> On May 20, 2015, at 5:06 PM, Jim Dines <james.di...@logicsupply.com> wrote:
>
> Hello EDK II Devs,
>
> Apologies if this isn't the best place to ask this. I've been lurking a bit
> and while it is mostly commits here, I have seen the occasional question from
> people trying to understand UEFI, and they didn't seem to meet with
> hostility, so I thought I'd try. By all means, if there is a better place
> for me to ask this please do give me a "gentle kick" in the right direction
> :-)
>
> I have spent a fair amount of time investigating UEFI. I have the EDK II
> installed and I have successfully created a bootable USB Stick with the UEFI
> shell, the Python interpreter, the HelloWorld AppPkg, etc.
>
> All this I need to know and it has been very useful, but now I am at a
> cross-roads. I need to decide if I should go down the rabbit hole and try to
> leverage UEFI to acheive my goals, or if I should stick with the current
> approach are using of using BIOS and/or UEFI to boot a non-UEFI Based
> solution.
>
> My idealistic goal is very simple:
>
> Create a UEFI Based Software System that can do Hardware Validation /
> Verification in a cross platform way, such that the 64 bit Intel/AMD version
> tests the NIC, USB System, COM Subsystem, RAM, etc. in a dynamic way without
> the need to write custom code for each system. In order for this project to
> be feasible the same code must run on multiple motherboards from multiple
> manufacturers without the need to write custom code for each system.
>
> In other words:
>
> As I try the code on different motherboards from different manufacturers
> is it feasible to write code abstractly such that it determines the hardware
> at runtime and tests it sans intimate knowledge of the Chipsets, etc?
UEFI gives you a software abstraction for the hardware your are dealing with.
UEFI is an industry standard and it abstracts hardware specifics from
operating systems so that they can boot. Several times a year the UEFI Forum
has a Plugfest, like this week, and you can show up and run software on a large
number of system provided by BIOS Vendors, OEMs, and even talk to OS vendors
and other ISVs. Seems like your only other option is to boot some stripped down
OS and do testing.
>
> Finally, if it is feasible I assume I would need to understand, and stick to,
> the bare minimum that UEFI compliance guarantees, but I have yet to find
> where that is documented. Is there a central location that documents this
> all in one place, or do you have to search through the entire spec and cherry
> pich them?
>
The specs (Industry Standards) exist at: http://www.uefi.org/specsandtesttools
<http://www.uefi.org/specsandtesttools> There is also a Self Certification
Test. I think you want to read 2.6 Requirements in the UEFI spec?
The MdePkg, https://svn.code.sf.net/p/edk2/code/trunk/edk2/MdePkg/
<https://svn.code.sf.net/p/edk2/code/trunk/edk2/MdePkg/>, contains headers for
the standard specs, and a bunch of generic library infrastructure. Thus the
MdpPkg is like a DDK.
Thanks,
Andre Fish
> Apologies for the length of my post, but I'm hoping the added information
> will provide helpful context to whomever might have an answer or set of
> answers for me.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jim Dines
>
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