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Comment by wheaties | Hacker News Reader

Ugh. I read this and cry inside. Perfectly brilliant idea that I didn't even think of.

Why? I just purchased a new ultra book burdened by Windows 8 pre-installed. If I switch to the legacy BIOS the machine won't boot up, period. The only way to get the machine to work is through Windows 8. No installing Linux, no changing firmware, no nothing. Wonderful little box that's magnificently useless for systems level programming...

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Why would you switch to legacy BIOS mode? Linux support UEFI just fine afaik.

Which ones? I've tried Ubuntu and Mint but not Fedora. I tried googling it but all I ended up with was a several pages of articles talking about UEFI and the secure boot without a single link TO a Linux that did it. I'm dying to know 'cause I can't stand another minute on Windows 8.

I haven't actually tried Arch on UEFI, but their wiki page seems fairly extensive on the topic. Ubuntu documentation also shows UEFI support, but their documentation is bit vague.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firm...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders

Of course I wouldn't be terribly surprised if your UEFI has some bug that prevents Linux from booting.

What machine is this? Do you know if other models of new windows 8 ultrabooks & tablets are affected, or is it just that one?

What zokier said. Unless it's some form of this bug: http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/20187.html

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