(Solved) What is EFI/GPT support?

[Viking64]

Linux Mint Debian has no No EFI/GPT support. What exactly are these in simple terms and how do these impact the basic PC user?

I know that EFI is replacing the BIOS I believe. GPT has something to do GUI partitioning, and that they are connected.
Other than that, though, I am not entirely sure what they are or whether how they will affect my pc or if they will just affect recent pc's.

[srs5694]

Linux Mint Debian has no No EFI/GPT support. What exactly are these in simple terms and how do these impact the basic PC user?

LMDE definitely does support GPT. I don't know about its official state of EFI support, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's lacking on that score. Unofficially, it's possible to get it working in EFI mode (I've got one such system, which I installed several months back).

I know that EFI is replacing the BIOS I believe.

Correct. This affects boot loaders and how Linux boots. See these sites for more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible ... _Interface
http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/index.html

GPT has something to do GUI partitioning, and that they are connected.

This is incorrect -- or at least, the use of the term "GUI" is incorrect. The Globally Unique ID (GUID) Partition Table (GPT) is a partition table standard that's defined as part of the EFI specification. It's replacing the older Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning system, which has been used for 30 years and has a maximum capacity of 2TiB (assuming 512-byte sectors). In other words, MBR is at the end of its rope, and GPT is the only system ready to replace it. Note that a GUID is a 128-bit number, and it has nothing to do with a graphical user interface (GUI). EFI-based computers almost invariably use GPT, but GPT is also usable on older BIOS-based computers, albeit with some important caveats, such as the fact that Windows won't boot in BIOS mode from a GPT disk. For more on this topic, see:

http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/whatsgpt.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

Other than that, though, I am not entirely sure what they are or whether how they will affect my pc or if they will just affect recent pc's.

They needn't concern you yet if you've got a working BIOS-based computer that boots from an MBR disk unless you plan to replace the hard disk, especially with an over-2TiB model. Sooner or later, though, you'll need to buy a new computer, and as the vast majority of new x86-64 systems use EFI, a basic understanding of EFI will become important. Most major Linux distributions now support EFI, but the quality of that support is variable, and Mint's is, sadly, only average -- and "average" is well below where it should be at the moment. With any luck it will improve significantly over the next couple of releases, but I can't promise that. Debian, upon which LMDE is based, has only recently begun officially supporting EFI. Presumably the next major update to LMDE will incorporate this support, but I've not been following LMDE development all that closely, so I don't know how long it might be before this support materializes.

[Viking64]

Thanks
Viking64