Supporting UEFI With Linux

UEFI is a cross-vendor industry standard that replaces the traditional BIOS on x86 hardware. It is becoming increasingly popular, and is likely to be near-ubiquitous in new hardware by the end of 2012. The transition isn't transparent - Linux must adapt to the changes. But what does UEFI give us? This presentation will cover the differences between UEFI and BIOS, the advantages that it brings to Linux and the problems posed by certain aspects of the specification, such as secure boot. The presentation will be a fairly high level overview of UEFI, discussing the recent work carried out with Linux to provide high-quality integration and functional advantages. The audience will not need a strong familiarity with the existing PC boot mechanisms or any understanding of kernel code.