On Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 12:52:47AM +0300, Semih Ozlem wrote: > Yes I am running in UEFI mode, but the partitioning is MBR and not GPT. Is > this a problem? Which is preferred when?
Really, GPT is the future. The "MBR" disk label is another product of the 1980s. It doesn't even support disks over 2 TB, which are fairly common now. I wouldn't use MBR partitioning with UEFI, but apparently it's "allowed". Google gave me <https://superuser.com/questions/739153/uefi-with-mbr-partition-table> which discusses it. > Why would legacy boot be preferred? It's... not? It's simpler, though, and maybe more familiar to a lot of the older users, so some people might choose it for one of those two reasons. For me -- and this is strictly opinion -- there are two scenarios that would dictate how I proceed when installing Debian. 1) Does the system already have a disk with an operating sytem on it that I want to keep? Most typically this would be Windows. If I'm going to make a dual-boot system from an existing Windows disk, then I'll keep whatever disk label (partitioning type) and booting strategy Windows is using. If it's Legacy boot, then I'll install Debian to use Legacy boot. This will maximize the chances of everything continuing to work. 2) Am I starting from a blank disk, either because it's literally blank, or because I'm wiping whatever OS was on the disk to begin with? In these cases, I'd go with GPT and UEFI, as those are the newer standards. GPT is actually required if the disk is large enough. Of course these scenarios also assume that the machines in question offer both types of booting. If the machine only has UEFI or only has Legacy, then that makes the decision for me.
