is actually a Linux/Nvidia problem, not a Secure Boot problem.
So in short, any newish system probably shipped with EFI on and Secure Boot enabled by default. As long as you're not using Nvidia and are using a mainstream friendly distro like Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora etc everything will work just fine left like that. Loads of distros eschew Secure Boot though, probably more than support it: off the top of my head Gentoo, Arch, Devuan, Void and NixOS don't.
The new users biggest problem will probably be backing up and preserving her stuff from Windows if there's a pre-existing install. It's fine to re-partition the laptop's sole disk to make room for the Linux system if she wants to keep Windows around for dual booting but don't try and re-partition the disk if it's been bitlockered: the Mint installer should refuse to even try but if it does there will be tears. Bitlocker has been enabled by default for years on Windows so if repartitioning is involved make sure whoever walks her through the install checks...
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