There is, as far as I know, no way to disable secure boot as a blind
user without sighted help.
Warm regards,
Brandt Steenkamp
Sent using Thunderbird from Windows 11
On 2022/06/10 16:15, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
hi
to the best of my knowledge the standard is not accepted.
some vendors eg. acer dont actually allow secure boot to be disabled.
the bios is inaccessible, its a while since i did stuff on x86 platforms so if this is now not the case its new on me.
so how does a blind person disable secure boot?
yes u can obviously boot anything in a secure boot, but u got to stick keys in the nvram to do it.
this being the whole point as it were.
thus if u cannot disable secure boot, ucant install any distro or whatever thats not ms signed.
this is mostof them.
is there a way for blind users to disable secure boot then?
yes what u say about speakup is the problem.
norally u can just rebuild the kernel at worst, and re-install speakup.
eg. i do this with armbian.
and also on the ubuntu used by hard kernel for the odroid n2.
with a secure boot, where the kernel is signed by ms u cannot do this, since u cant insert modules, not signed.
i assume this is also a problem with fedora, who the last of there distros i used, which was 23, didnt put speakup in by default.
so if u cannot disable secure boot either from being unable to access the bios.
or the vendors dont allow it to be disabled,
u
a) cannot install many linux distros,
and
b) cannot install modules eg. speakup if not provided.
so whilst i apologise for this going way off the original question.
if u got a way to disable secure boot, without the bios which is totally inaccessible.
it would be very handy to know!
best regards
neil foster
I've done some research, and according to the standards set when MS
reliesed Windows 8 and Secure boot became a thing, the EFI Bios have
to have a way to disable Secure boot.
I know that both Ubuntu and Fedora can function in a secure boot
environment. It is possible to make other Distros do the same, though
it's apparently a royal pain to do.
There are four major reasons for me wanting to use Fedora in place of
Ubuntu.
* Firstly, Ubuntu's over reliance on snapd, something I really, really
don't appreciate.
* Secondly, the fact that Fedora has a vanilla implementation of
Gnome, where as on the other hand Gnome in Ubuntu is referred to as
FrankenGnome by quite a few.
* Reason 3 is the fact that Ubuntu removed speakup from their kernel,
obviously something that should be anathema to a blind console user.
* Reason 4 is probably petty of me, but I just don't really like
'apt-get'. 'dnf' is just easier to use, and less work overall.
Ok, maybe I could just stick to Ubuntu, and I'll probably do so for the foreseeable future. Me being lazy is a factor.
Warm regards,
Brandt Steenkamp
Sent using Thunderbird from Windows 11
On 2022/06/09 16:19, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
hi, i realise this is veering off the question originally asked but,
yes canonical aka ubuntu got a kernel signed by ms so it uses the keys already in the nvram.
a standard linux distro doesnt last i heard and u cannot boot with secure boot.
unless u add the keys for it yourself.
archlinux definitely wont.
in other words for most linux distros u got to switch secure boot off instal the os, then u can enable secure boot if u want to.
this isnt always possible eg. i think acer dont allow it.
even if u can access the bios that is!
things do change fast so my information might be out of date in which case apologies,
but i'd check first before parting with dough...
do u mind if i ask y u want to use fedora?
ubuntu use strong stack protection, so adding extra modules eg speakup can be a bit of pita, on sbc and so on.
but apart from the package managers
yum/dnf vs apt-get and et al, they're both much the same thing.
good luck with it any which road.
regards
neil foster
Hi,
I am currently running a dual boot setup with Ubuntu and Windows 11
both booting fine from secure boot.
I was thinking about replacing Ubuntu with Fedora, but if it ain't
broke, don't fix it.
Warm regards,
Brandt Steenkamp
Sent using Thunderbird on Ubuntu
On 2022/06/09 01:23, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
apologies if this isnt relevant, but similar idea though different supplier.
got a ryzen 3400g based desktop from ccl over here in the uk.
installed archlinux on it.
as long as its not secure boot, linux distros will nowadays instal on most x86-64 based systems.
only glitch i had was soundcard was card1 since hdmi was card0, was a bit ugg.
had to ssh in and sort it.
get cheap hdmi monitor and then u can ocr it if it hangs and thers no sign of life.
same as u can ocr a screen capture on a vm.
anybody who sells pc without os should be ok, just if its secure boot it can be difficult/impossible.
ta
neil foster
I purchased a computer from System76 and then installed Slint on my own. They were very fast and kept me updated every step of the process.
Ashley Breger
On May 31, 2022, at 1:05 PM, Linux for blind general discussion<blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi all,
For future considderation, which is the better buying experience, System76.com, Slimbook.es, puri.sm, or any other specialist Linux computer building company?
I have never actually purchased a Linux first device, it's always something running Winbloat, unfortunately needed for making my living, but that's what VM's is for.
If anyone has bought a machine from any of the Linux specialist companies, please let us know about your buying experience. I, for one am curious.
--
Warm regards,
Brandt Steenkamp
Sent using Thunderbird from the Slint laptop
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