UEFI support in mkwinpeimg
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:53 am
wimlib includes a wonderful tool that can be used to compile a PE image on Linux: mkwinpeimg. However, it is not capable of creating an image that could be booted in UEFI mode.
Now that wasn't a big problem for a long time, as most machines could be booted into Legacy/CSM mode. However, more and more machines have been delivered in the past few years whose BIOS is only willing to boot from the internal disk in UEFI mode. And for this to work, the Windows installation media also has to be booted in UEFI mode, otherwise it'll assume there is no UEFI support in that machine, and will deploy Windows to the internal disk accordingly, resulting in a non-bootable Windows deployment.
Now that wasn't a big problem for a long time, as most machines could be booted into Legacy/CSM mode. However, more and more machines have been delivered in the past few years whose BIOS is only willing to boot from the internal disk in UEFI mode. And for this to work, the Windows installation media also has to be booted in UEFI mode, otherwise it'll assume there is no UEFI support in that machine, and will deploy Windows to the internal disk accordingly, resulting in a non-bootable Windows deployment.