Boot Stages

A UEFI system goes through several distinct phases during the boot process.

1. Platform Initialization. This early-boot phase is mostly outside the scope of uefi-rs. It is described by the UEFI Platform Initialization Specification, which is separate from the main UEFI Specification.
2. Boot Services. This is when UEFI drivers and applications are loaded. Both the BootServices and RuntimeServices tables are accessible. This stage typically culminates in running a bootloader that loads an operating system. The stage ends when SystemTable::exit_boot_services is called, putting the system in Runtime mode.
3. Runtime. This stage is typically active when running an operating system such as Linux or Windows. UEFI functionality is much more limited in the Runtime mode. The BootServices table is no longer accessible, but the RuntimeServices table is still available. Once the system is in Runtime mode, it cannot return to the Boot Services stage until after a system reset.