Is this hardware capable to install Arch?

hd_scania · 2017-04-11 12:33:37

Hello, my friend has a ‘legacy’ hardware whose motherboard and hard drives were OEM by HP and before 2009, and i have no time to check out its BIOS device if shown with UEFI OS compatibility (UEFI has been since 2005), before it can be installed with (the latest) ArchLinux.

Lone_Wolf · 2017-04-11 13:20:13

Archlinux can also be installed on BIOS / MBR systems (same iso).

You might want to check if the system has a 64-bit capable processor though.

Trilby · 2017-04-11 13:31:29

I feel very old reading this - as does all my hardware. I suppose you do say before 2009, but unless it was long before 2009 you should have no problem at all. 64bit cpus were being put in consumer computers around 2005. My main computer was built ~2008 all with stock OEM hardware.

The mother board and harddrives are not at all a concern. Only the CPU, and even that only for the most recent arch isos (though using an iso from a few months ago to install i686 might not be wise at this point).

Certainly x86_64 and i686 hardware was on the market at the same time. I'm having a hard time finding any good stats on the decline of sales of i686 over time, but the Pentium 4 which (I think) was the last intel non-64bit processor stopped shipping in 2008. I suspect it was a trivial minority of the market for quite a while before that.

hd_scania · 2017-04-12 01:43:21

This hardware has been an HP MicroTower whose architecture is x64, finally whose RAM are <= 3.72G (as told to you it was BEFORE 2009).
I have acknowledged only RPM Linux distro are MBR-exclusive (as tested under MY hardware not HIMS, my hardware is now GPT-rEFInd-BIOS, but HIMS is still MBR).
So will

/boot/grub

be wrought to be acted as BIOS-GRUB bootloaders (instead of GRUB-EFI) under an MBR drive before installing Arch?

tom.ty89 · 2017-04-12 01:59:42

Not sure if I can parse most of your last reply, but /boot/grub isn't really the relevant part on the matter of BIOS/UEFI.

BIOS-GRUB (grub-install --target i386-pc /dev/sdX) has boot code in the (P)MBR and post-MBR gap (MSDOS/MBR partition table) or "BIOS boot partition" (GPT).

EFI-GRUB (grub-install --target x86_64-efi --efi-directory $esp_mountpoint) has a EFI executable file in EFI System Partition and has it registered to your UEFI.

It is the aforementioned boot code / EFI executable that is executed by the BIOS/UEFI.

The boot code / EFI executable (GRUB) in turn look up to the --boot-directory (/boot when unspecified) for the "grub directory" for modules and grub.cfg and so. The directory can be shared by both variants of grub if installed (though each of the variants has its own set of modules).

P.S. BIOS-GRUB can be used by UEFI if the UEFI has CSM and legacy boot support enabled.

Another P.S. EFI-GRUB can be installed to a disk with MSDOS/MBR partition table as long as it has an EFI System Partition. Any sane UEFI will be able to boot it (though insane UEFIs are not that rare).

Last edited by tom.ty89 (2017-04-12 02:18:28)

Lone_Wolf · 2017-04-12 12:05:17

hd_scania,

the bootloader used on the archlinux iso checks if the system it's booted on is BIOS or UEFI and will choose the aprorpiate one to boot with.
Other distros may have separate installation isos for bios and uefi systems, archlinux has one that supports both.

The only thing you need to be sure of during install is which mode the system uses so you can setup the bootloader in the correct way.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-04-11 12:33:37

Is this hardware capable to install Arch?

#2 2017-04-11 13:20:13

Re: Is this hardware capable to install Arch?

#3 2017-04-11 13:31:29

Re: Is this hardware capable to install Arch?

#4 2017-04-12 01:43:21

Re: Is this hardware capable to install Arch?

#5 2017-04-12 01:59:42

Re: Is this hardware capable to install Arch?

#6 2017-04-12 12:05:17

Re: Is this hardware capable to install Arch?

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