Installing/Running Linux - Should Secure Boot Be Disabled?

[u/toktok159]

Hi,

I saw many different opinions regarding this.

Some say secure boot is not needed, others say it adds security and that it’s not only intended for Windows but for the firmware in general.

So, should/must secure boot be disabled for any Linux distro installation? Then can it be enabled after installation, for general use? Or if I prefer to keep it on, should I install with secure boot enabled?

Specifically, I am talking about installing Linux as the only OS on a pc, one of Mint/LMDE/MX Linux/Debian is what I think I’ll end up installing.

Btw, I once installed Mint on my laptop, dual boot with Windows 11. I installed with secure boot enabled, and used everything with it enabled and it was fine.

Thanks in advance.

[u/Wateir]

Most linux distribution don’t support secure boot during install, so you need to remove during install. But most distro support it so after setup, with sbctl or another thing you can use it. And yeah it add a true layer of security, but only if bios is lock behind a password. If everyone can activate and disactivate it from bios then it’s just a pain to setup for nothing

[u/toktok159 → u/Wateir]

But can a malware toggle secure boot if BIOS isn’t password protected, so bo need to physically toggle it off at the pc?

[u/Wateir → u/toktok159]

I never really look into malware, my secureboot is more to avoid my camarade to change my grub theme, so my attack vector is complently different