Hi to All n Sundry,<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div>On 07/08/12 10:00, John Ferlito wrote:<br>
> On Mon, Aug 06, 2012 at 09:33:05PM +1000, Brent Wallis wrote:<br>
>> IMHO, the first step in what will probably be a very long road is to find<br>
>> out what Hardware Manufacturers are going to do with UEFI.<br>
>> Specifically, we need to find out about how they plan to implement key<br>
>> control<br>
>> and<br>
>> How easy it will be for authorised users to implement options 2 and 3.<br>
><br>
> I think this is actually the key issue and what we should be<br>
> concentrating on.<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>John,</div><div>Since your post, have had to handle some ESX upgrades on our IBM hosts.</div><div>These systems boot from flash and via IPMI have noticed that they use UEFI!</div>
<div><br></div><div>A quick surf through the menus display ugliness beyond anything I could possibly describe.</div><div>The key chain menus on PCI devices is ...well.... poo.</div><div>In the limited time I had, nowhere could I find an item to turn off (or even establish whether it had it or not we actually had) secure boot.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In short, UEFI is here and in prod....already implemented.</div><div>I was very surprised to see it in current gen IBM servers!</div><div>(I dont "get out much" for those that have!)</div><div>
<br></div><div>Tim said:</div><div>
<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div>
<br>
</div><div><br>
</div>As another reference, please see<br>
<a href="http://www.suse.com/blogs/uefi-secure-boot-overview/" target="_blank">http://www.suse.com/blogs/uefi-secure-boot-overview/</a> - not that it says<br>
exactly what SUSE is doing yet, but it's a pretty good high level<br>
writeup of WTF this thing is, and what the main problem/s is/are.<br>
<br></blockquote><div>Great link.</div><div>More detail here:</div><div> <a href="http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/289054/suse-slowly-shows-uefi-secure-boot-plan">http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/289054/suse-slowly-shows-uefi-secure-boot-plan</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>and a followup to your link is here. Suses' plans for UEFI secure boot:</div><div><a href="http://www.suse.com/blogs/uefi-secure-boot-plan/">http://www.suse.com/blogs/uefi-secure-boot-plan/</a>
</div><div><br></div><div>....and then we can all read the FSF take on the matter:</div><div><a href="http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/whitepaper-web">http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/whitepaper-web</a>
</div><div><br></div><div>and a FSF competition that clearly demonstrates their stance:</div><div><a href="http://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-announces-winner-of-restricted-boot-webcomic-contest">http://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-announces-winner-of-restricted-boot-webcomic-contest</a>
</div><div><br></div><div>Colleagues!</div><div>A press release at this stage would not bode well.</div><div>This whole issue is a work in progress, like grabbing at soap bubbles.</div><div><br></div><div>But we can not leave things be.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I think LA Australia can service the community by helping with education on the matter.</div><div>Once education (and hopefully understanding) can be established, press releases can/should follow.</div>
<div><br></div><div>LA Council:</div><div>My thinking has changed.</div><div>A press release in any form at this point would fall on deaf ears, or worse, make us look foolish given the fluid nature of the issue.</div><div>
Instead:</div><div><br></div><div>Could we please establish a page via the LA website with these specific goals?</div><div><br></div><div>- A non emotive (as un bias as possible) pre-amble on the whole UEFI / UEFI secure boot issue with simple descriptions(that may change over time) of the UEFI implementation process.</div>
<div>- Links to blogs/releases/info on UEFI for as many distros as possible (sample being Fedora/RH, Suse, Debian, Mint ,... ..<add your preference here>)</div><div>- A link to the FSF releases on the matter.</div><div>
- Links to any releases/blogs/info from manufacturers.</div><div>- Links to any blogs from individuals that do kernel work and have to deal with this.</div><div><br></div><div>In short, a nexus for information on UEFI and how it will affect Linux in general.</div>
<div>Once established....then press releases would follow, and, would be far more likely to be noticed.</div><div><br></div><div>Comment welcome.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>BW</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
</div>