ovmf

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I'm using RHEL 7.3. From what I understand, RHEL supports ovmf in qemu, but I am unable to install any package related to ovmf. I know it is still a technology preview, but I still can't install it, even with the beta subscriptions enabled. Can anyone give me some directions on how to get ovmf working for UEFI in qemu? I know it is there because of these links:

https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2015-0293.html
https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2016-2608.html

Responses

Tried adding firmware.repo to your RHEL machine? The repo contains a package named edk2.git-ovmf-x64 - UEFI firmware for x64 qemu guests (OVMF).

Fedora Project have documentation on Using UEFI with QEMU

Hi Sam, I've tried adding the edk2 repo, as well as the supplementary repo to my machine. In both cases, the qemu guests freeze at the UEFI bios boot screen and aren't able to boot. I'm stumped :-/

Have a look at this whitepaper. There could be additional parameters to configure.

OVMF on qemu/KVM - Installation of OVMF guests with virt-manager and virt-install

Hi Matthew,

from https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2016-2608.html:

'With this update, the "OVMF_CODE.secboot.fd" firmware binary file includes the Secure Boot feature. This binary can be used with pc-q35-rhel7.3.0 and later Q35 machine types only [...]'

Those machine types are unavailable when using the 1.5.3-based "qemu-kvm" package of base RHEL. They are available only when using the 2.6.0-based "qemu-kvm-rhev" package, which is not part of base RHEL.

Also, if you capture the debug log of OVMF, such as

-global isa-debugcon.iobase=0x402 -debugcon file:/tmp/ovmf.log

then you will see the error message about the incorrect machine type:

SmmAccessPeiEntryPoint: no SMRAM with host bridge DID=0x1237; only DID=0x29C0 (Q35) is supported
ASSERT .../OvmfPkg/SmmAccess/SmmAccessPei.c(390): ((BOOLEAN)(0==1))
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