[Solved] UEFI or Legacy mode

[Alice Wilton]

Hi all! My PC supports legacy mode for BIOS. Is it better to install Debian in UEFI mode or Legacy mode? I've read somewhere about UEFI causing grub problems.

[Aki]

Hello,
Welcome to the forum.

My PC supports legacy mode for BIOS. Is it better to install Debian in UEFI mode or Legacy mode? I've read somewhere about UEFI causing grub problems.

grub's UEFI support for Debian is mature in current stable release named "bullseye", therefore I suggest to install it in UEFI mode if you computer supports it well. You can use installation in legacy mode as a fall-back option.

[Alice Wilton]

Hello,
Welcome to the forum.

My PC supports legacy mode for BIOS. Is it better to install Debian in UEFI mode or Legacy mode? I've read somewhere about UEFI causing grub problems.

grub's UEFI support for Debian is mature in current stable release named "bullseye", therefore I suggest to install it in UEFI mode if you computer supports it well. You can use installation in legacy mode as a fall-back option.

Thanks, I will install it in UEFI mode.

[kent_dorfman766]

Given a choice I will always choose legacy mode. UEFI and it's bastard child secure-boot generally make smoke come out of my ears.

[lindi]

Given a choice I will always choose legacy mode. UEFI and it's bastard child secure-boot generally make smoke come out of my ears.

I would stick to rational arguments. The main advantage for me with legacy mode is that it is easier to move the SSD between systems since all of the information is stored on the SSD itself and not in the NVRAM like with UEFI. I'd really like to know how I could overcome this limitation and switch to UEFI fully as then I don't need to write grub to the embedding area anymore but it can instead be just a normal file that is part of a file system.

[sunrat]

Given a choice I will always choose legacy mode. UEFI and it's bastard child secure-boot generally make smoke come out of my ears.

Smoke coming out of your ears is not a valid reason to not use UEFI. Facts, not opinions please.

As mentioned above UEFI is mature and stable. I have been using it for a number of years with no issues.

[kent_dorfman766]

Smoke coming out of your ears is not a valid reason to not use UEFI. Facts, not opinions please.

Maybe your understanding of english is differnet than mine. "is it better" leaves a whole lot to interprettation. LOL

UEFI is more complex and more can go wrong with it...and it is a layer used to support secure boot...a concept I find fundementally at odds with how I use and program computers.

[donald]

Let's all play nicely on this beautiful beach we have. Some can sun, others swim, some like myself can curse the sand in our sandals.

[jahway603]

It's a good idea to check your system or motherboard's BIOS changelog too as I've had systems that were UEFI compatible where I needed to update the BIOS version for it work.

[Alice Wilton]

Installed it in UEFI mode, everything is fine.

Code: Select all

Linux home 5.10.0-21-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.162-1 (2023-01-21) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Thanks, everyone.

[Aki]

Happy Debian.