A unified kernel image (UKI) is a single executable bootable from UEFI firmware

wiki.archlinux.org

9 pointsandrewstuart7 comments

This sounds awesome! So what’s the catch?

Why would there be a catch?

This is UEFI we’re talking about. It’s got a certain reputation.

I see two potential snags: you can't change the kernel command line, and you cannot downgrade to a known-buggy kernel version.

There is some flexibility around the kernel command line, so in practice you may still be able to use some whitelisted kernel parameters. (If your distro puts in the effort.)

Lack of downgrades could be a problem. You might upgrade the kernel and find that it is broken, and that you've also lost the ability to boot your previous kernel.

Both risks seem acceptable in a corporate environment, but perhaps not for the home user.

I wish BSD had this.

Not a BSD guy but given what I understand this struck me as a weird comment.

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/18733 you sure it's not supported?

I'm pretty sure that none of the BSDs have an EFI stub option, and they need a separate EFI bootloader. I could be wrong, but I did check this about a year ago.

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