EFI issues with Linux, Solaris or CentOS

Hi,

Has anyone encountered any issues with EFI (extensible firmware interface) while installing Linux/Solaris/CentOS on your Santa Rosa based notebooks?
Intel had replaced BIOS with the next gen EFI in the Santa Rosa platforms.

Any issues so far?

Thanks,

BGeo

 

I know in the past you had to use a specially patched version of Lilo for EFI. I don't know if it's gone mainline, or what the status is for Grub. Hopefully someone has more on this.

 

Santa Rosa doesn't have to ship with EFI, it's just that the current chipset now fully supports it. The only computers that use EFI right now are Macs. Windows doesn't support EFI, so it's unlikely that anyone will jump on board with it just yet.

 

Thanks to you both for your replies.
So, the current models out there, are still using the old BIOS ? My understanding was that BIOS was replaced with EFI in Santa Rosa.
Has anyone attempted to install Linux/Solaris/CentOS on the new Santa Rosa notebooks?

BGeo

 

As I said, Windows still doesn't support EFI, so of course nobody is using it. They say they will support it later, but only on x86-64 platforms, not 32-bit. So I wouldn't expect full EFI transition for a while.

 

Thanks for the reply. So, EFI is not yet implemented. I was actually planning to replace my dv8000t with the new dv9500t. So, I should be able to install Linux or CentOS or Solaris on it. dv9500t still uses BIOS, right?

BGeo

 

As you can see from this page, the dv9500t still uses BIOS. You should not have any issues installing a *nix distribution besides the fact that HP may void your warranty and whatever crap hardware they put in there (like the Broadcom cards they love so much).

 

Funny that -- a classmate of mine's HP dv9000t's ethernet card died, and he had a Gentoo/Windows XP MCE dual boot setup. It was still under warranty so he sent it into HP (apparently replacing the whole motherboard), but evidently they still honored the warranty despite a distro. Linux being on it.

Of course I don't know the specifics, but it seems like it in this case HP was lenient.

 

No manufacturer can void a warranty just because Linux has been installed on a computer. Sometimes CSRs who are not well trained will unintentionally lie about this and sometimes they will intentionally lie about this. However, the only way in which installing Linux would void your warranty would be if the manufacturer can prove that *Linux* caused the hardware to fail.

However, manufacturers are not legally bound to provide service for things they did not sell you. So if you buy a computer with Windows installed, wipe Windows and install Linux, you may encounter difficulties getting service. The reason is that the CSR at the other end may ask you to perform a series of tasks to diagnose the problem and his script may be designed for Windows. If you only have Linux installed, don't be surprised if he says he can't help you.

I've had several service calls with Dell. I've never hidden the fact that I use Linux as my primary OS. I've never been denied warranty coverage. However, with some CSRs I had to reboot in Windows to be able to do the tasks they asked me to perform. With other CSRs, I did not have to do that...

 

Yeah. Operating system choice should never void hardware warranties.

I love pointing people like Comcast tech's to my desktop computer when they want to use a browser. No Windows on it anywhere. They can get it enabled without having to use that stupid software of theirs that can NOT be uninstalled properly.