[SOLVED] Detect via Terminal if BIOS can be emulated

alfredo10 · 09-05-2015, 03:34 AM

Hi!
On several distros

Code:

sudo dmidecode -t0 | grep -Ei "BIOS boot|UEFI"

gives you, if you have UEFI with CSM, the output:

Code:

		BIOS boot specification is supported
		UEFI is supported

On ARCH based distros?

Edit:
"[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo UEFI || echo BIOS"
-> only shows (it is not enough)
"BIOS"

Head_on_a_Stick · 09-05-2015, 07:50 PM

Code:

empty@Arch ~ % sudo dmidecode -t0 | grep -Ei "BIOS boot|UEFI"
[sudo] password for empty: 
sudo: dmidecode: command not found
1 empty@Arch ~ % pkgfile dmidecode                                                                                                  :(
extra/dmidecode
empty@Arch ~ % sudo pacman -S dmidecode
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Package (1)      New Version  Net Change  Download Size

extra/dmidecode  2.12-2         0.16 MiB       0.05 MiB

Total Download Size:   0.05 MiB
Total Installed Size:  0.16 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
:: Retrieving packages ...
 dmidecode-2.12-2-x86_64                                 54.9 KiB   914K/s 00:00 [----------------------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) checking keys in keyring                                                   [----------------------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity                                                 [----------------------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                                                      [----------------------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts                                                [----------------------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space                                              [----------------------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) installing dmidecode                                                       [----------------------------------------------] 100%
empty@Arch ~ % sudo dmidecode -t0 | grep -Ei "BIOS boot|UEFI"
		BIOS boot specification is supported
		UEFI is supported

EDIT: *All* UEFI machines should support "CSM"/"Legacy" mode, at least according to the official UEFI specification.
http://www.uefi.org/specifications

Unfortunately, implementations of this standard are highly variable (to put it politely)...

alfredo10 · 09-07-2015, 03:43 AM

Thank you - solved!