"Arm devices are everywhere today and many of them run Linux. The operating system also powers cloud computing and IT environments all over the world. However, x86 is still the dominant architecture of global computer hardware, where the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) with Secure Boot incorporated is a standard. But what does UEFI look like from an Arm perspective?"
"As a quick reminder: UEFI was initially developed by Intel as a firmware for its Itanium-based high-end datacenter computers. That was in the late '90s and early 2000s, when it was simply called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface). In 2005, Intel handed its development over to the Unified EFI forum. Around that time the first open source implementation of UEFI - called Tiano - was released as well."
"UEFI addresses some scalability challenges - e.g. large disks - as well as security concerns. And this is where Secure Boot comes into the picture. But this evolutionary step went mostly unnoticed until late 2011, when Microsoft announced that Windows 8 hardware certification would require UEFI and Secure Boot. That announcement caused concern and passionate discussion in the Linux community. Why? It soon transpired that Linux wouldn't boot on those devices by default."
UEFI originated as Intel's EFI for Itanium systems and evolved into a standardized firmware under the Unified EFI Forum, with open-source implementations like Tiano. UEFI addressed scalability challenges such as large-disk support and introduced security features exemplified by Secure Boot. Microsoft's Windows 8 hardware certification requirement for UEFI and Secure Boot in late 2011 created boot compatibility issues for Linux, since many devices would not boot unsigned kernels by default. The Linux community and vendors adopted a Microsoft-signed shim EFI binary to chainload trusted bootloaders and restore compatibility. The interaction between UEFI, Secure Boot, and Arm platforms remains a separate consideration.
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