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EFI Shell is the new (built-in) MS-DOS. I'm waiting for someone to make doom.efi :-) The the entire OS to BIOS API changed with UEFI. I've seen bugs where th

EFI Shell is the new (built-in) MS-DOS. I'm waiting for someone to make doom.efi :-) The the entire OS to BIOS API changed with UEFI. I've seen bugs where the BIOS int 15 ax=E820 memory map does not match the EFI memory map passed to Linux. All of this to support > 2TB drives.

wtallis 12y ago
EFI isn't about 2+TB drives. That's just GPT, which could have been implemented in a traditional BIOS. EFI was created because Intel needed something for the Itanium chips to run, and they didn't want to implement OpenFirmware. EFI came to the PC because Apple wasn't interested in starting a 16-bit 8086 programming division, and the rest of the industry followed suit because it was easier than squeezing more things into the 16-bit BIOS. Now that we've got both EFI and GPT widely available, we can have machines that can do things like fetch and install their own firmware updates and we can have sane dual-booting.
- barrkel 12y ago
  However, in the meantime, we have to live with "complications" like a frequent lack of support on Linux for decent console drivers in UEFI boots. For example, technically the nVidia proprietary driver doesn't support framebuffer console on UEFI boots, and if you don't get the parameters just right, you can end up in the hilarious situation of typing your full disk encryption password blind to a blank screen visibly indistinguishable from a crashed bootloader.
  - yuhong 12y ago
    I have been saying that BIOSes needs a proper support lifecycle and bug reporting channel for both security and non-security bugs for a while now.
geofft 12y ago
You can find a python.efi from a few places like Tianocore... it's the new ROM BASIC.
userbinator 12y ago
I'm waiting for someone to make doom.efi It's been done: http://warfish.github.io/doom-uefi/ http://warfish.github.io/doom-uefi/ Source code is here: https://github.com/warfish/DOOM https://github.com/warfish/DOOM

wtallis 12y ago

EFI isn't about 2+TB drives. That's just GPT, which could have been implemented in a traditional BIOS. EFI was created because Intel needed something for the Itanium chips to run, and they didn't want to implement OpenFirmware. EFI came to the PC because Apple wasn't interested in starting a 16-bit 8086 programming division, and the rest of the industry followed suit because it was easier than squeezing more things into the 16-bit BIOS. Now that we've got both EFI and GPT widely available, we can have machines that can do things like fetch and install their own firmware updates and we can have sane dual-booting.

barrkel 12y ago
However, in the meantime, we have to live with "complications" like a frequent lack of support on Linux for decent console drivers in UEFI boots. For example, technically the nVidia proprietary driver doesn't support framebuffer console on UEFI boots, and if you don't get the parameters just right, you can end up in the hilarious situation of typing your full disk encryption password blind to a blank screen visibly indistinguishable from a crashed bootloader.
- yuhong 12y ago
  I have been saying that BIOSes needs a proper support lifecycle and bug reporting channel for both security and non-security bugs for a while now.

geofft 12y ago

You can find a python.efi from a few places like Tianocore... it's the new ROM BASIC.

userbinator 12y ago

I'm waiting for someone to make doom.efi It's been done: http://warfish.github.io/doom-uefi/ http://warfish.github.io/doom-uefi/ Source code is here: https://github.com/warfish/DOOM https://github.com/warfish/DOOM