UEFI support status

Registered by Jeremy Kerr

Current status of UEFI support in Ubuntu. Discussion of pre-UDS testing, discussion of new areas we'd like to support, and bugs that need fixing.

Blueprint information

Status:
Not started
Approver:
Jeremy Kerr
Priority:
Essential
Drafter:
None
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
Canonical Hardware Enablement
Definition:
Discussion
Series goal:
Accepted for precise
Implementation:
Unknown
Milestone target:
milestone icon ubuntu-12.04

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

= Existing support =

We'd like participants to come to this session with results from testing various UEFI implementations running Ubuntu. Some things we'd like to pre-test, per-implementation:

 * Does it boot at all? Without CSM?
 * USB boot device support
 * GOP video
 * PXE

Please add test results to: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Testing/UDS-P-UEFI

= Support plans =

We need to confirm that we have support for the following or have plan for it:
* Need to enable IA32 Ubuntu to support UEFI.
* Ubuntu 64bit network install (PXE) on UEFI systems, there were a few patches that were submitted by Red Hat to Grub to get this working. UEFI 2.3.1 has updated its network stack and fixed a few bugs. We need to make sure that we can get network install working with this network stack. Intel has said that they will post an UEFI firmware image for us to test with.
* Confirm that IPV6 support (and network install on IPV6) works. Intel will post UEFI firmware image for us to test with.
* The fast boot feature in UEFI 2.3.1 requires firmware to hand off control to boot loader in under 2 seconds, if OEMs want to display vendor specific information (Logo) the boot loader will need to do that. Do we plan on implementing this feature in the boot loader ?
* VGA will be replaced with GOP driver in UEFI 2.3.1, allowing higher display resolution at boot time. Do we plan to take advantage of this feature ?
* Ensure that we can install Ubuntu 64bit build on pure UEFI (2.3.1) systems, with no CSM support (ie no legacy bios support). Note, install of 32bit Ubuntu will not be possible on these systems since 32bit Ubuntu build does not support UEFI.
* Ubuntu ARM build UEFI support ?
* Ensure that we support UEFI implementation on major OEM systems.

(?)

Work Items

Dependency tree

* Blueprints in grey have been implemented.