ISO options: MBR vs UEFI

Beginners
1

Created a Linux Mint iso using Rufus and opted for UEFI instead of MBR, as that is what most instructions indicate.

To test, I ran live mode from the USB on a Windows 8.1 laptop, and it loaded fine and very early tests seem like it’s working, but at least 4 times during the launch I received identical error messages:

“1.55 No irq handler for vector”

I tried installing a more updated BIOS driver from HP, but it failed. Trying to create the BIOS recovery partition also failed. And in fact for about half an hour I thought my machine was bricked. But it finally booted up…with the original older legacy BIOS intact.

So…after much research, the only explanation I have is that the BIOS on the Windows 8.1 is “Legacy” and the flashed ISO was created for UEFI.

Has anyone else experienced this?

2

I am NOT real sure about an ISO specifically for UEFI, but I do know on windows machines the UEFI option needs to be disabled.

Anyway - this guys vid may help because it’s pretty specific

3

Generally speaking, the USB boot-loader will auto-discover if your system is legacy BIOS or UEFI - and will handle it accordingly.

Per the IRQ handler, it has been a bit of an issue up until - at least - Kernel 5.8. Linux Mint runs Kernel 5.4, but, as I have seen with several users, this isn’t a worrisome issue. When it comes to laptops, this has to do mainly with the ACPI sections, which are for power management, i.e. suspend, hibernation, etc.