From 61d695704095818d3ade38baa3f18b147e5643d1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Raito Bezarius Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:18:47 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] 0153-uefi-only: init --- rfcs/0153-uefi-only.md | 89 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 89 insertions(+) create mode 100644 rfcs/0153-uefi-only.md diff --git a/rfcs/0153-uefi-only.md b/rfcs/0153-uefi-only.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..572ecd72f --- /dev/null +++ b/rfcs/0153-uefi-only.md @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +--- +feature: uefi_boot_only +start-date: 2023-06-16 +author: Ryan Lahfa +co-authors: (find a buddy later to help out with the RFC) +shepherd-team: (names, to be nominated and accepted by RFC steering committee) +shepherd-leader: (name to be appointed by RFC steering committee) +related-issues: (will contain links to implementation PRs) +--- + +# Summary +[summary]: #summary + +NixOS should drop support for legacy boot and assumes that +all systems can be booted off UEFI. +For legacy boot systems, an UEFI-providing environment bootloader should be used to polyfill +for UEFI features. + +# Motivation +[motivation]: #motivation + +Legacy boot is defined by the BIOS Boot specification, written in 1996: https://www.scs.stanford.edu/nyu/04fa/lab/specsbbs101.pdf. +Nowadays, computers are defaulting to UEFI more and more for the extended features provided (e.g. SecureBoot, native network boot, etc.). + +Nevertheless, many legacy boots machines or machines that does not have support for UEFI are used with NixOS: Single Board Computers for example +on other architectures. + +In nixpkgs, legacy boot forces a dichotomy between `boot.loader.efi` and... two legacy bootloaders: GRUB and a family of UBoot/extlinux-compatible/etc. + +In the case of GRUB, there are increasing problems with this bootloader: + +- Upstream do not do releases anymore: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-unstable/pkgs/tools/misc/grub/default.nix#L62-L350 +- Co-maintenance / release work with other ecosystems such as the kernel is simply not done: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-unstable/pkgs/tools/misc/grub/default.nix#L345-L349 causing GRUB's drivers to explode in production for our users: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/235222 +- Our own maintenance of GRUB is subpar: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/227741 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/226821 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/195805 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/95901 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/236027 +- GRUB installation procedure uses `install-grub.pl`, one of the remaining Perl script: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/95901#issuecomment-756702696 offered to rewrite it with sponsoring, but no one took the offer yet, it is also very complicated to integrate with it: https://github.com/nix-community/lanzaboote/pull/96 +- GRUB installation procedure for UEFI-only is still confusing because our scripts does not handle well UEFI-only (you have to pass `nodev` and this is not very well documented). See https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/222491 + +The worse about this, is this is our **default** bootloader for our install images **because** of legacy boot. + +In the case of UBoot/extlinux-compatible/etc. : we should definitely keep it as it is used by other ecosystems. + +Getting rid of legacy boot opens up the way to get rid of GRUB as a default and enable all our users to benefit from UEFI-in-mind developed abstractions. + +BIOS also hold back all improvements in the boot story, considering we are not held back by this, is very interesting for NixOS. + +# Detailed design +[design]: #detailed-design + +Legacy boot is booted via UBoot or any bootloader able to provide an UEFI environment. + +Then, we boot using any usual bootloader, e.g. systemd-boot. + +# Examples and Interactions +[examples-and-interactions]: #examples-and-interactions + +Fedora is considering doing this: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/GOETDM5SWINBX5ZDV37SWMHIPRRUVVTT/. + +Asahi Linux is booting UEFI via UBoot without EFI variables and it has been great for them. + +People who want to boot off strange partitions at boot-time can exploit UEFI drivers capability to load any filesystem driver and +open the EFI System Partition in ZFS if they really insist. + +# Drawbacks +[drawbacks]: #drawbacks + +- 2-stage boot for legacy BIOS systems is more than 1-stage boot +- Increased internal complexity in the boot story of NixOS +- Increased load and reliance on UBoot +- The runtime service `SetVariable` will probably stay highly unstable for a while (variable storage) + +# Alternatives +[alternatives]: #alternatives + +- Keeping legacy BIOS and hoping someday it will be a bit more maintained +- Getting rid of legacy BIOS without other options + +Then, if we don't do this, we will continue to have users relying on bootloaders with shady maintenance stories and a skewed perception of what a bootloader can do (e.g. boot on a ZFS partition?). + +# Unresolved questions +[unresolved]: #unresolved-questions + +- When to do it? +- What to do about variable storage (Asahi Linux showed this is not that important for a start)? +- Design architecture in nixpkgs? + +# Future work +[future]: #future-work + +- Improved support for UEFI features on non-UEFI native systems