[Mageia-discuss] UEFI and Secure Boot

Goh Lip lipg at gmx.com
Wed Aug 22 06:52:46 CEST 2012


On 08/22/2012 03:50 AM, Maurice Batey wrote:> On Wed, 22 Aug 2012 
00:52:43 +0800, Goh Lip wrote:
 >
 >>   "fdisk -lu" If it is GPT, it will give an error message
 >> (nothing to worry about, fdisk won't work on GPT, that's all).
 >
 >    I went into Clonezilla's 'command line' mode:
 >
 >       sudo fdisk -lu /dev/sda
 >
 > Response:   "Cannot open /dev/sda"
 >
 >    (Also tried /dev/hda - that no-oped)
 >
 > What did that prove?!

It is GPT partitioned.

On 08/22/2012 02:11 AM, Maurice Batey wrote:
 > By the way, I used Gparted-Live to look at the drive. It showed:
 >
 >      /dev/sda1: 400MB   "SYSTEM"  (Flag='Boot')
 >      /dev/sda2: 280GB
 >      /dev/sda3: 17GB     "SAMSUNG-REC" (Flag='Diag")
 >
 > I could see nothing indication 'GPT' clues.
 >

It is GPT partitioned


 > Anything else I could have tried?
 >



On 08/22/2012 02:11 AM, Maurice Batey wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:52:43 +0800, Goh Lip wrote:
>
>> Most likely, your disk is GPT partitioned and windows 7 installed on it
>> with at least 2 partitions (one for boot and probably one more for
>> recovery besides the usual OS partition).
>
>     If that's the case then I get the feeling that Magiea-2 will not
> install alongside Windows7.
>     Is that true?


If Mageia comes with grub2, I am certain it will install alongside 
Windows 7 with your confirmed GPT partitioning and in *either* BIOS *or*
UEFI mode. The problem is that no one here can vouch that Mageia's 
grub-legacy can handle this. (Though we hear from Thomas that his Fedora 
16's grub-legacy could; Charles' single OS drive setup and Olav's claim 
that he has no problem on MsDos with (u)EFI)

Here, I think it is good to remember that some of these "transitional" 
motherboards have 'fake' UEFI (to simulate UEFI) and EFI (an apple 
thingy) is not UEFI. "Pure" UEFI requires GPT partitioning. Period.
(BIOS can handle both). Oh, before I forget (again), UEFI *requires* 64 
bits.  But we should thank Thomas, Charles and Olav for their input.
Thomas has his working fine and it is one area we can explore later on 
this post.


>
> If so, then - as I don't really want to use Windows on this netbook -
> perhaps the simplest approach for me would be to re-format the whole
> disk with a non-GPT setup, and install Mageia-2 on that.
>       Would that be a workable approach?
> Would this 'UEFI' motherboard handle such a disk properly?


>
> (Actually, the more I think about that, the more I like it, as it
> avoids the problem of adjusting the existng Windows partitions to make
> space for Mageia without disturbing their disk-letter relationship.
>     Which tool would be best suited to do that?)
>
>   I have already (using Clonezilla live) taken an image copy of the
> whole drive, so if things get messed up I can restore back to the
> original.
>
..
.
.
What we can do (a workaround, no doubt) is to install another grub2 OS 
or Thomas' F16 to run alongside your Windows7. Than we install Mageia in 
another partition and have the other OS grub2 (or Thomas' F16 
grub-legacy)  pickup and bootup your Mageia.


If you choose with Thomas F16, Thomas will have to come in to help you 
with it and of course a safer bet is to use Charles' single OS drive 
(that way, you get back whatever we mess up).

The choice is for you to make with the corresponding risks.
(I will not root my brand new Google Nexus, for example  :) )


>
> I've found this all quite depressing, but I do like a challenge, and I
> am most grateful to you for your patience and help.
>    Thank you, Goh!
>
> Regards.
>


You're most welcome. Thanks to all. Regards - Goh Lip


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