Package: ovmf Version: 0~20160104.c2a892d7-1 Severity: wishlist Hello.
As far as I know, package ovmf is needed in order to create and run a virtual UEFI machine. Unfortunately, ovmf is non-free, since the included Intel FAT file system driver has "additional terms" that restrict redistribution and use to the implementation of (U)EFI specifications. As documented in the debian/copyright file, the files under the non-free license are FatBinPkg/* and FatPkg/* . I am not aware of any DFSG-free alternative or any ovmf variant with the Intel FAT driver replaced by some BSD-licensed DFSG-free FAT driver. Do you know of any such alternative? Perhaps the FAT driver in some *BSD kernel could be adapted, in order to create a DFSG-free ovmf fork. I hope that someone with the appropriate expertise will volunteer to create this fork, so that we can finally have a package in Debian main to support virtual UEFI machines. I am filing this bug report in order to draw attention on this issue, which often seems to go unnoticed. In other words, I hope that someone will soon look at ovmf bug reports, stumble upon this report, and volunteer to solve this issue. Please do not close the bug report. Thanks. N.B.: Please note that the additional restrictions for the Intel FAT are caused by the use of the FAT32 specifications by Microsoft: hence any volunteer should refrain from reading or consulting these specifications. Needless to say, the Intel FAT driver should not be studied, either, otherwise the replacement driver would be a derivative of the Intel one and the same non-free restrictions would apply to the replacement.
