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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/x86/efi-stub.txt | 65 |
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diff --git a/Documentation/x86/efi-stub.txt b/Documentation/x86/efi-stub.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..44e6bb6ead10 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/x86/efi-stub.txt @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ + The EFI Boot Stub + --------------------------- + +On the x86 platform, a bzImage can masquerade as a PE/COFF image, +thereby convincing EFI firmware loaders to load it as an EFI +executable. The code that modifies the bzImage header, along with the +EFI-specific entry point that the firmware loader jumps to are +collectively known as the "EFI boot stub", and live in +arch/x86/boot/header.S and arch/x86/boot/compressed/eboot.c, +respectively. + +By using the EFI boot stub it's possible to boot a Linux kernel +without the use of a conventional EFI boot loader, such as grub or +elilo. Since the EFI boot stub performs the jobs of a boot loader, in +a certain sense it *IS* the boot loader. + +The EFI boot stub is enabled with the CONFIG_EFI_STUB kernel option. + + +**** How to install bzImage.efi + +The bzImage located in arch/x86/boot/bzImage must be copied to the EFI +System Partiion (ESP) and renamed with the extension ".efi". Without +the extension the EFI firmware loader will refuse to execute it. It's +not possible to execute bzImage.efi from the usual Linux file systems +because EFI firmware doesn't have support for them. + + +**** Passing kernel parameters from the EFI shell + +Arguments to the kernel can be passed after bzImage.efi, e.g. + + fs0:> bzImage.efi console=ttyS0 root=/dev/sda4 + + +**** The "initrd=" option + +Like most boot loaders, the EFI stub allows the user to specify +multiple initrd files using the "initrd=" option. This is the only EFI +stub-specific command line parameter, everything else is passed to the +kernel when it boots. + +The path to the initrd file must be an absolute path from the +beginning of the ESP, relative path names do not work. Also, the path +is an EFI-style path and directory elements must be separated with +backslashes (\). For example, given the following directory layout, + +fs0:> + Kernels\ + bzImage.efi + initrd-large.img + + Ramdisks\ + initrd-small.img + initrd-medium.img + +to boot with the initrd-large.img file if the current working +directory is fs0:\Kernels, the following command must be used, + + fs0:\Kernels> bzImage.efi initrd=\Kernels\initrd-large.img + +Notice how bzImage.efi can be specified with a relative path. That's +because the image we're executing is interpreted by the EFI shell, +which understands relative paths, whereas the rest of the command line +is passed to bzImage.efi. |