this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
67 points (100.0% liked)

Linux

47373 readers
788 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

It basically means instead of relying on a bootloader (e.g. GRUB or systemd-boot) the computer boots the kernel directly. Generally there should be no change besides having to use the BIOS menu to manually select a kernel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

No problem! :)

FWIW, a lot of the DIY distros (Arch and Gentoo being the ones on most minds) allow this already so it's nothing new. It's just Fedora implementing it that's new I guess. If you're curious, the term to search is "EFISTUB".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is the benifit making secure boot work better?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Presume so, that's what the article claims:

This latest UKI work for Fedora will lead to better UEFI Secure Boot support, better supporting TPM measurements and confidential computing, and a more robust boot process.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

That's nice, stuff like that does make dual booting harder unfortunately

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I'd imagine that if you want a bootloader, the option is there as well. I can't imagine Fedora just doing away with that unless the bootloaders themselves are unmaintained.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes, in my opinion. The configuration of grub (boot loader) is just another step to go wrong, and this will eliminate that possibility. Additionally, it will prevent stupider operating systems (cough Windows) from accidentally overwriting the boot loader during an update.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Does that mean that the OS would have to handle version booting?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My understanding is that’s a yes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I think for most people they won't care either way.

Some people do legitimately occasionally need to poke around in GRUB before loading the kernel. Setting up certain kernel parameters or looking for something on the filesystem or something like that. For those people, booting directly into the kernel means your ability to "poke around" is now limited by how nice your motherboard's firmware is. But even for those people, they should always at least have the option of setting up a 2-stage boot.