[Pkg-xen-devel] Bug#858962: Bug#858962: enabling OVMF - 4.10+

[John Keates]

HI Hans,

We probably should update the mailing list anyway since not everybody will be on GitLab anyway. Here is how you can test it:

1. Install Xen with OVMF support
2. Install OVMF (which basically just gets you the binary file, package is called ovmf)
3. Get an EFI-bootable image, the Debian Netinstall image will probably do fine
3. Create a domU config like this:

name = 'uefi-domu-thingy'
bios = "ovmf"
builder = 'hvm'
memory = '512'
vcpus = 1

Then sudo xl create <whateveryoucalledit.cfg>

This should start the domu, and since there is no disk, just get to the UEFI shell and idle around and not do much else. You can connect to it over VNC, but I’m sure it can be started in UEFI text mode too so you get UEFI access via the serial console.

If you want to test booting an OS, a simple way is starting debian. Grabbing the netinstall image works, add a disk stanza and there you go:

disk = ['file:/tmp/debian-9.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso,xvda’]

If you want to control the virtual frame buffer VNC setup:

vfb = ["type=vnc, vnclisten=0.0.0.0, vncpasswd=1337-haxx0r"]

If you also want to have some networking fun, you could add a virtual interface as normal:

vif = [ 'mac=00:16:3e:12:34:56, bridge=testlan0, script=vif-openvswitch, type=vif’]

By the way, if OVMF isn’t enabled or the ovmf.fd file doesn’t exist in the expected or configured path, it will error out.

- John

> On 28 Feb 2018, at 00:18, Hans van Kranenburg <hans at knorrie.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi John,
> 
> I don't think this will ever hit 4.8 in stable, but I want to have this
> in the new 4.10+ packages for unstable because you've been waiting long
> enough now.
> 
> Thanks for sending the Merge Request about this. Now the change will go
> in under your name. :)
> 
> I don't think that a discussion in gitlab on some commit that got
> rebased later is the best way, so let's continue here.
> 
> I know --enable-ovmf builds ok, now I need instructions to test this. I
> suspect you're on 4.8 and unless you have a spare test system already
> you might not want to be running random experimental test builds for
> 4.10. It also needs rebuilt qemu packages against xen 4.10.
> 
> So, what is the minimal set of things I can do to make sure the
> resulting build does something sensible? I have to be honest I'm not a
> qemu user myself, so I might not be totally familiar with all steps.
> 
> I see https://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/OVMF which has an example, which
> also mentions use of a live CD.
> 
> Can you point me so something I can provide as a disk, and tell me if
> this is the right path to a minimal test to check that everything is
> working right?
> 
> Thanks,
> Hans
> 
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