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Is there any test that I can run to figure out if my BIOS is a legacy one or a UEFI/EFI BIOS?

It looks like it's a legacy one: there's no fancy window but only ugly white words on blue background, and I can't use mouse, BUT I get an EFI SHELL running after download a EFI.zip(include bootmgfw.efi and other .efi), extract to my USB and boot from the USB.

My questions are:

  • 1. How do I test whether my BIOS is UEFI or legacy?
  • 2. Will the EFI SHELL run if it's a legacy BIOS?
slhck
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Eric
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1 Answers1

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Don't expect the firmware to use clicky icons and fancy windows, whether it be legacy BIOS or UEFI; both are limited in size and resources, and frankly white-on-blue text is as good configuration interface as any. (It's not something you reconfigure daily, after all.) My ASUS laptop uses UEFI, but the configuration screen looks exactly the same as the one of a BIOS, and the firmware remains compatible with legacy bootloaders.

A good test is to run an EFI program in *.efi format. If you can successfully start it, then your computer supports UEFI.

Another way is to boot from a Linux CD, insert the efivars module (sudo modprobe efivars), then install and run the efibootmgr tool. If the module works and sudo efibootmgr lists the boot options, you have UEFI.

grawity
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