got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS.

got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - Printable Version

+- Linux Lite Forums (https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums)
+-- Forum: General (https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: On Topic (https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=14)
+--- Thread: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. (/showthread.php?tid=6753)

got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - kissbaby3 - 01-31-2020

today i was just surfing google and wondered to my self, just for fun, if my desktop PC's are either UEFI or BIOS , found this to copy and paste int toe terminal , without the quotes

" /sys/firmware/efi "

if a desktop PC is NOT UEFI , it will say something like " bash: /sys/firmware/efi: No such file or directory" , which would mean that both of my desktop PC's are bios.

am i right ?. just asking to make sure, i know how to get into and look another way , just wanted a quicker way to tell, ha ha . i like playing with the linux terminal ......

hugs

Re: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - Moltke - 01-31-2020

(01-31-2020, 08:57 PM)kissbaby3 link Wrote: today i was just surfing google and wondered to my self, just for fun, if my desktop PC's are either UEFI or BIOS , found this to copy and paste int toe terminal , without the quotes

" /sys/firmware/efi "

if a desktop PC is NOT UEFI , it will say something like " bash: /sys/firmware/efi: No such file or directory" , which would mean that both of my desktop PC's are bios.

am i right ?. just asking to make sure, i know how to get into and look another way , just wanted a quicker way to tell, ha ha . i like playing with the linux terminal ......

hugs

Running that command in my laptop gives the same result but then this is a UEFI system. As reported by inxi:

Code:
inxi -Mx

Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP 2000 Notebook PC v: 0888110003305910000620100 

           serial: <root required> 

           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 188B v: KBC Version 69.17 serial: <root required> UEFI [Legacy]: Insyde v: F.34 

           date: 05/22/2013

But

Code:
sys/firmware/efi

bash: /sys/firmware/efi: No such file or directory

If I understand it right the /sys/firmware/efi command only tells you whether your system/pc is booting in UEFI or BIOS mode, the laptop is configured to boot in Legacy mode - BIOS - cause I find it more easy but it had Windows 10 in UEFI mode only. So, maybe your PCs are UEFI but they're configured to boot from BIOS since your systems can either boot from BIOS or both UEFI and BIOS. I might be wrong though. Maybe someone like [member=5916]trinidad[/member] or [member=2]Jerry[/member] can provide a better answer cause I honestly am quite confused now lol

Re: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - DeepThought - 01-31-2020

The command is actually:

Code:
ls /sys/firmware/efi/

Quote:The easiest way to find out if you are running UEFI or BIOS is to look for a folder /sys/firmware/efi. The folder will be missing if your system is using BIOS

source: https://itsfoss.com/check-uefi-or-bios/

Re: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - Moltke - 01-31-2020

(01-31-2020, 10:22 PM)DeepThought link Wrote: The command is actually:

Code:
ls /sys/firmware/efi/

Quote:The easiest way to find out if you are running UEFI or BIOS is to look for a folder /sys/firmware/efi. The folder will be missing if your system is using BIOS

source: https://itsfoss.com/check-uefi-or-bios/

Still same result: No such file or directory.

Re: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - firenice03 - 02-01-2020

(01-31-2020, 10:28 PM)Moltke link Wrote: [quote author=DeepThought link=topic=7041.msg50662#msg50662 date=1580509320]
The command is actually:

Code:
ls /sys/firmware/efi/

Still same result:
No such file or directory.

[/quote]

[member=7109]Moltke[/member]

More than likely you have - BIOS -- not UEFI hense it cannot find a efi folder Smile

Re: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - Moltke - 02-01-2020

(02-01-2020, 12:58 AM)firenice03 link Wrote: [quote author=Moltke link=topic=7041.msg50664#msg50664 date=1580509697]
[quote author=DeepThought link=topic=7041.msg50662#msg50662 date=1580509320]
The command is actually:

Code:
ls /sys/firmware/efi/

Still same result:
No such file or directory.

[/quote]

[member=7109]Moltke[/member]

More than likely you have - BIOS -- not UEFI hense it cannot find a efi folder Smile

[/quote]

The laptop boots in LEGACY BIOS mode, yes, but it is UEFI. I've seen the UEFI bios console a couple of times. In the inxi output reads:

Code:
UEFI [Legacy]: Insyde v: F.34

And

Quote:Insyde Software is leading worldwide provider of UEFI firmware

https://www.insyde.com/ When this laptop had W10 and a HDD I formatted to install W7 for it previous owner, who gave it to me as a payment for a job few months back. And I had a hard time because I didn't know it was UEFI, it was the first time I dealt with that and had to read a bit and learn how to; enabling legacy mode in the settings, thus it could boot from the USB and install W7. So yes, it is UEFI. Like I said before, if I understand correctly, running

Code:
ls /sys/firmware/efi/

Code:
sudo efibootmgr

only tells whether your current Operating system is booting in UEFI or LEGACY mode not if the machine, the motherboard, the chip has a LEGACY or UEFI firmware which are two whole different things.

Also, running

Code:
sudo dmidecode -t bios -q | grep UEFI

Gives

Code:
UEFI is supported

So again, yes, looks like indeed, it is UEFI. Smile

Re: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - firenice03 - 02-01-2020

Yes... I should have added -- the current OS installed -- not whether its supported..
You installed the BIOS version - no efi folder..
Does not represent if UEFI is supported or not...

The other commands as you post would.. Wink

Re: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - Moltke - 02-01-2020

(02-01-2020, 02:24 AM)firenice03 link Wrote: Yes... I should have added -- the current OS installed -- not whether its supported..
You installed the BIOS version - no efi folder..
Does not represent if UEFI is supported or not...

The other commands as you post would..

Yes, that's what I thought. I was at first confused but then I remembered all that problem I went throught with W10. I found this article https://www.pcsuggest.com/check-bios-uefi-motherboard-info-in-linux/ which among other things states that

Quote:Note: The above method (ls /sys/firmware/efi or efibootmgr) works only if the system is booted from a UEFI bootable media, else it behaves like an older legacy BIOS system.

Learnt a few new things Smile

Re: got bored and used the Terminal to see if my desktop PC's are UEFI or BIOS. - kissbaby3 - 02-01-2020

this was fun, i learned a few things , thanks every one . if you want to close this , its ok to do so , but maybe one should keep this post of mine open, just for fun..........