Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S965778Ab2FATNs (ORCPT ); Fri, 1 Jun 2012 15:13:48 -0400 Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([198.137.202.10]:43213 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S933654Ab2FATNq (ORCPT ); Fri, 1 Jun 2012 15:13:46 -0400 Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2012 12:13:34 -0700 From: tip-bot for Matt Fleming Message-ID: Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, mjg@redhat.com, hpa@zytor.com, mingo@kernel.org, rdunlap@xenotime.net, tglx@linutronix.de, matt.fleming@intel.com Reply-To: mingo@kernel.org, hpa@zytor.com, mjg@redhat.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, tglx@linutronix.de, rdunlap@xenotime.net, matt.fleming@intel.com In-Reply-To: <1331907517-3985-4-git-send-email-matt@console-pimps.org> References: <1331907517-3985-4-git-send-email-matt@console-pimps.org> To: linux-tip-commits@vger.kernel.org Subject: [tip:x86/efi] x86, efi: Add EFI boot stub documentation Git-Commit-ID: 0c7596621e313bfcfbacb288e768c7150f5de9e0 X-Mailer: tip-git-log-daemon Robot-ID: Robot-Unsubscribe: Contact to get blacklisted from these emails MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Disposition: inline X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.6 (terminus.zytor.com [127.0.0.1]); Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:13:40 -0700 (PDT) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 4464 Lines: 117 Commit-ID: 0c7596621e313bfcfbacb288e768c7150f5de9e0 Gitweb: http://git.kernel.org/tip/0c7596621e313bfcfbacb288e768c7150f5de9e0 Author: Matt Fleming AuthorDate: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:03:13 +0000 Committer: H. Peter Anvin CommitDate: Fri, 1 Jun 2012 09:11:41 -0700 x86, efi: Add EFI boot stub documentation Since we can't expect every user to read the EFI boot stub code it seems prudent to have a couple of paragraphs explaining what it is and how it works. The "initrd=" option in particular is tricky because it only understands absolute EFI-style paths (backslashes as directory separators), and until now this hasn't been documented anywhere. This has tripped up a couple of users. Cc: Matthew Garrett Cc: Randy Dunlap Signed-off-by: Matt Fleming Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1331907517-3985-4-git-send-email-matt@console-pimps.org Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin --- Documentation/x86/efi-stub.txt | 65 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ arch/x86/Kconfig | 2 + 2 files changed, 67 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/x86/efi-stub.txt b/Documentation/x86/efi-stub.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44e6bb6 --- /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. diff --git a/arch/x86/Kconfig b/arch/x86/Kconfig index d700811..c70684f 100644 --- a/arch/x86/Kconfig +++ b/arch/x86/Kconfig @@ -1506,6 +1506,8 @@ config EFI_STUB This kernel feature allows a bzImage to be loaded directly by EFI firmware without the use of a bootloader. + See Documentation/x86/efi-stub.txt for more information. + config SECCOMP def_bool y prompt "Enable seccomp to safely compute untrusted bytecode" -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/