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News Linux acquitted in Samsung laptop UEFI deaths

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 11 Feb 2013.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. mi1ez

    mi1ez Modder

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    Ouch!
     
  3. mi1ez

    mi1ez Modder

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    For Samsung I should add... This could hit them hard.
     
  4. cave_diver

    cave_diver Minimodder

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    The CHANCES that this could happen are disgustingly small ... and no one could have predicted it, it just seems that a lot of very unlucky and very unlikely ducklings have all lined up ....

    I was going to have a rant about anyone who comes out with "this should have been tested for" .. but all credit to samsung for actively trying to track this down.

    And yes, this could hurt ...
     
  5. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    I think there's a slight difference between bricking a laptop just by installing an OS and going out of your way to try to brick it. Its hardly Samsung's fault either, they don't recommend Linux and I doubt they recommend people try to brick their laptops either.
     
  6. faugusztin

    faugusztin I *am* the guy with two left hands

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    Did you bother to read the article ? Laptop can be bricked by any application which uses the specific UEFI functionality. Can you guarantee that it won't happen with some random application ?

    What you say is like if a DVD burner would burn only disk less than 3GB, and if you tried to burn a bigger ISO then it would brick itself. Hey, it burns 2GB disks just right, it is your fault trying to burn a 4.7GB DVD.
     
  7. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    I disagree: Samsung's laptops are Windows 8 certified; Windows 8 certification requires that you be able to write at least 64K to the UEFI variable storage; Samsung laptops die when you write <64K to the UEFI variable storage; therefore Samsung failed to test their laptops according to Microsoft's Windows 8 certification requirements.

    The most telling part of Garrett's analysis comes in the news that the same problem - UEFI dying when <64K of variable storage was filled - can be found in early versions of Intel's reference implementation. The inference here being, of course, that Samsung has just snagged an early version of Intel's reference implementation, stuck it in its laptops and considered the job done - failing to spot the later fix from Intel.
     
  8. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    If you call every user of Linux unlucky because of a fault with Samsung laptops they probably wouldn't agree.

    I must be missing something in the article as i cant see the part where it says Samsung tracked down the problem, perhaps you care to point it out to me.
     
  9. mdshann

    mdshann What's a Dremel?

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    That's because Samsung didn't track down the problem. A Linux developer named Matthew Garret did. What's interesting to note is that not only does booting Ubuntu brick these devices, showing that they didn't test the 3rd largest desktop operating system on their device at all, it also shows that they didn't properly test to be sure they passed Windows 8 Certification. At the very least they will have to release a firmware fix.

    There may even be some issues with Microsoft, as Samsung is labelling these machines as Windows 8 Compatible when they are in fact not fully compatible. It's like the Vista Capable vs Vista Ready fiasco lol
     

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