Installing Arch on a new Windows 8 Machine

bericp1 · 2013-02-17 08:22:13

Hey Guys,

So I've ordered a new laptop (Dell Inspiron 15z w/ i7+8GB+Nvidia+non-touch) and it'll get here Wednesday and I'm not particularly excited to use windows 8. I kinda liked it on the touch all-in-one I have but its flat out horrendous to use with a mouse. Anyways, that's a discussion for another forum. What I was wondering is what do I need to look out for when I setup dual-boot with arch on this new laptop. I'm nearly positive it'll be a UEFI motherboard because I'm pretty sure I was told that all machines that ship win Windows 8 are, but I could be mistaken.

I'm vaguely familiar with how UEFI works in place of BIOS but I was slightly confused as to what the least bug ridden and most future-proof way of dual booting Win8+arch on UEFI. If someone could lend me a suggestion or two on what will be the least head-ache-inducing, that would be awesome.

Also, what else do I need to look out for when it comes to dual-booting Win8+arch hardware-wise or software-wise? USB3 stuff maybe? I'm no stranger to linux or dual-booting, just concerned about Win8-specific hardware problems I might have with arch. My current arch dual boot is with windows 7 without UEFI, USB3, bluetooth, or HDMI so I don't know if any of this will cause problems with arch on this laptop when I get it.

If it helps, the service page for it is here.

Thanks in advance

bernarcher · 2013-02-17 12:14:07

Moving to Newbie Corner.

hal8000 · 2013-02-17 17:57:48

Theres a Wiki page here about UEFI

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Interface

You might also need a GUID partition table

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GU … tion_Table

if the harddisk is larger than 2TB

hunterthomson · 2013-02-18 05:21:41

If there is no way to disable Secure Boot then you will have to deal with that.
The Linux Foundation has a signed UEFi bootloader that you can use with Secure Boot.

http://blog.hansenpartnership.com/linux … -released/

jasonwryan · 2013-02-18 06:30:57

Windows 8 machines ship with secure boot enabled, but you have the option of disabling it. The shim is only if you want to boot a signed GNU/Linux image.

srs5694 · 2013-02-18 16:33:28

jasonwryan wrote:

Windows 8 machines ship with secure boot enabled, but you have the option of disabling it. The shim is only if you want to boot a signed GNU/Linux image.

More precisely, shim and the LF's PreBootloader are required to launch a signed Linux boot loader or boot manager with Secure Boot enabled. If you sign ELILO or a stock version of GRUB, they'll launch an unsigned Linux kernel just fine. Also, using a signed Linux kernel will, by itself, get you only so far in security terms, since it will load unsigned kernel modules unless the kernel itself is modified. (Fedora's doing a lot of work to make Secure Boot have a real impact within Linux, but AFAIK they're the only ones using this as of yet.)

For an Arch user, the real question isn't whether you want to boot a signed Linux boot loader or kernel; it's whether you want to boot Windows with Secure Boot active. Doing so has theoretical (but strong) security benefits. Since switching Secure Boot on and off with each boot is a nuisance, using shim or PreBootloader in Linux on a system that boots Windows with Secure Boot active makes sense. At the moment, the LF's PreBootloader is likely to be easier to install and use with Arch than Fedora's shim.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-02-17 08:22:13

Installing Arch on a new Windows 8 Machine

#2 2013-02-17 12:14:07

Re: Installing Arch on a new Windows 8 Machine

#3 2013-02-17 17:57:48

Re: Installing Arch on a new Windows 8 Machine

#4 2013-02-18 05:21:41

Re: Installing Arch on a new Windows 8 Machine

#5 2013-02-18 06:30:57

Re: Installing Arch on a new Windows 8 Machine

#6 2013-02-18 16:33:28

Re: Installing Arch on a new Windows 8 Machine

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