Intel Extensible Firmware Interface - Manual (Page 177)

Services — Boot Services
Version 1.10 12/01/02 5-79
Description
The LoadImage() function loads an EFI image into memory and returns a handle to the image.
The image is loaded in one of two ways. If SourceBuffer is not NULL , the function is a
memory-to-memory load in which SourceBuffer points to the image to be loaded and
SourceSize indicates the image’s size in bytes. In this case, the caller has copied the image into
SourceBuffer and can free the buffer once loading is complete.
If SourceBuffer is NULL , the function is a file copy operation that uses the
SIMPLE_FILE_SYSTEM protocol and then the LOAD_FILE protocol on the DeviceHandle to
access the file referred to by FilePath . In this case, the BootPolicy flag is passed to the
LOAD_FILE.LoadFile() function and is used to load the default image responsible for booting
when the FilePath only indicates the device. For more information see the discussion of the
Load File Protocol in Chapter 11.
Regardless of the type of load (memory-to-memory or file copy), the function relocates the code in
the image while loading it.
Once the image is loaded, firmware creates and returns an EFI_HANDLE that identifies the image
and supports the EFI_LOADED_IMAGE protocol. The caller may fill in the image’s “load
options” data, or add additional protocol support to the handle before passing control to the newly
loaded image by calling
StartImage() . Also, once the image is loaded, the caller either starts it
by calling StartImage() or unloads it by calling UnloadImage() .
Status Codes Returned
EFI_SUCCESS Image was loaded into memory correctly.
EFI_NOT_FOUND The FilePath was not found.
EFI_INVALID_PARAMETER One of the parameters has an invalid value.
EFI_UNSUPPORTED The image type is not supported, or the device path cannot be
parsed to locate the proper protocol for loading the file.
EFI_OUT_OF_RESOURCES Image was not loaded due to insufficient resources.
EFI_LOAD_ERROR Image was not loaded because the image format was corrupt or not
understood.
EFI_DEVICE_ERROR Image was not loaded because the device returned a read error.