[Bradford] Laptop security

[Mike Goodman]

On 16/11/15 14:43, John Robert Hudson wrote:
> On Monday 16 Nov 2015 12:35:28 Matt Fleming wrote:
>> On Sat, 14 Nov, at 10:29:16PM, John Robert Hudson wrote:
>>> Hi Alice
>>>
>>> When Matt gave his talk on mixed mode UEFI in May, I mentioned that I had
>>> not been able to use UEFI on my Toshiba and it appears that there may be
>>> a form of Windows only UEFI which isn't accessible to efibootmgr. So that
>>> may be the root problem as Lenovo say that 'features may not work with
>>> other OS.'
>>
>> I'm not aware of any "Windows only UEFI", and given that UEFI defines
>> a standard method by which the OS can interact with the firmware, if
>> such a thing did exist, you couldn't call it UEFI!
>>
>> I've just switched jobs so should have more free time on Monday
>> evenings now. I can pop along to the next meeting and take a look at
>> your laptop if you're still interested in getting Linux working wit
>> UEFI?
> Hi Matt
>
> I agree that there shouldn't be "Windows only UEFI" but, since efibootmgr can
> read but is unable to edit the entries on my Toshiba, it appears that at least
> some implementations do not follow the standard!
>
> John
> --
>
>
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I had one heck of a job getting my head around UEFI when first trying to 
load Arch onto this PC. It seems others are struggling too.

The first point to make is that UEFI is a replacement for, not an 
addition to or a choice within, BIOS. There is a "legacy BIOS" option in 
most implementations, there for those wish to load an OS which can only 
run on BIOS or for those who wish not to change the habits of a lifetime.

The standard is a multi-party agreement between most if not all of the 
major players, including the hardware manufacturers, Linux __and__ M$ 
Corp. Yes, they really, truly, have played nicely on this one.

It is true that some of the manufacturers have implementations within 
which they have changed the names around, which is where I met 
(imagined) calamities, but if you can find your way around that obstacle 
Linux __does__ work with UEFI. However, any of the manufacturer's 
__additional__ features may not work. Irrelevant to us because our 
software works without the additionals.

In general, tweaks should be made within the UEFI interface on bootup, 
not in your Linux software.

HTH

Mike