Published in News

Linux try to bypass Microsoft secure boot

by on16 July 2012



Dual operating systems must be protected


James Bottomley, chair of the Linux Foundation's Technical Advisory Board, has released a version of the Intel Tianocore UEFI boot image and some code to help Linux programmers get around Windows 8's Secure Boot restrictions.

Windows 8 will ship with a locked up boot system called the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface.  This will stop you installing  Linux or any other operating system, such as Windows 7 or XP, on a Windows 8 system.

It is not known at this point how much support Redmond has for UEFI among OEMs. The key to getting around the problem appears to be Intel Tianocore which is an open-source image of Intel's UEFI. This image has the Authenticode that Microsoft uses for Secure Boot.

Bottomley wants people to play with UEFI Secure boot so that they can work out how to get Linux onto windows machine. Writing in his blog  Bottomley said he is releasing the image now because interest in UEFI Secure Boot is rising, particularly amongst the Linux Distributions which don't have access to  UEFI secure boot hardware, so having a virtual platform should allow them to experiment with coming up with their own solutions.

More here.

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