Re: EFI boot: can we make loader.efi work as BOOT{x64, aa64, arm, ia32}.efi?

On Sun, Jul 31, 2016 at 12:20 AM, Xin Li <delphij_at_delphij.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I finally got some time to explore the UEFI boot process (kudos to
> everyone who made this work!) and getting myself familiarize with the
> basics.
>
> One quick question -- Is there some technical restriction that prevents
> us from merging boot1.efi and loader.efi into one binary?

Yes. There's many technical reasons. Don't do it.

loader.efi loads all the forth stuff from the partition it was loaded from.
If you merge, it cannot do that.

boot.efi should implement the UEFI boot manager protocol, but doesn't.
Once it does, it can't be merged with loader.efi.

We have deep issues with loader.efi if you have any system that's
even a little complex. As these issues have come up, some have
been fixed, but others haven't. It hasn't been possible, without
ugly hacks, to boot off ping / pong partitions on the same disk
for example.

Please do not do this. It is a really bad idea.

Warner