axl-webfs

Mount your laptop as a UEFI volume. Serve UEFI files over HTTP.

_{mount — workstation folder appears as FSn: in the UEFI Shell.}

_{serve — UEFI volumes browsable from any browser or curl.}

What it does

axl-webfs is a UEFI toolkit for bidirectional file transfer between a workstation and a UEFI host. No USB sticks, no BMC virtual media, no .efi shuffling — build on your workstation, run immediately in the UEFI Shell.

Two commands:

• mount <url> — mount a workstation directory as a UEFI volume (FSn:). The Shell can read, write, and execute files in real time.
• serve — run an HTTP file server on the UEFI host, exposing local volumes to curl, browsers, or network drive mounts.

Plus umount and list-nics.

Quick start

On the workstation, serve a directory:

./scripts/xfer-server.py --root /path/to/efi/tools

In the UEFI Shell, mount it and run something off it:

FS0:\> axl-webfs.efi mount http://10.0.0.5:8080/
FS0:\> ls fs1:
FS0:\> fs1:\IpmiTool.efi

Install

axl-webfs builds against AximCode's AXL SDK (no EDK2). Install a prebuilt SDK package — this gives you axl-cc, headers, and the UEFI target libs for x64 and aa64.

Debian / Ubuntu:

curl -LO https://github.com/aximcode/axl-sdk-releases/releases/latest/download/axl-sdk.deb
sudo apt install ./axl-sdk.deb

Fedora / RHEL:

curl -LO https://github.com/aximcode/axl-sdk-releases/releases/latest/download/axl-sdk.rpm
sudo dnf install ./axl-sdk.rpm

Packages install under /usr. To build against a local SDK checkout instead:

AXL_SDK=~/src/axl-sdk-releases/out make

Build

make                 # axl-webfs.efi and axl-webfs-dxe.efi for x64
make ARCH=aa64       # AArch64
make clean

Output lands in build/axl/<arch>/.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    WS["Workstation<br/>xfer-server.py"]
    CURL["curl / browser"]

    subgraph UEFI["UEFI Host"]
        APP["axl-webfs.efi<br/>(application)<br/>serve · mount · umount · list-nics"]
        DXE["axl-webfs-dxe.efi<br/>(DXE driver)<br/>EFI_FILE_PROTOCOL over HTTP"]
        FS["FSn: volume"]
        APP -. "loads on mount" .-> DXE
        DXE --> FS
    end

    WS <-->|"HTTP (mount)"| DXE
    CURL <-->|"HTTP (serve)"| APP

Loading

Two binaries, both built with axl-cc. All HTTP, JSON, event loop, hash table, and network functionality comes from the AXL SDK.

See docs/Design.md for the full design.

Use cases

• Live development — mount build output, run freshly compiled .efi files without manual transfer.
• ARM64 server bootstrapping — mount tools on ARM64 servers where virtual media is unreliable.
• Log extraction — serve lets you pull crash dumps, SMBIOS tables, or any file from the EFI System Partition via curl.
• Bulk deployment — upload or download entire directory trees.

Command reference

mount / umount

axl-webfs.efi mount <url>
axl-webfs.efi umount [handle]

serve

axl-webfs.efi serve [-p port] [-n nic] [-t timeout]
                    [--read-only] [--write-only] [-v]

Flag details

Flag	Default	Description
-p	8080	Listen port
-n	auto	NIC index (use list-nics to find)
-t	0	Idle timeout in seconds (0 = never)
--read-only	off	Block uploads and deletes
--write-only	off	Block downloads
-v	off	Verbose logging

list-nics

Prints NIC index, MAC, link status, and IP for every interface axl-webfs can see. Use this to pick a -n value for serve or to diagnose connectivity.

Workstation server: xfer-server.py

The companion for mount. Python 3 stdlib only, no external deps.

./scripts/xfer-server.py                             # current directory
./scripts/xfer-server.py --root /path --port 9090    # custom root/port
./scripts/xfer-server.py --read-only                 # block uploads/deletes

Testing

scripts/test.sh              # host-side tests against xfer-server.py
scripts/test.sh --qemu       # add QEMU integration tests (X64)
scripts/test.sh --aarch64    # add AARCH64 QEMU tests

QEMU tests use run-qemu.sh, which ships with the AXL SDK source tree but not the .deb/.rpm. Point AXL_SDK_SRC at an axl-sdk-releases checkout to enable them:

AXL_SDK_SRC=~/src/axl-sdk-releases scripts/test.sh --qemu

Platform notes

Some ARM64 server firmware doesn't auto-connect the network stack. axl-webfs handles this by calling ConnectController on SNP handles before NIC discovery. Use list-nics to verify link status if networking isn't working.

Regenerating the demo GIFs

Both GIFs are checked in and regenerable:

• demo-mount.gif — rendered by vhs from docs/assets/demo-mount.tape, using the narrative scripts under scripts/demo-pane-*.sh.
• demo-serve.gif — real axl-webfs.efi serve booted in QEMU; pages captured with headless Chrome and stitched by ffmpeg. See scripts/demo-serve.sh.

make demo              # regenerate both
make demo-mount        # just the mount GIF   (vhs, ttyd, tmux, ffmpeg)
AXL_SDK_SRC=~/src/axl-sdk-releases make demo-serve
                       # just the serve GIF   (QEMU, google-chrome, ffmpeg)

Contributing and security

• CONTRIBUTING.md — build, test, and patch-review conventions.
• SECURITY.md — how to report vulnerabilities.

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE and NOTICE.

Built on the AXL SDK.