Fedora 18 and UEFI

[Rahul Sundaram]

On 07/07/2012 03:51 PM, suvayu ali wrote:

> 
> I am more worried about "free" as in freedom. I don't quite grasp the
> implications as an end user. For example consider the following
> scenarios.
> 
> Can I freely choose to use proprietary (or for that matter alternative
> free) drivers for my hardware from whatever source I prefer?

On x86 systems, the ability to disable secure boot is mandated by
Microsoft and needed to debug Microsoft drivers and since all the
hardware manufacturers want to comply to this specification, you can be
rest assured they will provide this functionality and once you disable
secure boot (instructions for this will likely be in a Fedora wiki
page), then you are free to load up any custom kernel/kernel module of
your choice.  Also Fedora will provide the tools that the project itself
uses within the official repository (ie) will be free and open source
and instructions to use your own key in custom mode.

On ARM systems that follow the MS specification,  there is no such
ability to disable secure boot and such locked down devices will simply
be not supported by Fedora at all.  We have plenty of other ARM systems
that will be since Linux ecosystem in ARM is strong, it isn't a
immediate concern.

Rahul