Gummiboot UEFI Boot Loader To Be Added To Systemd

The newest feature being worked on for systemd? A boot loader, of course! It was revealed this weekend that systemd developers are looking at integrating Gummiboot into systemd.

At the Free Open-Source Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) in Brussels this weekend, Lennart Poettering explained that they're looking at adding Gummiboot to systemd. Why does systemd need a bootloader? For security reasons. Gummiboot is a simple UEFI boot manager that's been around for a few years but only receives new work from time-to-time.

Lennart and Kay Sievers are looking at adding Gummiboot to systemd to complete the safety chain of the boot process with UEFI Secure Boot. Systemd will communicate with this UEFI boot loader to ensure the system didn't boot into a compromised state.

Before many Phoronix readers get bent out of shape over systemd adding a boot loader on top of its many other features, Lennart says that the bootloader feature will remain option and you'll still be able to use systemd with GRUB2, etc.