From: Rick Jones on
Having used HP Integrity systems (Intel Itanium based) with EFI and
later UEFI on them, and having used from time to time x86 systems with
BIOS, I have to say I am rather more fond of the (U)EFI environment.
Yes, I understand one can chain boot loaders and whatnot, but the
ability to have multiple, otherwise disjoint (no chaining, don't care
if you pull one of them) boot discs has been a plus, as has the
"dbprofile" support. http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-6584/ch09s06.html

rick jones

having mentioned those things I suspect now I'll get a futher
education about BIOS :)

--
The glass is neither half-empty nor half-full. The glass has a leak.
The real question is "Can it be patched?"
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... :)
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...
From: Jonathan de Boyne Pollard on
>
>
> having mentioned those things I suspect now I'll get a futher
> education about BIOS :)
>
Very possibly, but I for one agree that chained boot managers/loaders
can be difficult to manage. Unfortunately, as I explain on my
Frequently Given Answer about the EFI boot process, EFI systems aren't
wholly free from such madness. (There you go. Further education about
EFI, instead. (-:)

From: Rick Jones on
In comp.arch Jonathan de Boyne Pollard <J.deBoynePollard-newsgroups(a)ntlworld.com> wrote:
> > having mentioned those things I suspect now I'll get a futher
> > education about BIOS :)
> >
> Very possibly, but I for one agree that chained boot
> managers/loaders can be difficult to manage. Unfortunately, as I
> explain on my Frequently Given Answer about the EFI boot process,
> EFI systems aren't wholly free from such madness. (There you go.
> Further education about EFI, instead. (-:)

Touche :) I'd love a pointer to your FGA/FAQ

rick jones

not having directly interacted with (U)EFI on x86 systems, wonders if
there is an HP Integrity style EFI boot menu etc.

--
oxymoron n, commuter in a gas-guzzling luxury SUV with an American flag
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... :)
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...
From: Scott Lurndal on
Rick Jones <rick.jones2(a)hp.com> writes:
>Having used HP Integrity systems (Intel Itanium based) with EFI and
>later UEFI on them, and having used from time to time x86 systems with
>BIOS, I have to say I am rather more fond of the (U)EFI environment.
>Yes, I understand one can chain boot loaders and whatnot, but the
>ability to have multiple, otherwise disjoint (no chaining, don't care
>if you pull one of them) boot discs has been a plus, as has the
>"dbprofile" support. http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-6584/ch09s06.html
>

The biggest advantage of UEFI is that it is _NOT_ a traditional
BIOS. Anyone who has had to develop a BIOS or develop for a traditional
BIOS knows how much of a chore it is; even if one can use flat real mode.

UFI runs in long mode if available, protected mode if not. It is much
less difficult to create modules (a la option ROM's) that can be loaded
into the UEFI framework as boot agents, network boot agents, or custom
mainboard initailization agents without needing an ancient 16-bit microsoft
compiler.

scott
From: Jim Stewart on
Scott Lurndal wrote:

> The biggest advantage of UEFI is that it is _NOT_ a traditional
> BIOS. Anyone who has had to develop a BIOS or develop for a traditional
> BIOS knows how much of a chore it is; even if one can use flat real mode.

But it makes for some damn fine job security...