• What is Open Virtual Machine Firmware(OVMF)?
• What source code license does OVMFuse?
• What does OVMF provide?
• Are OVMF releases fully UEFIcompliant?
• Does OVMF support legacy booting, legacy option ROMs,CSM?
• What quality level is the OVMF code? (Alpha,Beta, Production?)
• What virtual machines are supported by the OVMF firmwarebuilds?
• Are only open source virtual machinessupported?
• How can I use OVMF with a VM?
• Where is the source code toOVMF?
• If I work on a Virtual Machine, how can I make use ofOVMF?
• Where can I find the current status and roadmap ofOVMF?
• What build environments are supported byOVMF?
• Where can I ask additional questions and discussOVMF?
• How can I contribute to OVMF?
• How do I build OVMF?
• How do I enable source level debugging withOVMF?

OVMF is a project to enable support for UEFI within Virtual Machines. Itis built upon the EDK II code base.

OVMF follows the EDK II project in using the open sourceBSD+Patent license.Some OVMF content is convered by additional licenses detailed inOvmfPkg/License.txt.

• Libraries and drivers related to virtual machines
• An entire firmware implementation with supports UEFI on open sourcevirtual machines.

While the goal is to be as fully UEFI compliant as possible, you shouldnot assume that an OVMF release is fully UEFI compliant unless theparticular release states full compliance.

For virtual machines, there are some challenging areas in achieving fullUEFI compliance. For example, UEFI 'non-volatile' variables may bedifficult to fully support in some virtual machine environments if aflash memory device is not emulated.

No. While OVMF may have UEFI firmware drivers for some legacy hardware,there is no planned legacy compatibility for OVMF. One reason for thisis that there is currently no open source CSM module which could be usedwithin OVMF. Another reason is that we would like to use OVMF to helpdrive out some legacy assumptions which might be made by software layersabove the system firmware.

The quality level of the OvmfPkg within the edk2 source code repositorymay change over time. Therefore, the best way to determine the currentquality level of the source repository is to look at the README documentunder the OvmfPkg source directory or ask the EDK II dev email list.Binary releases of OVMF may indicate a code quality level, and shouldalso indicate the versions of the source code repositories used toproduce that binary release.

Hopefully this will improve over time, but initially the QEMU virtualmachine will be supported while emulating a IA32 (x86) or X64 (x86-64)based system. The README text file included under the OvmfPkg sourcetree should contain the most up to date list of supported virtualmachine environments. The README text file included with binary releasesshould also document the supported virtual machine environments whichare supported for that release.

We have chosen the BSD+Patent license to enable easy incorporation of any ofthe piece of our code within nearly any type of product. But, it islikely that the firmware images produced by OvmfPkg under edk2 will onlysupport open source virtual machines.

Pre-built binaries of OVMF are available under the 'OVMF' folder in the'Documents & files' area of the EDK II project. The binaries of OVMF areintended to replace the normal firmware/bios that a VM would use whenbooting the VM. The README file included in the downloaded archive filewill explain how to run the OVMF firmware image with the supported VM.

More detailed instructions for running OVMF can be found on therunningOVMF wiki page.

The source code to OVMF is under the OvmfPkg directory within the EDK IIsource repository. Changes to other EDK II packages (directories) willbe driven by the OVMF project as required.

At the minimum, you can utilize OVMF as a sample platform for how a VMfirmware can be built with EDK II. If you find that the OVMF platformand/or EDK II code base does not provide adequate support for buildingyour VM firmware, please open a discussion on the EDK II dev email list.

Please look in the README file under the OvmfPkg source directory.

OVMF's goal is to support all the build environments which the main EDKII project supports. This includes support for building under the Linux,Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. Toolchain support includes GCC,Visual Studio (2003 or 2005), WINDDK, ICC (Intel Compiler) and GCC underCYGWIN.

If you are new to EDK II development,thispage may help you get a buildenvironment up and running. OVMF will also require an ASL compiler to beinstalled on the system. The Intel ASL compiler is compatible with manyoperating systems, and is available fromhttp://www.acpica.org.

Questions and discussion related to OVMF should be directed to the EDKII dev email list.

Please refer to theGetting Started page.

Refer to the README document under the OvmfPkg directory within the EDKII source repository or on thebuildingOVMF wiki page.

Please refer to:

1. EDK II Source Level Debug
2. How to debug OVMF with QEMU using GDB
3. How to debug OVMF with QEMU using WinDbg