4 The Open Virtual Machine Firmware (OVMF) project aims
5 to support firmware for Virtual Machines using the edk2
6 code base. More information can be found at:
8 http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tianocore/index.php?title=OVMF
13 * IA32 and X64 architectures
14 * QEMU (0.10.0 or later)
15 - Video, keyboard, IDE, CD-ROM, serial
17 - Optional NIC support. Requires QEMU (0.12.2 or later)
19 * UEFI Windows 8 boots
20 * UEFI Windows 7 & Windows 2008 Server boot (see important notes below!)
24 * Test/Stabilize UEFI Self-Certification Tests (SCT) results
29 * Build environment capable of build the edk2 MdeModulePkg.
30 * A properly configured ASL compiler:
31 - Intel ASL compiler: Available from http://www.acpica.org
32 - Microsoft ASL compiler: Available from http://www.acpi.info
33 * NASM: http://www.nasm.us/
35 Update Conf/target.txt ACTIVE_PLATFORM for OVMF:
36 PEI arch DXE arch UEFI interfaces
37 * OvmfPkg/OvmfPkgIa32.dsc IA32 IA32 IA32
38 * OvmfPkg/OvmfPkgIa32X64.dsc IA32 X64 X64
39 * OvmfPkg/OvmfPkgX64.dsc X64 X64 X64
41 Update Conf/target.txt TARGET_ARCH based on the .dsc file:
43 * OvmfPkg/OvmfPkgIa32.dsc IA32
44 * OvmfPkg/OvmfPkgIa32X64.dsc IA32 X64
45 * OvmfPkg/OvmfPkgX64.dsc X64
47 Following the edk2 build process, you will find the OVMF binaries
48 under the $WORKSPACE/Build/*/*/FV directory. The actual path will
49 depend on how your build is configured. You can expect to find
52 - Please note! This filename has changed. Older releases used OVMF.Fv.
54 - This file is not built separately any longer, starting with svn r13520.
56 More information on building OVMF can be found at:
58 http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tianocore/index.php?title=How_to_build_OVMF
60 === RUNNING OVMF on QEMU ===
62 * QEMU 0.12.2 or later is required.
63 * Be sure to use qemu-system-x86_64, if you are using and X64 firmware.
64 (qemu-system-x86_64 works for the IA32 firmware as well, of course.)
65 * Use OVMF for QEMU firmware (3 options available)
66 - Option 1: QEMU 1.6 or newer; Use QEMU -pflash parameter
67 * QEMU/OVMF will use emulated flash, and fully support UEFI variables
68 * Run qemu with: -pflash path/to/OVMF.fd
69 - Option 2: Use QEMU -bios parameter
70 * Note that UEFI variables will be partially emulated, and non-volatile
71 variables may lose their contents after a reboot
72 * Run qemu with: -bios path/to/OVMF.fd
73 - Option 3: Use QEMU -L parameter
74 * Note that UEFI variables will be partially emulated, and non-volatile
75 variables may lose their contents after a reboot
76 * Either copy, rename or symlink OVMF.fd => bios.bin
77 * Use the QEMU -L parameter to specify the directory where the bios.bin
79 * The EFI shell is built into OVMF builds at this time, so it should
80 run automatically if a UEFI boot application is not found on the
82 * On Linux, newer version of QEMU may enable KVM feature, and this might
83 cause OVMF to fail to boot. The QEMU '-no-kvm' may allow OVMF to boot.
84 * Capturing OVMF debug messages on qemu:
85 - The default OVMF build writes debug messages to IO port 0x402. The
86 following qemu command line options save them in the file called
87 debug.log: '-debugcon file:debug.log -global isa-debugcon.iobase=0x402'.
88 - It is possible to revert to the original behavior, when debug messages were
89 written to the emulated serial port (potentially intermixing OVMF debug
90 output with UEFI serial console output). For this the
91 '-D DEBUG_ON_SERIAL_PORT' option has to be passed to the build command (see
92 the next section), and in order to capture the serial output qemu needs to
93 be started with eg. '-serial file:serial.log'.
94 - Debug messages fall into several categories. Logged vs. suppressed
95 categories are controlled at OVMF build time by the
96 'gEfiMdePkgTokenSpaceGuid.PcdDebugPrintErrorLevel' bitmask (an UINT32
97 value) in the selected .dsc file. Individual bits of this bitmask are
98 defined in <MdePkg/Include/Library/DebugLib.h>. One non-default bit (with
99 some performance impact) that is frequently set for debugging is 0x00400000
101 - The RELEASE build target ('-b RELEASE' build option, see below) disables
102 all debug messages. The default build target is DEBUG.
104 === Build Scripts ===
106 On systems with the bash shell you can use OvmfPkg/build.sh to simplify
107 building and running OVMF.
109 So, for example, to build + run OVMF X64:
110 $ OvmfPkg/build.sh -a X64
111 $ OvmfPkg/build.sh -a X64 qemu
113 And to run a 64-bit UEFI bootable ISO image:
114 $ OvmfPkg/build.sh -a X64 qemu -cdrom /path/to/disk-image.iso
116 To build a 32-bit OVMF without debug messages using GCC 4.5:
117 $ OvmfPkg/build.sh -a IA32 -b RELEASE -t GCC45
119 === Network Support ===
121 OVMF provides a UEFI network stack by default. Its lowest level driver is the
122 NIC driver, higher levels are generic. In order to make DHCP, PXE Boot, and eg.
123 socket test utilities from the StdLib edk2 package work, (1) qemu has to be
124 configured to emulate a NIC, (2) a matching UEFI NIC driver must be available
127 (If a NIC is configured for the virtual machine, and -- dependent on boot order
128 -- PXE booting is attempted, but no DHCP server responds to OVMF's DHCP
129 DISCOVER message at startup, the boot process may take approx. 3 seconds
132 * For each NIC emulated by qemu, a GPLv2 licensed UEFI driver is available from
133 the iPXE project. The qemu source distribution, starting with version 1.5,
134 contains prebuilt binaries of these drivers (and of course allows one to
135 rebuild them from source as well). This is the recommended set of drivers.
137 * Use the qemu -netdev and -device options, or the legacy -net option, to
138 enable NIC support: <http://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/Networking>.
140 * For a qemu >= 1.5 binary running *without* any "-M machine" option where
141 "machine" would identify a < qemu-1.5 configuration (for example: "-M
142 pc-i440fx-1.4" or "-M pc-0.13"), the iPXE drivers are automatically available
143 to and configured for OVMF in the default qemu installation.
145 * For a qemu binary in [0.13, 1.5), or a qemu >= 1.5 binary with an "-M
146 machine" option where "machine" selects a < qemu-1.5 configuration:
148 - download a >= 1.5.0-rc1 source tarball from <http://wiki.qemu.org/Download>,
150 - extract the following iPXE driver files from the tarball and install them
151 in a location that is accessible to qemu processes (this may depend on your
152 SELinux configuration, for example):
154 qemu-VERSION/pc-bios/efi-e1000.rom
155 qemu-VERSION/pc-bios/efi-ne2k_pci.rom
156 qemu-VERSION/pc-bios/efi-pcnet.rom
157 qemu-VERSION/pc-bios/efi-rtl8139.rom
158 qemu-VERSION/pc-bios/efi-virtio.rom
160 - extend the NIC's -device option on the qemu command line with a matching
163 -device e1000,...,romfile=/full/path/to/efi-e1000.rom
164 -device ne2k_pci,...,romfile=/full/path/to/efi-ne2k_pci.rom
165 -device pcnet,...,romfile=/full/path/to/efi-pcnet.rom
166 -device rtl8139,...,romfile=/full/path/to/efi-rtl8139.rom
167 -device virtio-net-pci,...,romfile=/full/path/to/efi-virtio.rom
169 * Independently of the iPXE NIC drivers, the default OVMF build provides a
170 basic virtio-net driver, located in OvmfPkg/VirtioNetDxe.
172 * Also independently of the iPXE NIC drivers, Intel's proprietary E1000 NIC
173 driver (PROEFI) can be embedded in the OVMF image at build time:
175 - Download UEFI drivers for the e1000 NIC
176 - http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17515&lang=eng
177 - Install the drivers into a directory called Intel3.5 in your WORKSPACE.
179 - Include the driver in OVMF during the build:
180 - Add "-D E1000_ENABLE -D FD_SIZE_2MB" to your build command,
181 - For example: "build -D E1000_ENABLE -D FD_SIZE_2MB".
183 * When a matching iPXE driver is configured for a NIC as described above, it
184 takes priority over other drivers that could possibly drive the card too:
186 | e1000 ne2k_pci pcnet rtl8139 virtio-net-pci
187 -------------+------------------------------------------------
192 === OVMF Flash Layout ===
194 Like all current IA32/X64 system designs, OVMF's firmware
195 device (rom/flash) appears in QEMU's physical address space
196 just below 4GB (0x100000000).
198 The layout of the firmware device in memory looks like:
200 +--------------------------------------- 4GB (0x100000000)
201 | VTF0 (16-bit reset code) and OVMF SEC
203 +--------------------------------------- varies based on flash size
205 | Compressed main firmware image
208 +--------------------------------------- base + 0x20000
209 | Fault-tolerant write (FTW)
210 | Spare blocks (64KB/0x10000)
211 +--------------------------------------- base + 0x10000
212 | FTW Work block (4KB/0x1000)
213 +--------------------------------------- base + 0x0f000
214 | Event log area (4KB/0x1000)
215 +--------------------------------------- base + 0x0e000
216 | Non-volatile variable storage
218 +--------------------------------------- base address
220 OVMF supports building a 1MB or a 2MB flash image. The base address for
221 a 1MB image in QEMU physical memory is 0xfff00000. The base address for
222 a 2MB image is 0xffe00000.
224 The code in SECFV locates FVMAIN_COMPACT, and decompresses the
225 main firmware (MAINFV) into RAM memory at address 0x800000. The
226 remaining OVMF firmware then uses this decompressed firmware
229 === UNIXGCC Debug ===
231 If you build with the UNIXGCC toolchain, then debugging will be disabled
232 due to larger image sizes being produced by the UNIXGCC toolchain. The
233 first choice recommendation is to use GCC44 or newer instead.
235 If you must use UNIXGCC, then you can override the build options for
236 particular libraries and modules in the .dsc to re-enable debugging
237 selectively. For example:
239 OvmfPkg/Library/PlatformBdsLib/PlatformBdsLib.inf {
241 GCC:*_*_*_CC_FLAGS = -UMDEPKG_NDEBUG
243 IntelFrameworkModulePkg/Universal/BdsDxe/BdsDxe.inf {
245 GCC:*_*_*_CC_FLAGS = -UMDEPKG_NDEBUG
248 === UEFI Windows 7 & Windows 2008 Server ===
250 * One of the '-vga std' and '-vga qxl' QEMU options should be used.
251 * Only one video mode, 1024x768x32, is supported at OS runtime.
252 * The '-vga qxl' QEMU option is recommended. After booting the installed
253 guest OS, select the video card in Device Manager, and upgrade its driver
254 to the QXL XDDM one. Download location:
255 <http://www.spice-space.org/download.html>, Guest | Windows binaries.
256 This enables further resolutions at OS runtime, and provides S3
257 (suspend/resume) capability.