libvirt users - Feb 2017 - Re: Trouble moving OVMF guest to new host

Hello,

I recently had to reinstall my operating system on my computer. I made a
backup of the entire partition beforehand onto an external drive. Now I am
trying to import a VM from that backup onto the newly installed system.

What I've done so far:

   - copied over the qcow2 disk image
   - copied over the XML config file
   - copied over the OVMF files under /usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-x64/

I am getting this error whenever I try to boot the VM:

Error starting domain: operation failed: unable to find any master var
store for loader: /usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd

The file /usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd does exist.

Where would the "master var store" be located?

Thank you,

Joe
--
Joseph Bashe
Technical Director
Bashe Development
+1 (323) 999-1731

Hello,

I suppose OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd is likely your firmware (CODE in name). 
There should also be firmware's variable template file (used for the 1st 
startup, usually there is VARS in file name) and firmware variable file, 
where firmware's actual settings are stored.

Those 3 files can be designated in domain's XML or qemu.conf, so try 
looking there for paths. On my system, it is /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/

On 2017.02.08 18:53, Bashe, Joe wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I recently had to reinstall my operating system on my computer. I made a
> backup of the entire partition beforehand onto an external drive. Now I
> am trying to import a VM from that backup onto the newly installed system.
>
> What I've done so far:
>
>   * copied over the qcow2 disk image
>   * copied over the XML config file
>   * copied over the OVMF files under /usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-x64/
>
> I am getting this error whenever I try to boot the VM:
>
> Error starting domain: operation failed: unable to find any master var
> store for loader: /usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd
>
> The file /usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd does exist.
>
> Where would the "master var store" be located?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Joe
> --
> Joseph Bashe
> Technical Director
> Bashe Development
> +1 (323) 999-1731
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> libvirt-users mailing list
> libvirt-users@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libvirt-users
>

On Wed, 2017-02-08 at 20:13 +0300, Aleksei wrote:
> I'm running libvirt in user session and libvirt creates VARS part of
OVMF in ~/.config/libvirt/qemu/nvram/
> Check your xml, there should be lines like this:
> <os>
>     <type arch='x86_64'
machine='pc-q35-2.7'>hvm</type>
>     <loader readonly='yes'
type='pflash'>/UEFI_OVMF/OVMF_CODE.fd</loader>
>     <nvram>/home/username/.config/libvirt/qemu/nvram/vm_VARS.fd</nvram>
... or in /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram, if you're using
the system-wide libvirtd instance.

Anyway, Aleksei is right that you should copy over the
variable store (vm_VARS.fd) along with the disk image
and the XML configuration: some guest operating systems
are able to cope with its absence and recreate the
correct EFI variables automatically, but that's not
always the case.

Moreover, you should make sure your /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf
file contains something along the lines of

  nvram = [
    "/usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd:/usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd/OVMF_VARS-pure-efi.fd"
  ]

so that, in case the variable store for the guest is missing
or your simply creating a new guest, libvirt will be able to
create a new one by copying over the template (the "master
var store" the error was referring to).

By the way, edk2-ovmf is included in Fedora proper these
days, you don't need to use edk2.git-ovmf-x64 any longer ;)

-- 
Andrea Bolognani / Red Hat / Virtualization