Arch Linux

kode54

Member

Registered: 2013-10-21

Posts: 48

HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC

I have successfully installed Arch Linux on this system in place of its original Windows 8. But I can't for the life of me remember how I prepared the original boot media.

I had to prepare something that included a shim loader and a key manager to enroll its kernel, because the firmware SecureBoot setting refused to have any effect. I then managed to install the system, and after failing to configure it using EFI stub directly, I resorted to installing Gummiboot. Now with that sorted, I am able to boot into Linux, with the only caveat being that I need to enroll each new kernel as I update the system. (I also need to use Catalyst, because the OSS drivers are too glitchy on the included newer series Radeon mobile chipset, but that's a different story.)

What I would like to ask is if anyone else on this forum happens to know a way to prepare boot media with a shim and key manager, possibly without having access to a running Arch system yet, or if there is already such media available somewhere. I am asking on behalf of a friend who needs this for a notebook he is installing on. Either he can't disable SecureBoot, like me, or he prefers to leave it enabled for dual boot, as at least Windows 8.0 will permanently watermark the desktop if it is booted from UEFI without SecureBoot.