Does "Trusty Tahr" support EFI ia32?

Question

Does "Trusty Tahr"(Ubuntu 14.04) supports ia32 booting?

Answer 1

Judging by the pre-release images, the answer is "yes and no."

As Rinzwind has pointed out, there is a 32-bit build of the EFI version of GRUB 2 provided with Ubuntu 14.04; however, the .iso images I've seen do not include the necessary files to boot the Ubuntu installer on a 32-bit EFI-only computer (like a Minnowboard or some tablets). Thus, to install Ubuntu in EFI mode on such a computer, you'll need to either build your own installation medium with a working boot loader or install Ubuntu in BIOS mode (if your computer supports that) and then install an EFI boot loader afterwards.

Answer 2

See package details for grub-efi-ia32-bin on Launchpad:

Binary package “grub-efi-ia32-bin” in ubuntu trusty

GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-IA32 binaries)

GRUB is a portable, powerful bootloader. This version of GRUB is based on a cleaner design than its predecessors, and provides the following new features: .

• Scripting in grub.cfg using BASH-like syntax.
• Support for modern partition maps such as GPT.
• Modular generation of grub.cfg via update-grub. Packages providing GRUB add-ons can plug in their own script rules and trigger updates by invoking update-grub. .

This package contains a version of GRUB that has been built for use with EFI-IA32 architecture, such as the one provided by Intel Macs (that is, unless a BIOS interface has been activated). It will not automatically install GRUB as the active boot loader, nor will it automatically update grub.cfg on upgrade, so most people should install grub-efi-ia32 instead.

and package details for: grub-efi-ia32:

Binary package “grub-efi-ia32” in ubuntu trusty

GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-IA32 version)

 GRUB is a portable, powerful bootloader. This version of GRUB is based on a
 cleaner design than its predecessors, and provides the following new features:
 
  - Scripting in grub.cfg using BASH-like syntax.
  - Support for modern partition maps such as GPT.
  - Modular generation of grub.cfg via update-grub. Packages providing GRUB
    add-ons can plug in their own script rules and trigger updates by invoking
    update-grub.
 
 This package contains a version of GRUB that has been built for use with
 EFI-IA32 architecture, such as the one provided by Intel Macs (that is, unless
 a BIOS interface has been activated).

So that would be: yes.

Answer 3

Yes and No:

• No from the installation point of view, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-cdimage/+bug/1025555
• Yes once the system is installed, as you can install the grub-efi-ia32 package.