Can UEFI secure boot be disabled on windows 10 netbooks?
 

Hello all

I have a question about windows 10 netbooks. Can UEFI secure boot be disabled on these types of netbooks? I believe they're netbooks because they have no optical drive, have low ram like 2GB and a 32GB hard drive or SSD drive. I want to remove windows and replace it with linux. Thanks in advance.

Hello and welcome to the forum :)

From what I understand, the ability to disable secure boot depends on the manufacturer of a given PC. Please see here. If you already have the netbook you mentioned, you might be able to disable it using the instructions mentioned here, although the procedure in your BIOS might be a bit different. :)

Otherwise, we would need the brand and model (and model number) to possibly tell you whether it can be disabled.

Regards...

Generally speaking, "yes, UEFI can always be disabled." However, the procedure is purposely (and, very specifically) designed to be something that "a night-operator who is actually a professional industrial spy" (probably) could not do as he prowled around the server-farm with a boot-disk or a USB-stick in his pocket.

Wyatt507,

Are you sure that this item is a netbook such as this Samsung N220?

http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/samsung-n220/

W7 Starter was originally installed.

Not every laptop without a DVD drive is a netbook.

What make/model are you referring to and what RAM/CPU does it have?

Secure boot can be disabled easily in the UEFI/BIOS, where you also probably need to change to Legacy boot (and Boot Order) for a USB HDD containing a bootable Linux distro.

There are distro's that can be installed to uefi/secure boot.

Uefi is not really standard. Many web pages exist that have provided ways around many of the problems.

A good choice to test with is Ubuntu LTS.

I apologize for the delay in getting back, been a little busy.

Here is the model and specs

Brand HP Model # 1r010nr

11.6" diagonal LED display with HD (720p) resolution
Windows 10 operating system
1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3050 processor with 2MB cache
32GB flash storage
2GB DDR3L system memory
Intel HD graphics
Does not have optical drive
Has speakers and webcam
Media card reader (card not included)
Has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI output, 2 USB ports and headphone/microphone jack
Software includes 1-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Personal
Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Includes AC adapter/power cord

This is something just to use outdoors for light tasks. I wish ASUS would have continued selling netbooks, but all you can get are used ASUS netbooks which are very dated.

I'd try Ubuntu LTS and it should be able to be installed. I have a small N3050 with the emmc ssd. On that model the uefi doesn't' present the emmc to the OS in legacy. Yours may or may not.

If you install a M.2 it would support more OS's. (if you have a M.2).

I'm not sure what the SSD type is in this netbook. It just says flash 32gb. Since this is a low cost model, I suspect it is basic SSD type drive.

I'm going to order it and hope ubuntu lts will install on it.

Much appreciated jefro.

32GB eMMC is kind of a common device but not really a ssd as such in most peoples minds.

32GB doesn't leave you a whole lot of room but you can add in or even run from a flash drive. You'll have to be a bit careful on the stuff you load.

Specs don't mention how it connects but I assume soldered. Specs don't mention a M.2 slot.

I just found out it is a 32GB eMMC embedded chip. So, it is soldered onto the motherboard. And you're right as well, The eMMC is acts more like a ultra fast SD card and not as fast as a SSD drive.

Anyway, 32gb is enough, As I said earlier, it will be for light tasks. My main work horse desktop is where I do many of my real production tasks at home.

Wyatt507,



This link from someone installing Ubuntu 14.04 on an HP Stream may be of help:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2297546

Post #2 shows a shorter route:

That model secure boot can be turned off. It's the HP Stream that beachboy2 specifically references. I also had this model and turned off secure boot in order to run Debian and Mageia on it.

I have seen some emmc memory that actually goes into a slot.

Thanks, I will use these steps as a reference.

That will be a great relief to me. I heard some OEM's will have secure boot grayed out to prevent turning it on or off.

I'll probably take a look inside and see what is possible. I do hope it has a SATA slot or connector so I can connect an internal SSD drive.

Thanks for the welcome :)

Thanks for the youtube link on disabling secure boot. If I didn't see this video, I would have done the old traditional way of going into the BIOS to make the changes.

It does not (or at least one that works). It's baytrail, doesn't even have a SATA controller in the system. To get SATA in ultra-cheap, you'll have to upgrade to Braswell, as Cherry Trail, like Bay Trail, has no SATA controller.