UEFI motherboard/BIOS Secure Boot: Option to disable Secure Boot?

[mab33]

Being a Linux user I'm concerned that my next new PC will inevitably have a UEFI motherboard, as the UEFI Secure Boot feature - unless disabled - assumes the OS you are going to use is UEFI compliant (e.g. Windows 8).

Unless Secure boot can be disabled by the PC owner, it will - as I understand it - prevent non-UEFI OS's from booting, including the common practice of dual-booting Windows and Linux.

Does anyone here know if e.g. ASUS UEFI motherboards provide an option to disable Secure Boot?

 

[baron75mk2]

Cant imagine Asus making a board that will only allow windows 8 to be booted , mine will boot windows 7 with no issues (is windows 7 UEFI compliant ?) , as far as i know the only requirement for booting the os with the UEFI Bios is that the os is using a standard MBR boot file ( there is another boot file type that sometimes is used to unlock more than 2.1tb recognition on very large HDDs.)

Give Pcs (or infact Asus) a call & im sure one of them will be able to advise you better than i can as im not 100% sure on this .

Seems to be some microsoft specific requirement for booting windows 8 , just grabbed this form wiki

Secure Boot
See also: Windows 8#Secure boot and Hardware restrictions#Windows 8

Red Hat developer Matthew Garrett in his article "UEFI secure booting" raised a concern that UEFI "secure boot" feature may impact Linux (machines with the Windows 8 logo with secure boot enabled that ships with only OEM and Microsoft keys will not boot a generic copy of Linux).[50][51] In response, Microsoft stated that customers may be able to disable the secure boot feature in the UEFI interface.[2][52] Concern remained that some OEMs might omit that capability in their computers. Later it was reported that Microsoft apparently prohibited implementation of disabling of Secure Boot on ARM systems.[53][54]

Joshua Gay of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) raised concerns on "secure boot" implementation to UEFI and FSF declared a public statement open for signing which states:

We, the undersigned, urge all computer makers implementing UEFI's so-called "Secure Boot" to do it in a way that allows free software operating systems to be installed. To respect user freedom and truly protect user security, manufacturers must either allow computer owners to disable the boot restrictions, or provide a sure-fire way for them to install and run a free software operating system of their choice. We commit that we will neither purchase nor recommend computers that strip users of this critical freedom, and we will actively urge people in our communities to avoid such jailed systems.[55][56]

In December 2011, Microsoft released a document about hardware certification of OEM products, Windows Hardware Certification Requirements[57] which confirms that they intend to ban the possibility of installing alternative operating systems on ARM-based devices running Windows 8. The document insists that they will require x86 and x86-64 devices to have the Secure UEFI enabled. They allow for the possibility that a custom secure boot mode could be enabled providing to the user the ability to add signatures. However, they intend that going to custom secure boot mode or disabling secure boot mode on ARM devices will not be compatible with running Windows.[53]

All a bit over my head tbh , but it looks like these "windows 8 ready logos" on motherboards means that if you use windows 8 , you cant dual boot a free os at the same time ? - whatever , i think its poor that this kind of thing is being cooked up to restrict a person to only one kind of operating system.

Just another reason for me to avoid the rubbish that is windows 8.

Or is this some new way of stopping people from using loaders to run non genuine (or cracked ) windows ?

Don't know - like i said its all way over my head , but im sure someone who is very knowledgeable on this will be able to help you

 

[mab33]

Cant imagine Asus making a board that will only allow windows 8 to be booted , mine will boot windows 7 with no issues (is windows 7 UEFI compliant ?) , as far as i know the only requirement for booting the os with the UEFI Bios is that the os is using a standard MBR boot file ( there is another boot file type that sometimes is used to unlock more than 2.1tb recognition on very large HDDs.)

Give Pcs (or infact Asus) a call & im sure one of them will be able to advise you better than i can as im not 100% sure on this .

....

Red Hat developer Matthew Garrett in his article "UEFI secure booting" ...

Tried calling ASUS but found the cost of hanging on for ever prohibitive. As a customer, have written to PC Specialist.

I believe Windows 8 is the first UEFI-compliant product, but I have heard (so am not sure) it will boot on a non-UEFI machine, or an UEFI machine with Secure Boot disabled, which should allow for dual booting.

I watched the 53-minute video of Matthew Garrett's illuminating talk at a Linux conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2aq5M3Q76U
Don't miss the Q&A at the end!

I am still awaiting confirmation that e.g. ASUS UEFI motherboards do provide an option to disable Secure Boot (which I hope will mean that machines from PC Specialist will also.