Linux 4.11 Adds EFI Memory Attributes Table Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 4.11 Adds EFI Memory Attributes Table Support

The (U)EFI support continues to evolve within the Linux kernel and with the 4.11 release will be new and improved functionality...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.11-EFI-Updates

[uid313]

I use GRUB to boot Ubuntu.

Is GRUB still relevant these days, or does UEFI change anything?

Does GRUB provide any benefits?
Does GRUB have any drawbacks?

[AsuMagic]

I use GRUB to boot Ubuntu.

Is GRUB still relevant these days, or does UEFI change anything?

Does GRUB provide any benefits?
Does GRUB have any drawbacks?

It is generally much more compatible (it supports both regular BIOSes and UEFI), has a much larger community than the alternatives, and is generally more extensible and more feature-blown. But generally, it is more sluggish than others I've tried (systemd-boot, syslinux) and slightly slower to boot even with the menu disabled (or I've missed something). If it's OK for you, don't switch.

[gotwig]

theres no need for grub anymore because of EFI... and theres is systemd-boot.... so yes EFI changed everything and you only need systemd-boot and no grub .

[Adarion]

I still use Grub 1. It just works on my machines, it's small and relatively easy to configure. You have a plain-text file and can enter a new kernel in a matter of seconds. No messing around on other partitions. It does exactly what it is supposed to do: Boot from the 1st sector, offer a little menu, then boot a kernel.
I'll get around to others in the future, though.
But the bootloader itself is the smallest and least time consuming part of the boot process (unless you enter a long delay before the default is booted, of course). Firmware, kernel (depends on config and machine speed, though), init, X-org they all take usually longer.

UEFI can go to hell. It's was developed by insane people. It's very bloated, complex in an area that should be kept non-complex, highly insecure (network stack? For whose benefit? Not mine, clearly!), bug ridden. Machines got bricked because "userland" programs did what they were allowed - and stored something. Bam! Bricked.

And nobody needs animations of spinning fans in a BIOS-setup. Instead of using the space for better explanations of the setup options those people chose to go away from a working text res. interface towards a graphical interface with all sorts of non-sense.
Moreover I have seen some menus with a design that ended up being unreadable - white text on bright background. Useless!

Like all nowadays tech it's just painted in stupid colours, with fancy bells and whistles (that do not work if you actually want to use them) just to attract mindless people that choose their computers for the colour of its housing. Maybe a few non-consumer boards's FW is not that horrible in terms of interface, but one can't always afford those or simply doesn't need something like 2 CPU/APU sockets. And in case of UEFI those even have more functionality in them...

I'd so wish manufacturers would just offer their boards with Coreboot/LibreCore/Libreboot + Seabios or something.

Sorry for the rant but UEFI pisses me off and yesterday I had to witness people chosing a computer for the case's colour...

[phred14]

I find this wording a little worrisome in the original article: "describes memory protections that may be applied to EFI Runtime code and data regions by kernel." I read this to indicate that the kernel may also choose not to apply those memory protections. In other words, a rogue kernel module could compromise at least some of the presumed advantages of EFI?

[cj.wijtmans]

theres no need for grub anymore because of EFI... and theres is systemd-boot.... so yes EFI changed everything and you only need systemd-boot and no grub .

What does systemd-boot do exactly for EFI? EFI is very annoying to setup unless there is some tool set up boot options like grub-mkconfig but for EFI i am not aware about.

[Zan Lynx]

I just read some systemd-boot documentation. Very easy to find with Google.

It has configuration files that you can use to change kernel options. It doesn't look like you can edit the options on the fly like you can with GRUB, but you can boot, edit the files or add a new entry and reboot.

If you want to, you can directly boot a Linux kernel through EFI if Linux was compiled with an EFI stub. In that case you don't need any boot manager program but like you said, there aren't any easy tools for changing the kernel command-line options.

[cj.wijtmans]

I know you can. But untill there is grub-mkconfig replacement for efi i will be stuck with grub.

[starshipeleven]

theres no need for grub anymore because of EFI... and theres is systemd-boot.... so yes EFI changed everything and you only need systemd-boot and no grub .

There is also rEFInd, which has more features than systemd-boot (has a GUI, auto-scans for kernels and bootloaders on startup, has filesystem drivers for more than just FAT32), but uses the same principle (it is a EFI program relying on the board firmware).