Intel Extensible Firmware Interface - Manual (Page 175)

Services — Boot Services
Version 1.10 12/01/02 5-77
Most images are loaded by the boot manager. When an EFI application or driver is installed, the
installation procedure registers itself with the boot manager for loading. However, in some cases
an application or driver may want to programmatically load and start another EFI image. This can
be done with the
LoadImage() and StartImage() interfaces. Drivers may only load
applications during the driver’s initialization entry point. Table 5-9 lists the functions that make up
Image Services.
Table 5-9. Image Functions
Name Type Description
LoadImage Boot Loads an EFI image into memory.
StartImage Boot Transfers control to a loaded image’s entry point.
UnloadImage Boot Unloads an image.
EFI_IMAGE_ENTRY_POINT Boot Prototype of an EFI Image’s entry point.
Exit Boot Exits the image’s entry point.
ExitBootServices Boot Terminates boot services.
The Image boot services have been modified to take advantage of the information that is now being
tracked with the
OpenProtocol() and CloseProtocol() boot services. Since the usage of
protocol interfaces is being tracked with these new boot services, it is now possible to automatically
close protocol interfaces when an EFI Application or an EFI Driver is unloaded or exited.