EFI/GPT support for LMDE?

[jasauders]

Hello friends. I'm currently dual booting LM15 and LMDE on a spare laptop until I figure out which I like more. Both have sparked a ton of interest from me. LM15 for the Ubuntu compatibility, but LMDE for the semi rolling release setup + Debian base. LMDE interests me more in theory since direct Ubuntu compatibility isn't much of a need for me (Debian compatibility is far more than enough), but the lack of EFI/GPT support of LMDE is kind of a bummer. The end goal is to tinker with LM15 and LMDE on my spare laptop and ultimately move the install I prefer to my main work laptop, which is an ASUS ultrabook. As a result, I'm just curious, is EFI/GPT support on the radar for LMDE? Since Debian supported it I found it to be a bit confusing as to why LMDE didn't, but I'm sure there's an array of reasons.

Also, I understand (based on some blog article I read) that there is no way to directly upgrade LM14 to LM15, etc. Is that true? If I continue to use LM15, will I have to do fresh installs for subsequent versions beyond LM15?

Thanks for your time!

[srs5694]

I'm not 100% positive, but I think that LMDE does officially support GPT. Certainly I had no trouble installing it on a computer with a GPT hard disk.

LMDE may not officially support EFI, but you can certainly add that support yourself -- all you need is an [url=http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/]EFI boot loader.[/url] The basic procedure would be:

1. Install LMDE in BIOS mode on a GPT disk that also includes an EFI System Partition (ESP).
2. Install the EFI boot loader of your choice on the ESP.
3. Use a Linux emergency disc that does boot in EFI mode, another Linux distribution, a Windows installation, an EFI version 2 shell, or some other tool to register your Linux boot loader with the EFI.

FWIW, I've got a laptop that boots Windows 7, Fedora 17, and LMDE in EFI mode.

[tdockery97]

FWIW I'm part of the crowd that thinks EFI is just plain dumb. I disabled secure boot and use legacy Bios mode. I boot Windows 8, Mint 15 and SolydK (LMDE's cousin) with no problems. Maybe if I met someone who had even heard of someone that had a virus attack on their boot sector I'd be concerned.

[jasauders]

I read about LMDE unofficially supporting it. That's all well and good, but my question was primarily directed towards whether or not LMDE will come out of the box with it sometime down the road. I think LMDE will be where I end up, but I'm holding off until it flies out of the box. So far it tanked on this ASUS, and this ASUS has some restricted BIOS features in regard to EFI.

[Enkouyami]

So is it safe to install if I have a GPT hard-drive?
It says that on the known problems that

No EFI/GPT support

Linux Mint Debian requires BIOS and a traditional partitioning scheme.

[kurotsugi]

the concern with LMDE is that it can't create GPT partition by itself. however, it should be working fine if you want to install LMDE on GPT hard disk. the EFI/UEFI, on other hand, is not supported yet by LMDE and debian. you'll need to turn it off to be able to boot into LMDE.

I read about LMDE unofficially supporting it. That's all well and good, but my question was primarily directed towards whether or not LMDE will come out of the box with it sometime down the road. I think LMDE will be where I end up, but I'm holding off until it flies out of the box. So far it tanked on this ASUS, and this ASUS has some restricted BIOS features in regard to EFI.

my asus laptop didn't have option to turn off EFI and my system can't boot at all. I finally rewrite the disk to MBR

[Monsta]

See also this thread.