Is Ubuntu Server 16.04 on UEFI stable?

Solution 1:

Ubuntu is stable in EFI mode.

In 2015, the biggest issue was secure boot and varying implementations of EFI (some quite buggy) as manufacturers tried to do what MS wanted instead of meeting a standard.

Currently, Ubuntu has a signed loader and kernel; however, secure boot has to be turned off to install. EFI firmware has become more standardized.

Dual booting with Windows still causes some issues, as Windows always tries to take over booting.

Solution 2:

This is at least the third time I install Ubuntu in UEFI mode (I'm not really counting). Some of them were single-system configurations (I just erase Windows).

It's easy and stable.

Just remember to boot the LiveUSB in UEFI mode, so it will know it is supposed to install the bootloader corresponding to UEFI. (I forgot a couple of times and it's annoying to search around trying to understand what went wrong.)

You may need to disable Secure Boot at the BIOS menu.

Solution 3:

My answer is go on and install it but make sure there are no non-Unix existing OS on the system. UEFI is an open standard and any OS meant for PCs will be built with this in mind. The point is not only about Ubuntu but if the Linux kernel is aware of UEFI and my answer is yes Ubuntu (as well the Kernel) supports this. This info about EFI and the GNU/Linux kernel is here https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub_kernel

Here is a link for Ubuntu with regards to Dell servers including specifics on EFI. https://linux.dell.com/files/supportmatrix/Ubuntu_Support_Matrix.pdf

Here is a link showing how dedicated canonical are in supporting various hardware and mostly Dell hardware. http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/b/techcenter/archive/2010/09/27/dell-poweredge-servers-certified-with-ubuntu-server-edition