Learned the following:
- On Linux, this would be fairly straightforward, via efibootmgr
- EasyUEFI would let me do what I want too - command line support requires a fairly cheap license; but I don't feel great depending on a niche tool like it, especially if there are other options.
- bcdedit on a UEFI machine modifies UEFI settings. I think it would work.
- The UEFI spec for boot order isn't too complicated. The API is really just GetVariable/SetVariable with variables named BootOrder (to get/set the list of boot options in the order they'll be tried) and Boot#### (to get/set info about each boot option).
- I have no idea how I'd write a windows app against the UEFI API on windows (anyone?)
- Windows provides an API that, among other things, wraps UEFI's GetVariable/SetVariable.
Once I understood the UEFI spec for boot order and the windows API, the code (C++, built for 64-bit as that is all we are using) wasn't too bad. This needs to be built into an exe that requires administrative privileges and statically links the windows runtime, and then I run it in MDT after the OS is installed before restart.
First, you have to claim a privilege to call the API. Use a little helper:
struct CloseHandleHelper
{
void operator()(void *p) const
{
CloseHandle(p);
}
};
BOOL SetPrivilege(HANDLE process, LPCWSTR name, BOOL on)
{
HANDLE token;
if (!OpenProcessToken(process, TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES, &token))
return FALSE;
std::unique_ptr<void, CloseHandleHelper> tokenLifetime(token);
TOKEN_PRIVILEGES tp;
tp.PrivilegeCount = 1;
if (!LookupPrivilegeValueW(NULL, name, &tp.Privileges[0].Luid))
return FALSE;
tp.Privileges[0].Attributes = on ? SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED : 0;
return AdjustTokenPrivileges(token, FALSE, &tp, sizeof(tp), NULL, NULL);
}
then call
SetPrivilege(GetCurrentProcess(), SE_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_NAME, TRUE));
Next, get the list of boot options (a concatenation of uint16_t values):
const int BUFFER_SIZE = 4096;
BYTE bootOrderBuffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
DWORD bootOrderLength = 0;
const TCHAR bootOrderName[] = TEXT("BootOrder");
const TCHAR globalGuid[] = TEXT("{8BE4DF61-93CA-11D2-AA0D-00E098032B8C}");
DWORD bootOrderAttributes;
bootOrderLength = GetFirmwareEnvironmentVariableEx(bootOrderName, globalGuid, bootOrderBuffer, BUFFER_SIZE, &bootOrderAttributes);
if (bootOrderLength == 0)
{
std::cout << "Failed getting BootOrder with error " << GetLastError() << std::endl;
return 1;
}
You then can iterate over each boot option, form the Boot#### variable name for it, and then use that to get a struct with info about the option. You'll want to see if the first active option has "Description" equal to "Windows Boot Manager". Description is a null-terminated wide character string at offset 6 in the struct.
for (DWORD i = 0; i < bootOrderLength; i += 2)
{
std::wstringstream bootOptionNameBuilder;
bootOptionNameBuilder << "Boot" << std::uppercase << std::setfill(L'0') << std::setw(4) << std::hex << *reinterpret_cast<uint16_t*>(bootOrderBuffer + i);
std::wstring bootOptionName(bootOptionNameBuilder.str());
BYTE bootOptionInfoBuffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
DWORD bootOptionInfoLength = GetFirmwareEnvironmentVariableEx(bootOptionName.c_str(), globalGuid, bootOptionInfoBuffer, BUFFER_SIZE, nullptr);
if (bootOptionInfoLength == 0)
{
std::cout << "Failed getting option info for option at offset " << i << std::endl;
return 1;
}
uint32_t* bootOptionInfoAttributes = reinterpret_cast<uint32_t*>(bootOptionInfoBuffer);
//First 4 bytes make a uint32_t comprised of flags. 0x1 means the boot option is active (not disabled)
if (((*bootOptionInfoAttributes) & 0x1) != 0)
{
std::wstring description(reinterpret_cast<wchar_t*>(bootOptionInfoBuffer + sizeof(uint32_t) + sizeof(uint16_t)));
bool isWBM = boost::algorithm::to_upper_copy<std::wstring>(description) == L"WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER";
// details - keep track of the value of i for the first WBM and non-WBM options you find, and the fact that you found them
}
}
Now if you found active WBM and non-WBM boot options and the first WBM option is at wbmOffset, and the first non-WBM option is at nonWBMOffset, with wbmOffset < nonWBMOffset, swap the entries in the BootOrder variable with the following:
uint16_t *wbmBootOrderEntry = reinterpret_cast<uint16_t*>(bootOrderBuffer + wbmOffset);
uint16_t *nonWBMBootOrderEntry = reinterpret_cast<uint16_t*>(bootOrderBuffer + nonWBMOffset);
std::swap(*wbmBootOrderEntry, *nonWBMBootOrderEntry);
if (SetFirmwareEnvironmentVariableEx(bootOrderName, globalGuid, bootOrderBuffer, bootOrderLength, bootOrderAttributes))
{
std::cout << "Swapped WBM boot entry at offset " << wbmOffset << " with non-WBM boot entry at offset " << nonWBMOffset << std::endl;
}
else
{
std::cout << "Failed to swap WBM boot entry with non-WBM boot entry, error " << GetLastError() << std::endl;
return 1;
}
Best Answer
The option to modify efi boot order is in the uefi specification. You could indeed create a firmware that ignores this part, or has an option to reset it. (Reach out to the manufacturer, Dell for this)
As a work around you could reset this from the OS at least in linux you can use efimgr to change the order.
Another option to consider could be that many machines have the option for different boot order depending on network start or not. That is normal startup uses the normal efi order, however if the machine is "started over the network" with WOL then the "network boot order" is used instead. - This could then be used to instead of restart of the machine, shut it down and then start it remotely.