Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 12:04:39 +0400 From: "Andrey V. Elsukov" <ae@FreeBSD.org> To: Eric McCorkle <eric@shadowsun.net> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Marcel Moolenaar <marcel@FreeBSD.org>, rpaulo@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: GSoC Project: EFI on amd64/i386 Message-ID: <4FAB7697.50706@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <4FA95960.7090908@shadowsun.net> References: <4FA95960.7090908@shadowsun.net>
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On 08.05.2012 21:35, Eric McCorkle wrote: > I'd also like to start a discussion on the matter, since it seems > there are several ways that this could be done. Also, I know Rui > Paulo was working on this a while back. If anyone knows the approach > he was taking, that would be helpful. The way IA-64 handles booting > might also be helpful. I hope Rui and Marcel can share their experience. > * An EFI boot service could potentially function similarly to > [zfs]loader. Alternatively, it could function like gpt[zfs]boot, > though this might require modifying loader(8) since EFI boot services > run in protected/long mode, and have different system information > table formats. > > * How much of what EFI provides do we want to use? There are > advantages and disadvantages both ways. My thoughts on how this should work: Our EFI loader should be placed to the EFI system partition. UEFI firmware executes it and loader works like non-UEFI loader does. I.e. it searches freebsd partitions via libefi and loads kernel. > * How much of the kernel needs to be changed to boot/run from an EFI boot? I think it is not needed. > * It seems possible to support booting from legacy BIOS as well as EFI > (install a protective MBR, and gpt[zfs]boot on a FreeBSD boot > partition, install the EFI boot loader in a way that the EFI firmware > will find it and load it, and the system itself on another partition). > Is it worth trying to do this? We already can boot via PMBR+gpt[zfs]boot, but EFI loader should not depend on that. -- WBR, Andrey V. Elsukov
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