To UEFI or not to UEFI? [Solved]

[Eadwine Rose]

As a Pagan I think I can handle a bit of candle.

So I'll await further answers

[Sgthawker]

I have used UEFI with two motherboards on desktops and two laptops with no problems. I don't know what type of problems others have had with UEFI installs, but mine have gone smoothly.

I have also multibooted up to 9 distros at a time with a common /mnt/Data partition accessed by each to preserve my data as I distro hopped. Keeping a separate /home is okay, but can be problematic if you use/change to different desktop environments. Settings among different DEs can cause weird problems stored in a common /home partition.

Just my two cents.

[richb]

So.. when I look for a new motherboard (building a computer) and it says it's a UEFI mobo, I don't have to do anything special to have the liveusb or system boot? I always create a root, home, and swap partition on the HDD prior to installing.

Piece of cake! So you can use that candle on it. The only thing I had to do with my new mobo to boot UEFI with MX is disable secure boot in the BIOS.

[Eadwine Rose]

Aha! So.. no issue at all, perfect, thanks!

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I don't have to do anything special to have the liveusb or system boot? I always create a root, home, and swap partition on the HDD prior to installing.

You will also need an EFI system partition to install a UEFI system.

In gdisk this will be of type "EF00" and for gparted apply the "boot, esp" flags, then format it with a FAT(32) filesystem.

This partition will be mounted to /boot/efi in the installed system.

[Paul..]

This may help https://mxlinux.org/wiki/system/uefi/

[fehlix]

So.. when I look for a new motherboard (building a computer) and it says it's a UEFI mobo, I don't have to do anything special to have the liveusb or system boot?

Yes, if selected the option"autoinstall" the installer will prepare the whole drive for UEFI and will create the ESP (EFI System Partition) and the other needed partitions as well. Alternatively you can prepare the partition layout prior the installation or from with the installer manually, e.g in case to prepare for extra data partitions or leave space for other installs.

[fehlix]

This partition will be mounted to /boot/efi in the installed system.

In theory, that mount point is not needed for a running or booting into the system. And currently this mount point will not be created by the installer. But, I agree it may be a good idea to adjust the installer here a bit and also populate this mount point. That kind of nice-to-have is on my list of potential nice enhancements to avoid user to have setup this mount manually if needed.

[richb]

@Eadwine Since I have more then one drive in the computer as I think you do, I use the full disk option of the installer. It takes care of the necessary partitioning, no need to manually create any partitions. It does not touch my data partition on another drive. That same data partition has been used for about three years through several installs on the other drive.

[Eadwine Rose]

This may help https://mxlinux.org/wiki/system/uefi/

That helped a LOT, thanks :)

Wow.. needs an extra little wee wee partition first before setting up the other three like I usually do.

Good to know all this info.

I am SURE I will holler back when/if the UEFI time comes Currently still in the orientation phase as to "needs to have at least such and such" and what I end up with to choose from :)