Linux 6.14 Drops EFI's Long Obsolete UGA Protocol

Written by Michael Larabel in Hardware on 25 January 2025 at 06:35 AM EST. 8 Comments
HARDWARE
The EFI updates have been merged for the Linux 6.14 kernel. The EFI updates this cycle aren't the most exciting but the kernel has finally bid farewell to the long obsolete UGA graphics protocol support.

The Linux kernel EFI code has now stripped away the Universal Graphics Adapter (UGA) protocol. UGA was part of the original EFI 1.0 specification for handling graphics features. But UGA ended up being replaced by the Graphics Output Protocol (GOP).

UGA support is very rare and has long been deprecated, so it should be safe removing it now without any (or incredibly rare) fallout given the pervasiveness of GOP support.

The EFI changes for Linux 6.14 also fix some warnings, fixes an x86 EFI stub build failure on GCC 15, and also now ensures synchronization of EFI variables with the underlying variable store on resume from hibernation in case there were changes by the firmware itself or another running OS. More details on the EFI changes this cycle via this Git merge.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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