Keeping Technical Professionals Up-To-Date  

Using the UEFI Shell
 A Self-study Course

Legacy BIOS has been retired on most new x86-based 32- and 64-bit platforms. It has been replaced by firmware producing the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). One of the many appealing features of this new firmware architecture is that it provides a pre-OS execution environment that we can access and exploit through a shell.
This course walks you through all standard capabilities of the UEFI shell, and shows, through hands-on exercises, how you can configuration the system, load and configure additional drivers, access and run disk-based utilities, leverage the powerful scripting capabilities, and install UEFI/GPT-enabled operating systems.

You will benefit from this course if you

• Design, configure, validate, or test hardware and software/firmware that depends on UEFI data structures

• Currently are running DOS-based utilities and want to migrate them to a protected mode environment, making use of all features of a modern processor and system

• Need or want to keep abreast with the latest on how a computing platform is initialized

You will learn how to

• Start the shell on a UEFI-enabled platform

• Leverage the power of the built-in commands

• Find, load, and use the many available EFI utilities, configuration routines, and other applications that are available

• Write and run UEFI shell scripts

Prerequisites

Students are expected to have a technical background. Our Tiano & UEFI Architecture course is a good primer for this course. Alternatively the UEFI Platform Initialization Specification documentation can serve as preparation. Basic knowledge of x86 system architecture and processor technology, memory and I/O addressing, standard peripherals, and C language programming, is expected.

The training approach

• Real Hands-On: You can run all exercises either in a virtual machine or on your own UEFI-enabled system.

• Up to date information: We update the materials on an on-going basis, at least every three months. (That’s why you don’t get a text book but a small print run manual!)

• Straightforward explanations: Technical concepts and terms are explained in plain English. After completing this course you will have a thorough understanding of the power of the UEFI shell.

Course topics

The UEFI Shell

• What, exactly, is a “shell?”

• The four defined UEFI shell “levels”

• Additional shell profiles
  o Debug
  o Network
  o Driver support

The Execution Environment

• Single user/Single tasking

• Processor mode and privilege level

• UEFI API overview
  o File manipulation
  o Mapping
  o Aliasing
  o Environment variables

• Starting the shell

The Commands

• Configuring the environment

• Built-in commands

• Commands provided by EDK and EDKII

Running EFI Applications

• System setup

• OS installation

• Disk utilities

• Diagnostics

• Test

Scripting

• Available commands

• Writing and debugging scripts

• Passing parameters

• Running scripts

• Return codes

• The startup.nsh script

Hands-On exercises

All hands-on exercises can be performed in the supplied virtual machine or on your own UEFI-enabled hardware and are an integral part of this course! The chapters have integrated exercises that allow you to practice as you go along. There is also a bigger lab at the end of each chapter, designed to reinforce your new knowledge. The lab instructions are written in plain English with a minimum of “technobabble.” They also contain the information you need to implement your new skills in the workplace.
 

Courses  |  Schedule a Course  |  About Us  |  Contact Us  |  Home

Copyright © 2005-2011, Techstream Inc. All rights reserved