Bare-Metal UEFI Programming Guide for Linux Devs
Original: First steps in bare-metal programming using UEFI
Why This Matters
Accessible UEFI bare-metal docs are rare; this fills a real gap for systems developers.
Developer Kevin Boone has published a 5-part series on bare-metal UEFI programming for PC hardware, targeting experienced Linux developers with no prior UEFI knowledge, covering tooling, compilation, and bootable disk creation.
Kevin Boone's five-part tutorial series walks Linux developers through writing bare-metal applications that run directly on UEFI firmware, bypassing any operating system. The series assumes solid Linux development experience but zero UEFI background, making it a practical entry point for systems programmers looking to go lower in the stack.
The articles are designed to be read in sequence, with each part building on the last. Part 1 covers compiling and linking for UEFI targets. Part 2 explains the EFI system partition. Part 3 tackles creating bootable DVD or USB flash images. Part 4 is described as a 'pragmatic digression'—likely addressing real-world gotchas—and Part 5 covers file handling via the Simple File Protocol.
The content is hosted on Boone's personal site and represents the kind of low-level documentation that rarely gets written up clearly. UEFI programming sits in an awkward gap: too high-level for firmware veterans, too alien for most application developers.