UEFI Secure Boot System has now been released. This was released to Linux Foundation by Microsoft. This release will allow Linux to work on computers running UEFI firmware.
“The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware. UEFI is meant as a replacement for the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware interface”
With this Linux Foundation secure boot system release, it will provide a way for many independent Linux distributions to run on hardware controlled by UEFI. That will make independent Linux distributions to be installed on Windows 8 computers as Microsoft suggests UEFI on all machines running Windows 8.
A generic Linux distro will not run on Windows 8 computers without keys. Many of the major Linux distributions like the new versions of Ubuntu and Fedora include a bootloader to work with UEFI, but those who want to create their own Linux distros face problem because of the requirement. This release will solve their problem. There is also a mini-USB image that is bootable.
UEFI Secure Boot System
The Linux Foundation bootloader provides a hash code, certified by Microsoft. The files are –
- PreLoader.efi (md5sum 4f7a4f566781869d252a09dc84923a82)
- HashTool.efi (md5sum 45639d23aa5f2a394b03a65fc732acf2)
Linux Foundation technical advisory board member James Bottomley further says –
“Let me know how this goes because I’m very interested to gather feedback about what works and what doesn’t work. In particular, there’s a worry that the security protocol override might not work on some platforms, so I particularly want to know if it doesn’t work for you.”
Those who wish can check it out and provide feedback here at source.
