On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 11:04 AM, ron minnich rminnich@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 9:58 AM, Andrew Goodbody ajg4tadpole@gmail.com wrote:
I am sure that it is the old story, most testing will be done against Windows. Anything more will be the exception. This is where the pressure needs to be put on the platform vendors as this is the part that they are responsible for.
Sorry, vendors don't have a pattern of paying attention to end user sales issues such as "won't boot Linux". They are selling into a market in which Linux is about 1% at best of sales. That's been the common experience anyway, even at very large companies: BIOS issues just don't get fixed.
Andrew, Ron, what's your take on http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/20916.html ?
Specifically: "This is part of Windows 8's fast boot support - the keyboard may not be initialised until after the OS has started."
So the logic goes: 1. Secure Boot enabled and Win8 installed by the OEM
2. To access the BIOS, press F2/F8/DEL/whatever
3. "Fast boot" (hey! coreboot delivered on that first!) skips keyboard init
4. User is thus *forced* to use Win8's "hold down shift and restart" feature -- adding another barrier before a user can boot her own OS.
I think the biggest problem here is that the entire BIOS is made inaccessible, and only if Windows gives permission can you change that.
Regards, David
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David Hubbard