Windows 8 Hardware Has Another Problem For Linux

[archibald]

If he didn't read it, how does he know?

[Sonadow]

If he didn't read it, how does he know?

A thought paradox!

[moilami]

It was an educated guess Without exceptions it has been so when there is ?$ mentioned in news.

Though, some brave folks happen to counter the apologists. Too little time anyway to join the fun.

[duby229]

As long as you buy a Windows 8 certified x86 system, as far as Secure Boot is concerned you are able to boot whatever, whenever and wherever. You can remove the Microsoft keys. You can install your own keys. You can disable the feature entirely.

So make sure you tell everyone you meet to do exactly that. Go ahead. It's better off if we all do.

[droidhacker]

Unless it's a soldered-down SSD.

Have you actually come across such disgusting crap? If you end up with a system like that, the correct solution is to piss on it and then return it for a full refund.

[droidhacker]

So that's the secret to Windows 8's 5s boot up time...

Makes sense in some way; most people don't use the keyboard until after the operating system is initialized.

My own experiments with Windows 8 has also led me to confirm with certainty that is there is a way to force the system into entering the advanced boot menu without triggering it from within Windows, but it actually involves breaking Windows to the point where it is no longer bootable. After 5 failed attempts Windows will automatically load the advanced boot menu. But it's silly and should not be attempted.

5 second boot time is not actually a boot time. That's a resume-from-suspend time, maybe a resume from hibernate time with an SSD?

[droidhacker]

I posted it earlier, but i'll post it again:

if a critical issue is stopping Windows 8 from booting, Windows will attempt to load itself a number of times before giving up. When that happens, it automatically sets a flag to force the firmware to initialize all the hardware prior to boot and immediately takes the user to the Windows advanced boot menu where they can choose from a variety of advanced boot options (eg: Safe Mode, Driver signature enforcement disabled, etc etc), or 1 of two available restore options:

- Restore to factory state, or
- Restore system files only.

I tested this on my own Win 8 machines. So it is not an oversight on their part.

As for the restore disc, there is no need for one. Having tested a fresh Win 8 install from the install DVD, i can confirm that the second you install Windows 8, Windows automatically creates a hidden restore partition that can be used to reformat the computer and reinstall itself if the need arises. Really, the installer DVD is quite redundant after the install process is completed. In the event that the restore/refresh process requires you to provide the install DVD, it will have automatically configured the firmware to allow booting from optical media prior to the reboot.

... of course, that is only if the thing isn't broken enough to prevent that advanced mode from starting. IMO, when you're dealing with microscrap, it is highly likely that it WILL be THAT broken.

[droidhacker]

On the blog comments people are stating that accepting the EULA means that you can't redeem money for returning the OS to the seller any more. Wherever that was available, anyway.

Acer does [did?] that. I've made use of it, but not in a while. FYI: You need to leave the thing in a factory fresh condition, pack it up, ship it off to Acer, and wait for them to send it back. In other words, this really doesn't apply, since the thing will be blank (and thus fixed) when it comes back.

[droidhacker]

No, it doesn't make sense to not probe for hardware, just to shave a few seconds off boot times. It just makes those systems fragile pieces of garbage. Resuming the system from an image leads to fragility too, just for the illusion of fast booting. This only impresses people who don't know any better.

Case in point... I have this gigabyte board here at work with uefi bios. Its a bit of a hack job, in fact. I need to have TWO KEYBOARDS to work the damned thing. USB keyboards don't work until the OS initializes USB, so for interacting with the bios, I need to use a PS2 keyboard.... which doesn't seem to work in Linux.

WTF, right?

[droidhacker]

Unfortunately both the best-selling Samsung Series 3 Chromebook and the high-end Chromebook Pixel come with flash memory and RAM soldered onboard.

But they don't have wondoze.