2012-06-26 23:10:08

by Chris Jones

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Subject: UEFI and custom kernel

I've been following the news on UEFI and Secureboot pretty closely.
Currently Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE have pretty in-depth discussion
going on the mailing lists about it all.

Although my technical knowledge about UEFI is pretty vague at current, I
know a little bit of what it's about.

But getting to my question, how will this effect custom Linux kernels?
Or will UEFI support (once added) be simply another kernel module that
can just be carried over from official upstream kernel versions into a
custom set?
If custom kernels are going to all be locked out, then this is going to
upset a lot of kernel developers, such as I!


Regards

--
Chris Jones @ [email protected]
and [email protected]

OpenSUSE Linux x86_64 (PC)|Android (Smartphone)|Windows 7 (Laptop)|Windows XP (Gaming)
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2012-06-26 23:15:45

by Alan

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Subject: Re: UEFI and custom kernel

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:08:50 +1000
Chris Jones <[email protected]> wrote:

> I've been following the news on UEFI and Secureboot pretty closely.
> Currently Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE have pretty in-depth discussion
> going on the mailing lists about it all.
>
> Although my technical knowledge about UEFI is pretty vague at current, I
> know a little bit of what it's about.

For x86 the UEFI "secure" boot requirement is that the user can disable
secure boot. For ARM it is that the user *cannot* disable secure boot.

So in the PC space at least it's "business as usual" providing you jump
that hoop, and hopefully with the tools sorted it'll be viable to sign
your own kernels and use your own keys.

Alan

2012-06-26 23:20:38

by Chris Jones

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Subject: Re: UEFI and custom kernel

Alan Cox wrote:
> For x86 the UEFI "secure" boot requirement is that the user can
> disable secure boot. For ARM it is that the user *cannot* disable
> secure boot. So in the PC space at least it's "business as usual"
> providing you jump that hoop, and hopefully with the tools sorted
> it'll be viable to sign your own kernels and use your own keys. Alan

Thanks Alan. I never realized that for x86 based hardware, nothing would
change once disabled. In fact, I was not even aware that it could be
disabled to begin with. Thank you.


Regards

--
Chris Jones @ [email protected]
and [email protected]

OpenSUSE Linux x86_64 (PC)|Android (Smartphone)|Windows 7 (Laptop)|Windows XP (Gaming)
Linux kernel developer|Solaris kernel developer|Lead Developer of SDL|Lead Developer of Nest Linux
Gamer and Emulator nut|Web Services|Digital Imaging Services
Controllers: Rapier V2 Gaming mouse|Logitech Precision|PS3 controller|XB360 controller|Logitech Attack 3 j/stick
Emulators: Fusion|Gens|ZSNES|Project64|PCSX-R|Stella|WinVICE|WinUAE|DOSBox