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I'll go against the grain here: I go out of my way to use UEFI over BIOS, because it Just Works for me. When I got my first UEFI-using notebook in 2012 (same y

I'll go against the grain here: I go out of my way to use UEFI over BIOS, because it Just Works for me. When I got my first UEFI-using notebook in 2012 (same year as the submission), things were a bit rough because the Arch wiki did not quite know what it was talking about, and the Arch ISO was not UEFI-bootable, so you had to use some trickery to install an UEFI bootloader, but even then, it only took me two hours to figure out partitioning and install the bootloader. Since then, stuff has gotten much better. Just recently, I switched my VirtualBox VMs to use UEFI emulation instead of BIOS emulation because it allows me to use the well-designed systemd-boot (previously known as gummiboot) instead of that absurd abomination called Grub 2.

appleflaxen 9y ago
> it only took me two hours to figure out partitioning and install the bootloader This doesn't read like a success story to me.
- saghm 9y ago
  Immediately before, it mentions that this was 5-6 years ago and that there was no documentation available at the time, and immediately after it says that the situation is much better now.
arghwhat 9y ago
Now try to install arch to a bootable USB stick from your UEFI booted system, and see all hell break loose. I boot UEFI, but it's just so bloody cumbersome and fragile. The entire concept of having boot configuration in NVRAM is terrible.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Even more fun when OEMs put what should be read only ROM variables in NVRAM, and they get nuked...
- jonnypickel 9y ago
  Not to turn this into a support thread but this weekend I tried to install Arch on a new, UEFI-enabled laptop and I've been stymied so far because I can't get the laptop to recognize my Live USB. I've built it with Rufus, dd for Windows, and Easy2Boot all with the same result (no bootable device) even though it works on another machine. Could it be because I created the USB on a PC using UEFI?
  - majewsky 9y ago
    Huh? I just `dd` the official image onto a USB drive and it works 100% of the time, with various UEFI-using machines. (Except for that one Gigabyte mainboard which I returned upon finding out that its v1 firmware will only boot Windows 8.1. Not even Windows 8.0. There was a firmware update that fixed the issue, but without a bootable OS, applying it is a chicken-and-egg problem.)
    - jonnypickel 9y ago
      Well then, I guess my problem likely lies elsewhere. Thanks for the reply. :) And that has to be the strangest "feature" I've ever heard of from a hardware firm. Was it maybe purpose-built for a bulk order of machines that were going to be pre-loaded with Win8?

appleflaxen 9y ago

> it only took me two hours to figure out partitioning and install the bootloader This doesn't read like a success story to me.

saghm 9y ago
Immediately before, it mentions that this was 5-6 years ago and that there was no documentation available at the time, and immediately after it says that the situation is much better now.

arghwhat 9y ago

Now try to install arch to a bootable USB stick from your UEFI booted system, and see all hell break loose. I boot UEFI, but it's just so bloody cumbersome and fragile. The entire concept of having boot configuration in NVRAM is terrible.

digi_owl 9y ago
Even more fun when OEMs put what should be read only ROM variables in NVRAM, and they get nuked...
jonnypickel 9y ago
Not to turn this into a support thread but this weekend I tried to install Arch on a new, UEFI-enabled laptop and I've been stymied so far because I can't get the laptop to recognize my Live USB. I've built it with Rufus, dd for Windows, and Easy2Boot all with the same result (no bootable device) even though it works on another machine. Could it be because I created the USB on a PC using UEFI?
- majewsky 9y ago
  Huh? I just `dd` the official image onto a USB drive and it works 100% of the time, with various UEFI-using machines. (Except for that one Gigabyte mainboard which I returned upon finding out that its v1 firmware will only boot Windows 8.1. Not even Windows 8.0. There was a firmware update that fixed the issue, but without a bootable OS, applying it is a chicken-and-egg problem.)
  - jonnypickel 9y ago
    Well then, I guess my problem likely lies elsewhere. Thanks for the reply. :) And that has to be the strangest "feature" I've ever heard of from a hardware firm. Was it maybe purpose-built for a bulk order of machines that were going to be pre-loaded with Win8?