On Monday 21 Mar 2011 21:06:24 Stefan Hajnoczi wrote: > On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 6:27 PM, Anthony Liguori <anth...@codemonkey.ws> wrote: > > On 03/21/2011 01:14 PM, Jordan Justen wrote: > >> This weekend I spent some time working on loading SeaBIOS from OVMF to > >> start a legacy boot. I was able to get x86& x86-64 Linux to legacy > >> boot using this method. > >> > >> Unfortunately, (I think) it is not nearly as nice a having a true CSM. > >> Basically, you have to decide at some point in the OVMF boot that you > >> want to legacy boot, and once you start SeaBIOS running, OVMF/UEFI > > > > Interesting. How much time does OVMF add to the total boot time when > > taking this approach? > > > >> will never be in the picture again (until system reset). > >> > >> Contrast this to using a CSM where you can: > >> * Load a legacy option ROM (vbios, or disk rom), > >> and use it during a UEFI boot > > > > Is there gPXE for UEFI yet? > > I have never tried it myself, but I think it should work. CCed > Michael Brown to check.
Yes, iPXE for UEFI exists and works. Last tested by me about a week ago, on various IBM UEFI systems. Compared to a "legacy" BIOS network boot, you can't do anything very interesting with UEFI. Features such as iSCSI, FCoE, AoE, HTTP all work with a "legacy" BIOS but not with UEFI. A "legacy" BIOS network boot allows you to boot an operating system; a UEFI network boot only allows you to boot an EFI executable (which could be a second-stage OS loader). UEFI as a platform has a long way to go before it matches the network boot functionality available through iPXE in a "legacy" BIOS. Michael
