intel em lock

nornak

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I do not know details, but have read that some new intel computers have an em lock that prevents the installation of linux and systems other than windows. If this is true, I hope a workaround can be found. I certainly will be very hesitant to buy such a system.

Len
 


Do you have any articles or anything referring to this? The closest thing I could find to Intel preventing Linux installs was this from 3 years ago. https://www.pcworld.com/article/312...on-your-laptop-blame-intel-not-microsoft.html. It's referring to SSD Raid on Lenovo. It says that with the current (as of 3 years ago) kernel wouldn't support RAID on SSDs and Lenovo prevented you from disabling the RAID.
I have no other information than what I have posted, and my talents do not permit me to critique the accuracy or completeness of what I have said ( which was said in the context of comments on a new HP laptop).
 
In your original post you said you "read" this. Where did you read it? A newspaper, website, email? Can you supply that so that someone has more info to look it up with?
 
If there is a hp laptop that you have and you wish to know if Linux can be installed successfully......Post the specs of that laptop here, please.

(make and model, ram, hd, processor, etc)
 
I was looking on amazon at an hp i7-8750 laptop and one of the comments left by a previous purchaser detailed this problem. I have no way to judge the talent or credibility of this person, but I wanted to see if anyone else had had experience with this lock-out. It sounded as though all brands that use intel chips might be so affected. I wanted this on the radar screen to see whether this is a real or a factitious problem.
 
I don't believe there is any sort of "em-lock" by Intel that prevents Linux from booting. However, it is possible for Secure Boot to prevent some Linux distributions from booting and if HP prevents disabling Secure Boot then it may be impossible to boot Linux on it.

@nornak it is possible the review on Amazon is referring to Intel's Management Engine (ME). IME could prevent Linux from booting though it would have to be specifically enabled prior to purchasing the laptop (unless the laptop is used and the prior owner turned it on). Again, I don't think HP or Intel has specifically enable IME on non-buisiness laptops by default. There is this article on the Gentoo wiki that talks about disabling IME but it should be a last resort.
 
I went to Amazon and found the review you mentioned. It's actually Intel ME (Management Engine), which has been on ALL Intel chips since 2008. ME does not prevent you from installing other OSes like the Amazon poster said. Intel ME is supposedly for remote administration for Enterprises. Remember there are millions of Intel based servers out there running Linux in the Enterprise. Do you really think they would do something to prevent selling that many servers?
The poster most likely misread info on the chip. I have a Skylake and when I went to Wikipedia for it, it said that it was the last gen CPU to officially support Windows versions earlier than 10. So the poster probably saw that the Pavilion in question only officially supported Windows 10 and put 2 and 2 together and came up with 5. My Dell Inspiron does not support Linux, but that doesn't stop it from kicking ass as a Linux laptop.
 
Thank you for your clarification. One of my systems is a dual-boot skylake i7, another is a Broadmore i7, also functioning dual boot. Sorry to have raised a false issue, but I have no formal training in computers.

Len
 

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