Today's article is another short-form article about BIOS vs UEFI...

[KGIII]

I expect folks to know if they installed using UEFI or legacy BIOS, but it's trivial to find out if you are using UEFI. And, of course, if you're not using UEFI that means you're using plain ol' BIOS. UEFI does stuff like letting you have a security chip and allowing you to address files larger than 2 TB. So, it's pretty handy. But, that's not the point of the article. The point is to tell if you're using one or the other - and that's it.

How To: Tell If You Are You Using UEFI or BIOS • Linux Tips

Today's article will be another short-form article, where we quickly learn how to tell if you're using UEFI or BIOS with your Linux computer.

linux-tips.us

It's a very short article. I figured I'd do a few. I have another one in mind already, though I could turn that one into a longer article.

 

[Vrai]

I have a question. If the system is capable of using either UEFI or BIOS and it is set to BIOS or Legacy mode, will that command still return

ls: cannot access '/sys/firmware/efi': No such file or directory

or will it indicate that efi is available?

 

[f33dm3bits]

I have a question. If the system is capable of using either UEFI or BIOS and it is set to BIOS or Legacy mode, will that command still return

ls: cannot access '/sys/firmware/efi': No such file or directory

or will it indicate that efi is available?

If you boot in BIOS mode it will indicate that efi is unavailable even if the system has the option to boot into UEFI mode, those efivars are only set when you boot the system into UEFI mode.

 

[Vrai]

If you boot in BIOS mode it will indicate that efi is unavailable even if the system has the option to boot into UEFI mode, those efivars are only set when you boot the system into UEFI mode.

Hmmm . . . interesting. Then it would seem that in order to determine what the system is capable of one would need to press the appropriate keys during startup in order to enter the BIOS or UEFI setup mode.
Makes sense.

 

[KGIII]

^ What he said, thanks.

Ah, you replied as I was loading and replying to the various threads.

Then it would seem that in order to determine what the system is capable of one would need to press the appropriate keys during startup in order to enter the BIOS or UEFI setup mode.

You got it. If you're in BIOS mode and you want to be certain that UEFI is an option, you'll need to check. Most modern stuff (past decade) will likely have UEFI available. I suppose you could also check the OEM's information. That seems like something they'd mention in the manual.