Booting Linux in EFI mode requires both kernel configuration options and a particular layout of partitions and files on the boot medium. The kernel configuration options are extremely common these days, so that's more of a theoretical limit than a practical one. The disk/file layout issues are more of a limit. Basically, EFI uses EFI boot loaders stored in an EFI System Partition (ESP), which is a FAT32 filesystem in a partition flagged with a particular type code (C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B on GPT disks). For an OS installer on a removable disk, the boot loader would normally be EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi
on the ESP of the removable disk. In the case of CDs, this file would be in an El Torito boot image with an EFI-specific method of preparation. For this reason, it's easier to prepare a bootable USB flash drive than a bootable CD/DVD image. Of course, boot loaders often have their own requirements, such as configuration files and support files.
Today, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, SUSE, and I'm sure many other distributions support EFI-mode installation. The last I tried it, Debian did not, although I've heard that's in the works or may even have changed with the latest version (I need to check that detail myself). Unfortunately, getting the installer to boot in EFI mode can be tricky. The problem is that most modern UEFI-based PCs include support for BIOS/legacy boot modes, and so when you try to boot, you could as easily end up booting in BIOS mode as in EFI mode. Hitting F2, F8, or whatever key you press to get a boot menu can often bring up a set of options with two to boot your medium: One option boots in BIOS mode and the other boots in EFI mode. Once booted, look for the /sys/firmware/efi
directory. If it's present, you've booted in EFI mode. If not, you've probably booted in BIOS mode (although you might just need to insert the efivars
kernel module).