Booting Linux using UEFI can brick Samsung laptops

Booting Linux using UEFI can brick Samsung laptops.

-- Tom

 

Here's my scary Samsung boot story. I have a variation of the first laptop mentioned and when I first booted Ubuntu 12.10, it gave me a kernel panic a few minutes later and messed up my BIOS to where I could not save any changes whatsoever. Luckily I could still boot from the internal SATA drive but since only Ubuntu was installed, it was a pain to get Windows on there to where I could flash the BIOS. I tried rewriting the ISO with Unetbootin from Startup Disk Creator but still nothing.

It was strange because I'd booted 12.04 countless times previously, and funny because I called Samsung to ask if they had a Linux version of their firmware flash (I figured it was worth a try). When the girl heard Linux her reaction was just, "Yeah...you're gonna need a service ticket and the BIOS isn't covered under warranty." Needless to say, now I only use 12.04 for when I have live USB work to do but 12.10 boots fine with UEFI off.

 

Linux Foundation's Secure Boot bootloader restructured.

-- Tom

 

"The Samsung laptop issue is not fixed"
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/22736.html

 

The right title should be: some laptops might have firmware bugs that lead to bricked laptops; in this case, it comes to bear with certain versions of Linux.
Mrk

 

Samsung Laptop UEFI Bugs: Not Just for Linux.

-- Tom

 

Enough with the UEFI drama already

Internet is a Greek thespianic place: an article about Unified Exensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and recent drama and scaremongering revolving around it, including overview of the technology and standard, Secure Boot, Microsoft specifications for x86 and ARM platforms, OEM vendors and platform restrictions, compatibility with Linux, GPL licensing, digital signatures, public and private keys, GRUB and shim bootloaders, conspiracies, stories and real-life experiences, device bricking, and more.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/uefi-drama.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

"To answer that: Do NOT buy hardware - laptops mostly, that is - which come with limited or restricted UEFI interface. Do not purchase hardware that could limit your usage models. Make sure you buy machines that support: 1) Secure Boot changes 2) Legacy mode that emulates old BIOS. That's all you need to worry about right now. "

Good advice, but impractical. Usually these specifications are not known before buying the machine. Legacy mode is an interim, next generation computers will be UEFI-only. Support people don´t now much about UEFI. UEFI setups are confusing.

I read recently in one Dell forum a complaint about the support people telling customers that it was forbidden for them to make changes to the UEFI setup.