Re: efivar(8) status/usability/functionality in 15

On Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 3:03=E2=80=AFPM Konstantin Belousov <kostikbel@gmai=
l.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 02:47:44PM +0300, Anton Saietskii wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > After 15.1-R branched, I performed major upgrade and took the idea of
> > setting up Secure Boot from my personal backlog. As a preparation
> > step, wanted to see which EFI variables I have, but that failed:
> > $ sudo efivar -l
> > efivar: error listing variables: Function not implemented
> >
> > Tried to get variable that exists for sure but it also failed:
> > $ sudo efivar -n e11207ca-d4ad-11ee-928b-589cfc102103-Boot0000 -p
> > efivar: show variable: Function not implemented
> >
> > Of course, module is loaded:
> > $ kldstat -v | grep efi
> > 20    1 0xffffffff839a6000     46e9 efirt.ko (/boot/kernel/efirt.ko)
> >                 177 efidev
> >                 178 nexus/efirtc
> >                 176 efirt
> >
> > And basically every command (except '-w' which I haven't verified
> > because I can't read variables, and '-L' which lists some GUIDs) fails
> > and efivar feels like a stub (at first glance it all was the same on
> > 14). If I'm doing something wrong--I'd love to see some success
> > stories.
>
> Are there any kernel messages when you load the efirt.ko module?
Nothing interesting I'd say, but this regular non-verbose boot:
$ grep efi /var/run/dmesg.boot
VT(efifb): resolution 1920x1080
[4] VT: Replacing driver "efifb" with new "drmfb".
[4] efirtc0: <EFI Realtime Clock>
[4] efirtc0: registered as a time-of-day clock, resolution 1.000000s

> Was the /dev/efi node created?
Yes:
$ ll /dev/*efi*
crwx------  1 root wheel 0x17b Jun 19 17:39 /dev/efi
$

Also, I believe it is working correctly as another tool, efibootmgr,
works perfectly fine (I took EFI variable with boot entry from there).

"Not implemented" errors from efivar look weird, but I'm not
proficient enough to determine if they are true, nor where they
actually come from (exe, lib, kernel, or firmware itself). What if the
list and read of variables are not actually implemented? (I don't
believe this is my system configuration though, the only relevant
thing would be WITHOUT_EFI source option but I wouldn't even get
efivar binaries with it enabled.)

--
wbr,
Anton