Acer Aspire AXC-603-UB17

[jd1008]

On 01/19/2015 07:07 AM, William A. Mahaffey III wrote:
> On 01/18/15 08:39, Warren Block wrote:
>> On Sun, 18 Jan 2015, Chris Maness wrote:
>>
>>> Likely UEFI with SecureBoot enabled. Turn SecureBoot off, enable 
>>> "legacy" or "CSM" booting in what was formerly known as the BIOS 
>>> setup screens.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, I had turned SecureBoot off.  There does not seem to be an 
>>> option for legacy or CSM in the BIOS menu.
>>>
>>> I cannot get it to even see my memory stick with a FreeBSD install 
>>> image on it.  Even my macbook pro mostly boots this and hangs on 
>>> some hardware issues (as I expected but just wanted
>>> to make sure the usb stick was actually bootable).
>>
>> UEFI alone might do that.  Only UEFI-approved boot devices are shown 
>> unless legacy or compatibility mode is enabled. Unfortunately, there 
>> are varying names and methods in the settings between different 
>> manufacturers.
>>
>
> How common is this problem w/ laptops ? I am thinking of buying a 
> laptop specifically to install either FreeBSD or OpenBSD, how likely 
> am I to run into this type of issue ? I have heard of such on Linux 
> lists in the past, but mostly ignored those threads since I was not a 
> laptop user. Times they are a changin', though & I might be up against 
> it now .... Are some manufacturers worse than others, or are they all 
> about the same in this regard ? TIA for any enlightenment :-) ....
>
My $.02's worth: get a laptop without secure boot or even uefi in the bios.