How To Install edk2-ovmf on CentOS 8

edk2-ovmf is UEFI firmware for x86_64 virtual machines

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install edk2-ovmf on CentOS 8.

What is edk2-ovmf

OVMF (Open Virtual Machine Firmware) is a project to enable UEFI support for Virtual Machines. This package contains a sample 64-bit UEFI firmware for QEMU and KVM.

We can use yum or dnf to install edk2-ovmf on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install edk2-ovmf.

Install edk2-ovmf on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install edk2-ovmf using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install edk2-ovmf

Install edk2-ovmf on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install edk2-ovmf using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install edk2-ovmf

How To Uninstall edk2-ovmf on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the edk2-ovmf package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove edk2-ovmf

edk2-ovmf Package Contents on CentOS 8

/usr/share/OVMF
/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.secboot.fd
/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_VARS.fd
/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_VARS.secboot.fd
/usr/share/OVMF/UefiShell.iso
/usr/share/doc/edk2-ovmf
/usr/share/doc/edk2-ovmf/README
/usr/share/doc/edk2-ovmf/ovmf-whitepaper-c770f8c.txt
/usr/share/edk2
/usr/share/edk2/ovmf
/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/EnrollDefaultKeys.efi
/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.secboot.fd
/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_VARS.fd
/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_VARS.secboot.fd
/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/Shell.efi
/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/UefiShell.iso
/usr/share/licenses/edk2-ovmf
/usr/share/licenses/edk2-ovmf/LICENSE.openssl
/usr/share/licenses/edk2-ovmf/License-History.txt
/usr/share/licenses/edk2-ovmf/License.OvmfPkg.txt
/usr/share/licenses/edk2-ovmf/License.txt
/usr/share/qemu
/usr/share/qemu/firmware
/usr/share/qemu/firmware/40-edk2-ovmf-sb.json
/usr/share/qemu/firmware/50-edk2-ovmf.json

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install edk2-ovmf on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.