[plug] [plug-ctte] [Committee] Installing linux on Win 8 PC

[Simon Wise]

On 27/06/13 14:12, Lucas van staden wrote:
> Hey Fred,
>
> You can download one of the popular Linux Distro's, boot of the cd/dvd and
> just follow the install procedure.
> Most modern linux install processes will deal with the windows partition,
> and allow you to dual boot. (and set that up for you)
>
> Not had any experience with Win 8 yet (don't think I will), thus I cannot
> say 100% if dual boot setup works with it out-the-box like that, or if you
> need to do 'stuff' to make it work.
>
> As a first time linux user, I would highly recommend Linux Mint as your
> first step. From experience I had found that windows users find it easy to
> adapt to that distro.
>
> ref: http://www.linuxmint.com/
>
> Welcome to Linux.

Depending on the tablet the secure boot stuff could be either a pain, or will 
prevent you using Linux (or anything much else) on that device completely. I 
can't confirm this myself, I have no such device, but when Win 8 was released 
this was the situation ...

If you bought one of the smaller ARM based ones then I believe it is permanently 
hardware locked to prevent anything except updates approved and signed by 
Microsoft for your (sic) particular device and the binaries that the (signed by 
Microsoft and unmodified or else it will not be boot-able) Win 8 OS permits you 
to run because they are signed by Microsoft and unmodified (i.e. you paid for 
them via the official app store or whatever it is called in Microsoft land). In 
which case the "Welcome to Linux" may unfortunately be a little premature, and 
if you do insist on booting Linux then eBay will be your friend.

If you bought an intel based tablet it is apparently possible to turn off the 
hardware lock, or at least switch the signing authority or something ... an open 
source organisation has paid (on your behalf, aren't you lucky) the secure boot 
makers for appropriate codes etc to sign Linux boot systems, and boot disks are 
I believe able to use this to boot into Linux. One laptop manufacturer and their 
customers still got badly stung by this, since there was a bug in the secure 
boot system which completely bricked the laptop if you used this system ... it 
required a return to the manufacturer before it would do anything at all. The 
permanent locking to Microsoft exclusively is required by Microsoft before they 
will certify an ARM device for Windows 8, the removable lock is required for 
certification for an intel device. Google will be your friend in this case, and 
the solution less drastic than sell it and buy something better. I haven't 
tried, I haven't bought (if you can call it that ... not sure who actually 
'owns' it given the above) a Microsoft tablet.


Simon