Mixed mode booting does not work after 202411-1

Description:

Mixed mode booting (i.e. booting an x86_64 Linux kernel on IA32 UEFI) does not work with edk2-ovmf 202505-1 or edk2-ovmf 202508-1.

In a VM using /usr/share/edk2/ia32/OVMF_CODE.secboot.4m.fd or /usr/share/edk2/ia32/OVMF_CODE.4m.fd, trying to launch the linux kernel from an IA32 systemd-boot results in:

EFI stub: ERROR: Failed to decompress kernel
EFI stub: ERROR: efi_stub_entry() failed!
../systemd/src/boot/boot.c:2627@image_start: Error finding kernel compat entry address: Load error

It works in a VM created with edk2-ovmf 202411-1 firmware (and also in VirtualBox).

Additional info:

  • package version(s):
  • config and/or log files:
  • link to upstream bug report, if any:

edk2-ovmf 202508-1 qemu-desktop 10.1.0-1 virt-manager 5.1.0-1

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Create a VM in virt-manager and choose either /usr/share/edk2/ia32/OVMF_CODE.secboot.4m.fd or /usr/share/edk2/ia32/OVMF_CODE.4m.fd as the firmware.
  2. Boot the Arch ISO (archlinux-2025.09.01-x86_64.iso) in the VM.
  3. Press Enter on the first boot entry.
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