[Solved] likely dumb question - BIOS/UEFI

Issues related to applications and software problems and general support
Post Reply
lightman47
Posts: 1521
Joined: 2014/05/21 20:16:00
Location: Central New York, USA

[Solved] likely dumb question - BIOS/UEFI

Post by lightman47 » 2021/10/14 16:35:49

I have (2) machines that are RHEL 8/Win 10 dual boot on BIOS boot drives. Both machines have BIOSes that are 'UEFI aware'. Is there an "easy" way to get the existing installations onto UEFI drives, or do I have to re-install all over again (I suspect). The RHEL installation will be relatively easy as I have a script for installing all the software packages & a lot of configuration. Windows, on the other hand, will be a nightmare as both were upgrades from Windows 7 ... which may not even install as UEFI.

I am guessing that I should just leave things the way they are but thought I'd ask.

Thank you.
Last edited by lightman47 on 2021/10/15 16:30:10, edited 1 time in total.

gerry666uk
Posts: 98
Joined: 2020/02/10 19:06:06

Re: likely dumb question - BIOS/UEFI

Post by gerry666uk » 2021/10/14 17:58:33

In general, you want to clean install because there's more to it than just UEFI, there's also secure boot, kernel signing and GPT partitions.
It MIGHT be possible to have two o/s where one uses UEFI and the other does not. e.g. by using two boot entries in the "BIOS", but just trying to test it could destroy everything, it would really need two spare hard drives.

lightman47
Posts: 1521
Joined: 2014/05/21 20:16:00
Location: Central New York, USA

Re: likely dumb question - BIOS/UEFI

Post by lightman47 » 2021/10/14 18:02:39

Ahh! Pretty much what I expected.
Thank you.

User avatar
TrevorH
Site Admin
Posts: 33191
Joined: 2009/09/24 10:40:56
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: likely dumb question - BIOS/UEFI

Post by TrevorH » 2021/10/14 18:19:40

IIRC Windows 11 _requires_ UEFI and secure boot.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

lightman47
Posts: 1521
Joined: 2014/05/21 20:16:00
Location: Central New York, USA

Re: likely dumb question - BIOS/UEFI

Post by lightman47 » 2021/10/15 16:29:16

Yeh - not sure those two machines will go to Win 11. They only have Windows in case someone (my son probably) 'inherits' them. Windows only runs every couple months long enough to do updates, otherwise they're full-time rhel machines.

Thank you both!
:D

gerry666uk
Posts: 98
Joined: 2020/02/10 19:06:06

Re: likely dumb question - BIOS/UEFI

Post by gerry666uk » 2021/10/15 16:32:19

Yes, it's worth getting used to doing everything with UEFI and Secure boot because RHEL and VMWare also expect it to be used. A big drawback with Rocky Linux (right now) is that secure boot does not work.

Post Reply