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New user here and I would like to know how do I tell if my Toshiba Satellite Laptop A665-S5173 with Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit Intel Core i5 1st Generation processor with 4GB of RAM has this UEFI firmware?

I want to try Ubuntu and first run it off a CD before I actually install it to my hard drive, but it tells me if I have this UEFI I should download the 64-bit version or otherwise the 32-bit version.

Also, which version number of Ubuntu should I download, 12, 13, etc.?

muru
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Sue Nutting
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    Is your computer 64bit? If it is I would suggest installing the 64bit version even if you don't have UEFI. Also, Ubuntu versions aren't just the first to digits. 12.04 is as different from 12.10 as it is from 13.04. – daboross Jun 12 '13 at 23:26
  • Flagging to close as off topic: this is about Windows. http://superuser.com/questions/304004/how-to-know-if-my-bios-supports-uefi asks it on the right website :-) – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Sep 14 '15 at 14:54
  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! We're sorry, but Ask Ubuntu is not a forum, but a Question & Answer site: it works best if you ask one question, so you can receive one answer. When you ask multiple questions, you need to find one expert versed in multiple areas, which becomes unlikelier the more questions you put into, well, one question! ;-) So please, split up your question into multiple questions and drop me a comment so I can answer one of your questions. – David Foerster Sep 15 '15 at 10:48

5 Answers5

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Open setupact.log and search for this string:

Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment:

It should tell us the boot environment: BIOS or UEFI:

Code:Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: BIOS
Code:Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: UEFI
muru
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Talal
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UEFI is neither here nor there; if your CPU supports 64 bit, then use the 64 bit version, otherwise 32. If you want the latest release and don't mind upgrading every ~6 months, then install 13.04, otherwise stick with 12.04, which is supported for 5 years.

psusi
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Identifying if the computer boots the Ubuntu disk in EFI mode

When booting on a 64-bit Ubuntu disk:

  • If the BIOS is set up to boot the CD in EFI mode, then you will see the screen below:

enter image description here

  • If the BIOS is NOT set up to boot the CD in EFI mode, or if the disk is not 64-bit, then you will see the screen below:

enter image description here

Warning: even if your PC boots the CD in EFI mode, it might boot the HDD in Legacy mode (and the contrary).

See also the Community UEFI doc.

LovinBuntu
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    Just what I was looking for, thanks for the link to the document. –  Sep 26 '13 at 22:13
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The UEFI 2.0 standard was released 7.5 years ago, and vendors have been edging into implementation. I have seen EFI partitions/directories on non UEFI machines. The best way to tell is look in the BIOS/UEFI settings. Just because your machine is UEFI capable does not mean it has ewven been turned on. Microsoft's demand to have secure boot on Windows 8 preinstalled machines forced the vendors to jump into UEFI, since secure boot is a subset of UEFI. The vendors generally weren't prepared, and mangled many implementations, not even following the standard. With an older machine, you can use either 12.04.2 or 13.04 (with longer support available for 12.04.2). Newer machines, generally have fewer problems with drivers with the latest release.

ubfan1
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It doesn't have UEFI. UEFI is implemented on machines that ship with Windows 8, and Windows 7 doesn't support it.

The other inquiries should be separate questions themselves, but you should download the 64 bit version of either Ubuntu 12.04 or Ubuntu 13.04. Ubuntu 13.04 is the option I go for because you get the latest and greatest software shipped with Ubuntu. You could also go with 12.04, the LTS (Long Term Support) version which will be supported for much longer than 13.04. See here for more details, they can explain it better than I can.

Richard
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