From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 11 00:59:06 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 89AE6453 for ; Sun, 11 May 2014 00:59:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4D0E021F0 for ; Sun, 11 May 2014 00:59:05 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-108-40.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.108.40]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 969803CE52; Sun, 11 May 2014 02:58:56 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id s4B0wsbS003066; Sun, 11 May 2014 02:58:55 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sun, 11 May 2014 02:58:54 +0200 From: Polytropon To: "Ronald F. Guilmette" Subject: Re: "Secure Boot" motherboards (to avoid)? Message-Id: <20140511025854.afcdc921.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <5061.1399755000@server1.tristatelogic.com> References: <5061.1399755000@server1.tristatelogic.com> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 11 May 2014 00:59:06 -0000 On Sat, 10 May 2014 13:50:00 -0700, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote: > For whatever new motherboard I buy, do I need to be on the lookout > for the possibility that it may incorporate some form of non-easily- > disablable UEFI/SecureBoot firmware that will prevent me from booting > anything other than Windoze? Or is this generally a non-issue for > stand-alone (sold-alone) consumer motherboards? The easiest thing is to completely disable CrippledBoot ("SecureBoot") in the BIOS. It's also possible to have a "shim" in place to deal with the even more complex task of getting UEFI boot working. Examples can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI#SecureBoot https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI#Installing_Ubuntu_in_EFI_mode I'm not sure if a comparable approach exists for FreeBSD. I hope to avoid this stupid topic as long as possible, constantly resisting the urge to buy some "modern" hardware. :-) So if you can, disable CrippleBoot and UEFI at all. It's easier that way. Remember: As soon as something fully works, it will be obsoleted by something that doesn't really work, see for example APM and ACPI, HAL and so on. :-) > P.S. I don't know if this is relevant or not, but for the record, it is > my intention at the present time to *never* run Windows 8.anything. You're doing a good service to your mental health. :-) > I do > however use Windows 7 on occasion, and would almost certainly be using > that on this new system I'll be building... in addition to a variety of > other operating systems, including FreeBSD. (Horray for cheap sATA > hot-swap racks!) It should be possible to run "Windows 7" in the normal mode ("legacy mode" or "compatibility mode"), along with other operating systems. Just make sure that you either use a partitioning scheme that doesn't cause trouble, or you use "single disks" (a real disk per OS), either selectable or hot-swappable (so one of them doesn't trash the others). -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...