On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 07:00, Robert Citek <[email protected]> wrote:
> What is EFI? Or more importantly, what does EFI do? > > The new Asus eeepc 1005hab that I got has a hard drive that looks like > this: > > $ sudo fdisk -clu /dev/sda > > Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors > Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > Disk identifier: 0x845a4551 > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/sda1 * 63 40965749 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS > /dev/sda2 302246910 312496379 5124735 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 > (LBA) > /dev/sda3 312496380 312576704 40162+ ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32) > > The machine comes with Windows XP. /dev/sda1 is where WinXP is > installed. sda2 has a Ghost image and files necessary to reinstall > XP. Notice that /dev/sda3 is labeled as an EFI partition. What does > that mean? > > I've been reading about EFI and it sounds interesting, but I can't > find the answers to my questions. It seems to sit between the BIOS > and the OS. Is it an extension to BIOS? Does the machine need the > EFI partition in order to boot or can I remove it? That is, if I wipe > the drive while installing Ubuntu will the machine become unbootable? > Can I move the partition elsewhere? Does EFI enable certain hardware > functions and, if so, how do I access them? Is EFI just an > alternative to a boot loader, e.g. Grub? > > What I've read so far: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_Interface > http://www.intel.com/technology/efi/ > > Thanks in advance for any pointers that clarify what EFI does and what > I can do with it. > > Regards, > - Robert > > -- > Central West End Linux Users Group (via Google Groups) > Main page: http://www.cwelug.org > To post: [email protected] > To subscribe: [email protected] > To unsubscribe: [email protected] > More options: http://groups.google.com/group/cwelug > > To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject. > http://www.jfwhome.com/2009/08/06/perfect-ubuntu-jaunty-on-the-asus-eeepc-1005ha-and-1008ha/ You need to keep the EFI partition! John http://rexmo.net -- Central West End Linux Users Group (via Google Groups) Main page: http://www.cwelug.org To post: [email protected] To subscribe: [email protected] To unsubscribe: [email protected] More options: http://groups.google.com/group/cwelug
