Microsoft Reportedly Requires "Signature PCs" To Be Locked To Only Running Windows

[Aleksei]

Microsoft Signature Edition PCs are those that come without any pre-installed bloatware (per Microsoft's own description)

... except Windows 10.
I'm surprised no one made that joke in this thread before.

[mlau]

Again, there's no secure boot or crypto preventing this.

Correct. They used Linux' lack of RAID driver for the Intel ICH to prevent it from being installed (and as was noted, the vanilla win10 installer doesn't see the drive either,
so reinstalling windows is also not too easy).

However, one workaround is to simply set bits 7:6 of pci conf register 0x90 of the SATA controller to b01 and voila, it's in AHCI mode again.
(see the intel C220 datasheet, chapter 13.1.14). It's an uncesessary hassle, but certainly doable (maybe even from the efi shell).

[DIRT]

This sounds like the start of the xbone. And then the back pedal afterwards. At least we can only hope. I wish the majority of people knew how to work on their stuff. Then we could actually have things that are made to be worked on instead of things being engineered to not be serviceable.

[RemcoL]

Again, there's no secure boot or crypto preventing this.

Yes there is. All it needs to work is to flip one switch in the bios. The bios can't be changed by anyone but Lenovo because it is required to be signed by them.

[zx2c4]

However, one workaround is to simply set bits 7:6 of pci conf register 0x90 of the SATA controller to b01 and voila, it's in AHCI mode again.
(see the intel C220 datasheet, chapter 13.1.14). It's an uncesessary hassle, but certainly doable (maybe even from the efi shell).

Oh, cool. Could this be done from the kernel?

[Passso]

The 13" Lenovo 710S-13ISK is also affected by this. Not providing an AHCI mode makes sure:

- you can't run Linux on it
- you can't use the Gentoo based System Rescue CD to rescue data
- you can't use the Acronis True Image Boot CD (which is also Linux based of course)
- you can't use Crystal Disk Info in Windows to judge your SSD health (doesn't show the disk)
- you can't even install Windows 10 from the normal installation media without putting special drivers on an additional USB stick.

Well done Lenovo. Putting a machine that only has a single disk and cannot be expanded to two disks in RAID mode, that is quite a feat.

Thx for the info. No Linux nor Acronis means no way for me... so bad, I loved this Yoga series

[pmorph]

How cute, this must be the next "mobile space" strategy from MS.

[andre30correia]

it's simple stop buying their hardware and buy laptops with linux pre install or without OS

[GizmoChicken]

The hardware IS supported by Linux (it's a standard AHCI controller), but Lenovo locked it to the one mode linux doesn't support (and never before needed to support), actively prevents you from changing the operating mode by hiding the option from the setup screen AND write-protecting the EFI variable that records the operating mode to use. This is what people are upset about. There's no logical need to lock the controller to the mode unsupported by linux.

Exactly. But I rather doubt that MS forced Lenovo to do this. My guess is that Lenovo screwed up and is attempting to redirect the blame. Or at least I hope that's the situation.

[Cape]

Thank you M$, this move will definitely help those manufacturers that focus on Linux compatibility!

It's the same move that scared Valve into developing Linux support when they said they were evaluating the microsoft-only marketplace basically.