[Solved!] Boot/install support for mixed-mode UEFI (32 bit UEFI bootloader, 64 bit processor)

#1

Hello! :slight_smile:

I’m a long time Debian Testing + Xfce user. I recently tried EndlessOS on a VM and I’m quite surprised by it. Really good and promising, user friendly and easy to use. It just works reliably and has a strong focus on content and user experience.

However, it seems that it lacks proper support for booting/installing on mixed-mode UEFI hardware (32 bit UEFI bootloader, 64 bit processor). As in many/most hybrid tablets/laptops out there based of Intel Atom Bay Trail or Cherry Trail (64 bit CPUs). These are relatively recent hardware models, from 2013 and on, many since 2015.

In example I have an Onda v975w clone and an Asus T100 Chi both tablet/laptop hybrid (2in1) with Intel Atom Bay Trail 64 bit CPUs, 2 GB RAM and 32/64 GB eMMC. EndlessOS would be a perfect fit for these and many more similar models out there. (There are a lot of them!)

Since EndlessOS is Debian based, it shouldn’t be too hard to make it work. I can install Debian on them easily. Please consider it, it would leverage EndlessOS to a significant greater target audience/hardware models.

https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#Support_for_mixed-mode_systems:_64-bit_system_with_32-bit_UEFI

Thank you.

#2

Actually Endless OS works on 32bit UEFI 64 bit processors. It installs and works on my HP X2 (10-K010nr) which is a BayTrail Atom processor with a 32bit UEFI. It is a fairly cheap and now somewhat older detachable. Not everything on it works flawlessly, but it works as a laptop, almost works as a tablet. Endless even supports the stylus, but there is not much to do with a stylus. Internal sound does not work.

Overall it is a fairly slow and underpowered device. As long as I stick with one or two applications open it works alright, but opening more applications quickly bogs it down.

bill

#3

ISOs and live USBs since 3.3.5 should support EFI-32. One case which is not supported is dual-booting with Windows on such machines. This is mainly because we do not have a 32-bit bootloader signed for Secure Boot.

#4

Indeed. Thank you for your replies. My bad. I’m so sorry. I was misled by older posts. I was able to boot it on my 32-bit UEFI machine but it failed to install. I’ll post that issue on a new thread and mark this one as [Solved!]

#5