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Name	Modified	Size
elilo-3.17.1-devuan.tar.gz	2026-06-03	92.2 kB
README.md	2026-06-03	27.0 kB
Totals: 2 Items		119.2 kB

elilo 3.17 — EFI Linux Loader

elilo is an EFI/UEFI bootloader for Linux. It loads the kernel and initrd directly from the EFI System Partition (ESP) and passes control to the kernel via the EFI Handover Protocol.

This is version 3.17, updated in 2026 to boot Linux 6.x on modern UEFI firmware. See the Changes from 3.14 section for a full account of what was fixed and why.

elilo is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (or, at your option, any later version). See License & Credits for the full list of copyright holders.

Requirements
Building from Source
Installation
Quick Install (Devuan/Debian)
Coexisting with GRUB
Finding Your EFI System Partition
Installing the Bootloader Files
Writing elilo.conf
Registering with the UEFI Boot Manager
Automatic Kernel Updates
Manual Kernel Updates
Partition Naming Reference
Changes from 3.14
Comparison with Slackware 15.0
License & Credits

Requirements

x86_64 UEFI firmware (version 2.0 or later)
Linux kernel 3.3 or later (boot protocol 2.12+, EFI Handover Protocol)
Tested with Linux 6.12 on Devuan Excalibur / Debian Trixie

To build from source:

gnu-efi >= 3.0.18 (tested with gnu-efi_3.0.18-1+deb13u1 from Debian Trixie)
GCC 12 or later
binutils with x86_64 EFI support

Building from Source

sudo apt-get install gnu-efi build-essential

cd elilo
make ARCH=x86_64

This produces elilo.efi in the top-level directory.

Installation

Quick Install (Devuan/Debian)

The easiest way to install elilo is with the included installer script. It auto-detects your ESP, root device, and disk layout, then handles everything in one command:

tar xzf elilo-3.17-devuan.tar.gz
cd elilo-3.17-devuan
sudo ./install-elilo.sh

The script will:

Create /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/ and copy elilo.efi
Install update-elilo to /usr/local/sbin/ and the kernel hooks to /etc/kernel/{postinst,postrm}.d/ so every future apt upgrade updates elilo automatically
Write /etc/elilo/update.conf with your detected ROOT_DEV and ELILO_DIR
Copy the current kernel and initrd to the ESP and generate elilo.conf
Register an elilo UEFI boot entry via efibootmgr

Review /etc/elilo/update.conf after the install if you want to adjust any settings, then reboot to test.

If you prefer to install step by step — or are on a non-Debian distro — see the manual installation sections below.

Coexisting with GRUB

You do not need to remove GRUB to install elilo. UEFI firmware maintains an ordered list of boot entries. You can add elilo as an additional entry and keep GRUB intact. If elilo fails to boot, simply select GRUB from the UEFI boot menu (usually reached by pressing F12, F9, Esc, or Del at startup depending on your firmware).

To set the default boot entry back to GRUB at any time:

# List all boot entries
efibootmgr

# Set GRUB as default (replace XXXX with GRUB's entry number)
sudo efibootmgr --bootorder XXXX,YYYY,...

It is strongly recommended to verify elilo boots correctly before removing any existing GRUB entry.

Finding Your EFI System Partition

The EFI System Partition (ESP) is a FAT32 partition with the EFI System partition type flag. Find it with:

lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,PARTTYPE,MOUNTPOINT

or:

sudo fdisk -l | grep -i efi

Common locations:

Device type	Typical ESP device
SATA / SCSI SSD or HDD	`/dev/sda1`
Second SATA drive	`/dev/sdb1`
NVMe SSD	`/dev/nvme0n1p1`
Second NVMe	`/dev/nvme1n1p1`
eMMC (embedded, tablets/netbooks)	`/dev/mmcblk0p1`
SD card	`/dev/mmcblk1p1`

The ESP is almost always the first partition. If you are unsure, check that the partition is FAT32 and is mounted at /boot/efi:

mount | grep efi
# or
cat /etc/fstab | grep efi

If the ESP is not already mounted, mount it:

sudo mount /dev/sdXY /boot/efi

Installing the Bootloader Files

Create a directory for elilo on the ESP and install the files:

sudo mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/elilo

# Install the bootloader binary
sudo cp elilo.efi /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/elilo.efi

# Copy the kernel and initrd to the ESP, keeping the versioned filename
# Replace the version string with the output of: uname -r
sudo cp /boot/vmlinuz-6.12.90+deb13-amd64    /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/vmlinuz-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
sudo cp /boot/initrd.img-6.12.90+deb13-amd64 /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/initrd.img-6.12.90+deb13-amd64

Note: elilo reads the kernel and initrd from the ESP (FAT32). The files must be copied there — symlinks are not supported on FAT32. Use the versioned filename (e.g. vmlinuz-6.12.90+deb13-amd64) rather than a generic name so it is always clear which kernel version is on the ESP. When the kernel is upgraded, you must copy the new files and update elilo.conf manually (see Keeping elilo Up to Date).

Then write the config file (see next section) and copy it:

sudo cp elilo.conf /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/elilo.conf

elilo looks for elilo.conf in the same directory as elilo.efi by default.

Writing elilo.conf

The image= and initrd= paths are relative to the root of the ESP. The root= value is the Linux device name of your root filesystem partition — this is the partition elilo tells the kernel to mount as /, not the ESP itself.

Identify your root partition:

df -h /
# or
lsblk

Below are complete example configs for different hardware. Copy the one that matches your setup, adjust the root= device and append= line as needed, then save as /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/elilo.conf.

SATA / SCSI drive (sda, sdb, ...)

# elilo.conf — SATA/SCSI example
# ESP:  /dev/sda1
# Root: /dev/sda2

prompt
timeout=50
default=linux

image=/EFI/elilo/vmlinuz-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
  label=linux
  initrd=/EFI/elilo/initrd.img-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
  root=/dev/sda2
  append="ro quiet"

Replace 6.12.90+deb13-amd64 with your actual kernel version (uname -r). If your root partition is on a second drive or a different partition number, change root= accordingly — for example root=/dev/sdb3.

NVMe SSD (nvme0n1, nvme1n1, ...)

NVMe devices use a different naming scheme: the drive is nvme0n1 and partitions are nvme0n1p1, nvme0n1p2, etc.

# elilo.conf — NVMe example
# ESP:  /dev/nvme0n1p1
# Root: /dev/nvme0n1p2

prompt
timeout=50
default=linux

image=/EFI/elilo/vmlinuz-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
  label=linux
  initrd=/EFI/elilo/initrd.img-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
  root=/dev/nvme0n1p2
  append="ro quiet"

Replace 6.12.90+deb13-amd64 with your actual kernel version (uname -r). For a second NVMe drive use nvme1n1p2, and so on. If your root partition is on a different partition number, change root= accordingly — for example root=/dev/nvme0n1p3.

eMMC storage (mmcblk0, mmcblk1, ...)

eMMC devices follow the same pN suffix pattern as NVMe.

# elilo.conf — eMMC example
# ESP:  /dev/mmcblk0p1
# Root: /dev/mmcblk0p2

prompt
timeout=50
default=linux

image=/EFI/elilo/vmlinuz-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
  label=linux
  initrd=/EFI/elilo/initrd.img-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
  root=/dev/mmcblk0p2
  append="ro quiet"

Replace 6.12.90+deb13-amd64 with your actual kernel version (uname -r). For a second eMMC device use mmcblk1p2. If your root partition is on a different partition number, change root= accordingly — for example root=/dev/mmcblk0p3.

Multiple boot entries (e.g. fallback kernel)

# elilo.conf — multiple kernels
prompt
timeout=50
default=linux

image=/EFI/elilo/vmlinuz-6.13.5+deb13-amd64
  label=linux
  description="Devuan Linux 6.13 (current)"
  initrd=/EFI/elilo/initrd.img-6.13.5+deb13-amd64
  root=/dev/sda2
  append="ro quiet"

image=/EFI/elilo/vmlinuz-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
  label=linux.old
  description="Devuan Linux 6.12 (previous)"
  initrd=/EFI/elilo/initrd.img-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
  root=/dev/sda2
  append="ro quiet"

Replace the version strings with your current and previous kernel versions (uname -r gives the running version). Change root= to match your actual root partition — for example root=/dev/nvme0n1p2 or root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 for NVMe or eMMC systems.

Common append options

Option	Effect
`ro`	Mount root read-only at boot (standard)
`quiet`	Suppress most kernel messages
`nomodeset`	Disable kernel modesetting (safe fallback if display is blank)
`rootfstype=ext4`	Explicitly set root filesystem type
`init=/sbin/init`	Use sysvinit explicitly (Devuan/Artix)
`single`	Boot to single-user mode

Registering with the UEFI Boot Manager

After copying the files, register elilo as a UEFI boot entry. Replace /dev/sdX and the partition number with your actual ESP device.

SATA example (ESP on /dev/sda1):

sudo efibootmgr --create \
  --disk /dev/sda \
  --part 1 \
  --label "elilo" \
  --loader "\\EFI\\elilo\\elilo.efi"

NVMe example (ESP on /dev/nvme0n1p1):

sudo efibootmgr --create \
  --disk /dev/nvme0n1 \
  --part 1 \
  --label "elilo" \
  --loader "\\EFI\\elilo\\elilo.efi"

eMMC example (ESP on /dev/mmcblk0p1):

sudo efibootmgr --create \
  --disk /dev/mmcblk0 \
  --part 1 \
  --label "elilo" \
  --loader "\\EFI\\elilo\\elilo.efi"

Verify the entry was added:

efibootmgr -v

The new entry will appear in the boot order list. On the next reboot your firmware will offer both elilo and any existing entries (e.g. GRUB).

Automatic Kernel Updates

The most common complaint about elilo is being locked out after a kernel upgrade. The update-elilo script and kernel hooks in the scripts/ and hooks/ directories solve this: install them once and apt upgrade will automatically copy the new kernel to the ESP and regenerate elilo.conf, exactly as GRUB runs update-grub.

How it works

Debian/Devuan/Ubuntu run every script in /etc/kernel/postinst.d/ after each kernel package install, passing the new version as $1. The zz-update-elilo hook calls update-elilo, which copies the kernel and initrd to the ESP and rewrites elilo.conf with the new kernel as default and the previous kernel as a fallback entry. When a kernel is removed, the postrm hook deletes its files from the ESP and regenerates the config.

One-time setup

Step 1 — Install update-elilo:

sudo cp scripts/update-elilo /usr/local/sbin/update-elilo
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/sbin/update-elilo

Step 2 — Create the config directory and edit the config:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/elilo
sudo cp scripts/elilo-update.conf /etc/elilo/update.conf
sudo nano /etc/elilo/update.conf

Set these values to match your system:

ELILO_DIR=/boot/efi/EFI/elilo   # where elilo.efi lives on the ESP
ROOT_DEV=/dev/sda2               # your root partition (uname -r gives kernel; findmnt -n -o SOURCE / gives root)
APPEND="ro quiet"                # kernel parameters

Step 3 — Install the kernel hooks:

sudo cp hooks/postinst.d/zz-update-elilo /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-elilo
sudo cp hooks/postrm.d/zz-update-elilo   /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-elilo
sudo chmod 755 /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-elilo
sudo chmod 755 /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-elilo

Step 4 — Run update-elilo once to generate the initial config:

sudo update-elilo

This copies the current kernel to the ESP and writes elilo.conf. From this point on, apt upgrade handles everything automatically.

Note: update-elilo regenerates elilo.conf completely. If you have custom entries in your existing elilo.conf (e.g. dual-boot, extra parameters), back it up first and migrate any custom settings to /etc/elilo/update.conf before running it.

Other distributions

The update-elilo script itself is distro-agnostic. The hooks above are for Debian/Devuan/Ubuntu only. On Fedora/RHEL/openSUSE, install the hook to /etc/kernel/install.d/ instead. On Arch, create a pacman hook. On any distro you can run sudo update-elilo manually after each kernel upgrade.

Manual Kernel Updates

Warning: Without the automatic hooks above, elilo reads the kernel and initrd by filename from the ESP and has no way to find new kernels on its own. After every kernel upgrade you must manually copy the new files and update elilo.conf. Failure to do this will cause elilo to boot the old kernel or fail to find the kernel entirely.

Step 1 — Identify the new kernel:

ls /boot/vmlinuz-* /boot/initrd.img-*

You will see both the old and new versions, for example:

/boot/vmlinuz-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
/boot/vmlinuz-6.13.5+deb13-amd64   ← new
/boot/initrd.img-6.12.90+deb13-amd64
/boot/initrd.img-6.13.5+deb13-amd64 ← new

Step 2 — Copy the new kernel to the ESP:

sudo cp /boot/vmlinuz-6.13.5+deb13-amd64    /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/vmlinuz-6.13.5+deb13-amd64
sudo cp /boot/initrd.img-6.13.5+deb13-amd64 /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/initrd.img-6.13.5+deb13-amd64

Replace 6.13.5+deb13-amd64 with your actual new kernel version (uname -r on the running system gives the current version; the new one will be visible in ls /boot/vmlinuz-*).

Step 3 — Update elilo.conf:

Update the image= and initrd= lines in /boot/efi/EFI/elilo/elilo.conf:

image=/EFI/elilo/vmlinuz-6.13.5+deb13-amd64
  label=linux
  initrd=/EFI/elilo/initrd.img-6.13.5+deb13-amd64
  root=/dev/sda2
  append="ro quiet"

Keep the old kernel as a second entry (label linux-old) until the new kernel boots correctly, then remove it on the next upgrade.

If elilo fails to boot after a kernel upgrade: select GRUB (or your previous boot entry) from the UEFI firmware menu to boot the old kernel while you diagnose the problem.

Partition Naming Reference

Hardware	Drive	ESP (partition 1)	Root (partition 2)
SATA SSD / HDD, first drive	`/dev/sda`	`/dev/sda1`	`/dev/sda2`
SATA SSD / HDD, second drive	`/dev/sdb`	`/dev/sdb1`	`/dev/sdb2`
NVMe SSD, first drive	`/dev/nvme0n1`	`/dev/nvme0n1p1`	`/dev/nvme0n1p2`
NVMe SSD, second drive	`/dev/nvme1n1`	`/dev/nvme1n1p1`	`/dev/nvme1n1p2`
eMMC (built-in), first device	`/dev/mmcblk0`	`/dev/mmcblk0p1`	`/dev/mmcblk0p2`
SD card	`/dev/mmcblk1`	`/dev/mmcblk1p1`	`/dev/mmcblk1p2`

The partition numbers above assume a standard layout (ESP first, root second). Your layout may differ — always verify with lsblk or fdisk -l.

Changes from 3.14

elilo 3.14 was last updated in January 2011. It was written against gnu-efi 3.0 and Linux boot protocol 2.09. The fixes below make it build and boot correctly on modern UEFI firmware with Linux kernels in the 6.x series (tested with Debian/Devuan 6.12).

Fix 1 — Build: Add `.rodata` to objcopy sections

File: Make.rules

Modern GCC places string literals in .rodata, a section separate from .text. The original objcopy invocation did not include -j .rodata, so all Print() strings were silently dropped from the EFI binary. The resulting elilo.efi had no visible output at all.

# Before:
$(OBJCOPY) -j .text -j .sdata -j .data -j .dynamic ...

# After:
$(OBJCOPY) -j .text -j .sdata -j .data -j .rodata -j .dynamic ...

Fix 2 — Compile: Remove conflicting `StrnCpy` declaration

Files: strops.h, strops.c

gnu-efi 3.0.18 declares StrnCpy as returning VOID. elilo 3.14 declares it as returning CHAR16 *. GCC 12+ treats this as a hard type-conflict error.

Since no call site in elilo uses the return value, elilo's shadow declaration and implementation were removed. gnu-efi's version is used instead.

Fix 3 — Compile: `HandleProtocol` void-pointer cast

File: x86_64/system.c

HandleProtocol expects a VOID ** but elilo passed a typed pointer directly. Added the required (VOID **) cast.

Fix 4 — ABI bug: `SetMem` zeroed 0 bytes (config parse failure)

File: x86_64/sysdeps.h

This was the root cause of the (null) already defined error during config parsing.

elilo is compiled with SysV ABI (-DEFI_FUNCTION_WRAPPER). SetMem in libefi.a is declared EFIAPI (Microsoft x64 ABI), meaning its Size argument is passed in RCX. When called from SysV code, the compiler puts Size in RDX (the second SysV register), not RCX. SetMem reads zero from RCX and zeroes nothing. The config parser then found every label "already defined" because its lookup table was never cleared.

Fix: replace Memset(a,v,n) with ZeroMem((a),(n)). ZeroMem in the installed gnu-efi does not carry EFIAPI, so it uses SysV ABI and the call is correct without any wrapper.

Fix 5 — ABI bug: `CopyMem` corrupted boot_params copy

File: x86_64/sysdeps.h

The same MS-ABI problem affects CopyMem. It is declared EFIAPI in libefi.a. A direct call from SysV code passes arguments in the wrong registers, silently corrupting the copy of the kernel setup header into boot_params.

Fix: route all CopyMem calls through uefi_call_wrapper(CopyMem, 3, ...), which is the SysV→MS ABI trampoline already provided by gnu-efi for exactly this purpose.

Fix 6 — Bug: `config_error()` printed `(null)` for all messages

File: config.c

config_error() was calling IPrint without passing its va_list, so the format string was evaluated against garbage stack data. Changed to use VPrint with a proper va_list.

Fix 7 — Bug: File-read retry triggered on every successful read

File: (file operations layer)

The retry condition was ret != EFI_SUCCESS, which fired on every successful read that returned fewer bytes than requested (a normal short-read condition). The file was re-read from the beginning repeatedly. Changed to retry only on EFI_NOT_FOUND or EFI_TFTP_ERROR.

Fix 8 — Bug: `cmdline_addr` always zero

File: x86_64/system.c

Boot protocol 2.06+ locates the kernel command line via the absolute address in cmdline_addr. elilo was setting it to 0. The kernel therefore booted without any command-line arguments.

/* Before */
bp->s.cmdline_addr = 0x0;

/* After */
bp->s.cmdline_addr = (UINT32)(UINT64)cmdline;

Also added bp->s.loader_flags |= LDRFLAG_CAN_USE_HEAP so the kernel knows it may use the heap area.

Fix 9 — Bug: Kernel size ceiling too small for 6.x kernels

File: x86_64/bzimage.c

The original ceiling was kernel_size = 0x800000 (8 MB). The Debian 6.12 bzImage body is approximately 11.5 MB. The kernel body was truncated at 8 MB, meaning the EFI stub — which is appended at body offset ~11.4 MB — was never loaded into memory. Jumping to the handover entry address therefore landed in uninitialised memory.

Rather than guessing a new fixed limit, we read init_size from the kernel setup header and use it when it exceeds the default:

UINT32 init_sz = ps->s.pad_9[10];
if (init_sz > (UINT32)kernel_size)
    kernel_size = (UINTN)init_sz;

For the Debian 6.12 kernel init_size is 56 MB, which covers the full 11.5 MB compressed image with room to spare.

Slackware's patch instead increases the fixed limit to 16 MB. That is not enough for a 6.12 bzImage and would still truncate the EFI stub.

Fix 10 — Core boot fix: EFI Handover Protocol

Files: x86_64/sysdeps.h, elilo.c

elilo 3.14 boots by calling ExitBootServices() itself and then jumping directly to the kernel's protected-mode entry point. On modern UEFI firmware this fails: the kernel expects to manage EFI shutdown through its own stub, which sets up memory descriptors, tears down Boot Services, and transitions cleanly.

The EFI Handover Protocol (Linux boot protocol 2.12+, kernels >= 3.3) solves this. The bootloader keeps Boot Services active and calls the kernel's EFI stub entry point directly, passing (image_handle, efi_system_table, boot_params). The stub takes over from there.

Entry-point location:

handover_offset (boot params field at offset 0x264) is the offset from the start of the compressed kernel body to the 32-bit EFI entry point.
The 64-bit entry is always handover_offset + 512.
kernel_load_address is where elilo loaded the body, so the entry address is:

(UINT8 *)kernel_load_address + BP_HANDOVER_OFFSET(bp) + 512

The handover is attempted before the legacy ExitBootServices + start_kernel fallback, which is kept for kernels older than 3.3.

Fix 11 — Critical ABI fix: handover entry uses SysV, not MS ABI

File: x86_64/sysdeps.h

This was the fix that made the kernel actually boot. In older kernels (up to approximately 5.x), efi64_stub_entry began with an explicit MS→SysV argument translation:

mov %rcx, %rdi   ; handle:     MS arg1 → SysV arg1
mov %rdx, %rsi   ; sys_table:  MS arg2 → SysV arg2
mov %r8,  %rdx   ; boot_params: MS arg3 → SysV arg3

Linux 6.x removed this shim. efi64_stub_entry is now a one-instruction JMP trampoline landing directly in SysV code that reads rdi, rsi, and rdx.

The handover function pointer was originally declared with __attribute__((ms_abi)). That caused GCC to place arguments in rcx/rdx/ r8, which the kernel never reads. The kernel received garbage for handle and sys_table, crashed immediately, and the result looked like a freeze.

Verified by disassembling the JMP target in the Debian 6.12 bzImage:

41 54        push r12
49 89 d4     mov  r12, rdx    ← saves rdx = 3rd SysV arg (boot_params)
55           push rbp
48 89 f5     mov  rbp, rsi    ← saves rsi = 2nd SysV arg (sys_table)
53           push rbx
48 89 fb     mov  rbx, rdi    ← saves rdi = 1st SysV arg (handle)

Fix: remove __attribute__((ms_abi)) from the handover function pointer typedef. Since elilo is compiled with SysV ABI throughout (via -DEFI_FUNCTION_WRAPPER), a plain call already places arguments in the correct registers.

Fix 12 — Portability: arch guard for handover call in elilo.c

File: elilo.c

The efi_handover_64() function and its supporting macros are defined only in x86_64/sysdeps.h. The call site in elilo.c is now wrapped in #ifdef CONFIG_x86_64 so that ia32 and ia64 builds compile cleanly without the handover code, falling through to the legacy boot path.

Comparison with Slackware 15.0

Slackware 15.0 ships elilo 3.16 but does not rebuild it from source with a modern compiler. Their SlackBuild uses pre-compiled EFI binaries from a 2022 Slackware 14.2 build. They apply two patches to the source tree (which only affects the tools/ component they do compile):

elilo.double.kernel.size.limit.diff.gz — bumps the 8 MB kernel size ceiling to 16 MB.
elilo.zeroes.cc_blob_address.diff.gz — adds the cc_blob_address field to the boot_params struct and zeroes it before boot, preventing a crash on kernels that check for an AMD SEV/TDX confidential-computing blob.

Everything above goes beyond what Slackware does. The pre-built binary approach sidesteps the compiler and ABI issues entirely; rebuilding from source with GCC 12+ exposes all of them.

Area	Slackware 15.0	This patch set
Build from source	No — ships 2022 prebuilt binary	Yes
`.rodata` in objcopy	N/A (prebuilt)	Fixed
StrnCpy conflict	Renamed to `elilo_StrnCpy`	Removed
SetMem ABI (config parse)	N/A (prebuilt)	Fixed
CopyMem ABI (boot_params)	N/A (prebuilt)	Fixed
config_error null output	N/A (prebuilt)	Fixed
File-read retry loop	N/A (prebuilt)	Fixed
cmdline_addr zero	N/A (prebuilt)	Fixed
Kernel size ceiling	16 MB fixed limit	`init_size` from header
cc_blob_address	Explicitly zeroed	Template zeroed by ZeroMem
EFI Handover Protocol	Not implemented	Implemented
Handover ABI (SysV vs MS)	N/A	Fixed for Linux 6.x
ia32/ia64 build guard	N/A	Fixed

License & Credits

elilo is free software distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2, or (at your option) any later version. The full license text should accompany this source as the file COPYING. If it is absent, the canonical text is available at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Copyright holders

The following copyright notices appear in the source tree and must be preserved in any redistribution:

Years	Holder	Files / Notes
1992–1997	Werner Almesberger	`elf.h`, `config.c` (config parser originally from lilo)
1999–2000	VA Linux Systems	`elilo.c` — contributed by Johannes Erdfelt
1999–2003	Hewlett-Packard Co.	`elilo.c` — contributed by David Mosberger, Stephane Eranian
2000	Stephane Eranian `<eranian@hpl.hp.com>`	(individual contribution)
2001	Silicon Graphics, Inc.	`elilo.h` — contributed by Brent Casavant
2001–2003	Hewlett-Packard Co.	`elilo.h`, `x86_64/sysdeps.h`, and others
2001–2009	Hewlett-Packard Co.	Various files
2002–2003	Hewlett-Packard Co.	`bootparams.c` and related
2005	Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.	Later HP entity name
2006	Christoph Pfisterer	`console.c`, `console.h`
2006–2009	Intel Corporation	`elilo.c`, `x86_64/sysdeps.h`, and others — contributed by Fenghua Yu, Bibo Mao, Chandramouli Narayanan, Mike Johnston, Chris Ahna
2026	rations `<ehqcar@proton.me>`	Modernisation for Linux 6.x / modern UEFI (fixes 1–12)

Individual contributors credited in source headers

David Mosberger (HP) — original IA-64 work, elilo.c
Stephane Eranian (HP) — original architecture, numerous files
Brent Casavant (SGI) — elilo.h
Johannes Erdfelt (VA Linux) — elilo.c
Mike Johnston (Intel) — x86_64/sysdeps.h
Chris Ahna (Intel) — x86_64/sysdeps.h
Fenghua Yu (Intel) — elilo.c, x86_64/sysdeps.h
Bibo Mao (Intel) — elilo.c, x86_64/sysdeps.h
Chandramouli Narayanan (Intel) — elilo.c, x86_64/sysdeps.h
Christoph Pfisterer — console.c, console.h
Werner Almesberger — config parser (via lilo lineage)

Development tools

Version 3.17 modernisation developed with Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic) as AI development assistant.

Source: README.md, updated 2026-06-03

elilo 3.17 Files

keeping elilo alive as a boot option - added automatic updates

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elilo 3.17 — EFI Linux Loader

Table of Contents

Requirements

Building from Source

Installation

Quick Install (Devuan/Debian)

Coexisting with GRUB

Finding Your EFI System Partition

Installing the Bootloader Files

Writing elilo.conf

SATA / SCSI drive (sda, sdb, ...)

NVMe SSD (nvme0n1, nvme1n1, ...)

eMMC storage (mmcblk0, mmcblk1, ...)

Multiple boot entries (e.g. fallback kernel)

Common append options

Registering with the UEFI Boot Manager

Automatic Kernel Updates

How it works

One-time setup

Other distributions

Manual Kernel Updates

Partition Naming Reference

Changes from 3.14

Fix 1 — Build: Add .rodata to objcopy sections

Fix 2 — Compile: Remove conflicting StrnCpy declaration

Fix 3 — Compile: HandleProtocol void-pointer cast

Fix 4 — ABI bug: SetMem zeroed 0 bytes (config parse failure)

Fix 5 — ABI bug: CopyMem corrupted boot_params copy

Fix 6 — Bug: config_error() printed (null) for all messages

Fix 7 — Bug: File-read retry triggered on every successful read

Fix 8 — Bug: cmdline_addr always zero

Fix 9 — Bug: Kernel size ceiling too small for 6.x kernels

Fix 10 — Core boot fix: EFI Handover Protocol

Fix 11 — Critical ABI fix: handover entry uses SysV, not MS ABI

Fix 12 — Portability: arch guard for handover call in elilo.c

Comparison with Slackware 15.0

License & Credits

Copyright holders

Individual contributors credited in source headers

Development tools

Fix 1 — Build: Add `.rodata` to objcopy sections

Fix 2 — Compile: Remove conflicting `StrnCpy` declaration

Fix 3 — Compile: `HandleProtocol` void-pointer cast

Fix 4 — ABI bug: `SetMem` zeroed 0 bytes (config parse failure)

Fix 5 — ABI bug: `CopyMem` corrupted boot_params copy

Fix 6 — Bug: `config_error()` printed `(null)` for all messages

Fix 8 — Bug: `cmdline_addr` always zero