diff --git a/elilo/elilo-xcat.spec b/elilo/elilo-xcat.spec
index 3cbd284..b8a9156 100644
--- a/elilo/elilo-xcat.spec
+++ b/elilo/elilo-xcat.spec
@@ -19,10 +19,17 @@ Patch1: elilo-xcat.patch
 Patch2: elilo-big-bzimage-limit.patch
 Patch3: elilo-gnu-efi-strncpy-conflict.patch
 Source4: elilo-xcat-3.14-6.noarch.rpm
+# Ship the tracked prebuilt EFI payload (SOURCE4) instead of compiling on targets where the
+# gnu-efi toolchain layout does not support elilo's build: ppc64le (no x86 EFI toolchain) and
+# EL8 (gnu-efi-devel places elf_x86_64_efi.lds under a path elilo's Makefile does not find).
+# elilo-x64.efi is a noarch artifact, so the prebuilt is byte-identical to the compiled one.
+%if "%{_host_cpu}" == "ppc64le" || 0%{?rhel} == 8
+%global use_prebuilt 1
+%endif
 BuildRequires: gcc
 BuildRequires: make
 BuildRequires: cpio
-%if "%{_host_cpu}" != "ppc64le"
+%if ! 0%{?use_prebuilt}
 BuildRequires: gnu-efi
 BuildRequires: gnu-efi-devel
 %endif
@@ -48,8 +55,8 @@ sed -i 's|^GNUEFILIB[[:space:]]*=.*|GNUEFILIB  = /usr/lib64|' Make.defaults
 sed -i 's|^EFILIB[[:space:]]*=.*|EFILIB   = /usr/lib64|' Make.defaults
 sed -i 's|^EFICRT0[[:space:]]*=.*|EFICRT0   = /usr/lib|' Make.defaults
 %endif
-%if "%{_host_cpu}" == "ppc64le"
-# On ppc64le, reuse the prebuilt EFI payload from the tracked noarch package.
+%if 0%{?use_prebuilt}
+# Reuse the prebuilt EFI payload from the tracked noarch package (ppc64le / EL8).
 mkdir -p prebuilt
 rpm2cpio %{SOURCE4} | (cd prebuilt && cpio -idm --quiet)
 test -f prebuilt/tftpboot/xcat/elilo-x64.efi
@@ -59,7 +66,7 @@ test -f prebuilt/tftpboot/xcat/elilo-x64.efi
 
 rm -rf %{buildroot}
 
-%if "%{_host_cpu}" != "ppc64le"
+%if ! 0%{?use_prebuilt}
 make
 %endif
 
@@ -67,7 +74,7 @@ make
 %install
 
 mkdir -p  %{buildroot}/tftpboot/xcat
-%if "%{_host_cpu}" == "ppc64le"
+%if 0%{?use_prebuilt}
 cp prebuilt/tftpboot/xcat/elilo-x64.efi %{buildroot}/tftpboot/xcat/elilo-x64.efi
 %else
 cp elilo.efi %{buildroot}/tftpboot/xcat/elilo-x64.efi
diff --git a/mockbuild-all.pl b/mockbuild-all.pl
index 104cb40..f3659a9 100755
--- a/mockbuild-all.pl
+++ b/mockbuild-all.pl
@@ -931,7 +931,10 @@ sub assert_required_deps {
     # xCAT Requires all of these on every arch, and every one of them builds natively on every
     # arch (the noarch deps -- grub2-xcat, xnba-undi -- just repackage committed artifacts), so
     # a self-sufficient per-arch build produces the whole set with no cross-arch import.
-    my @req = qw(ipmitool-xcat syslinux-xcat grub2-xcat xnba-undi
+    # elilo-xcat is noarch but xCAT hard-requires it (Requires: elilo-xcat >= 3.14-6) on EVERY arch,
+    # so a missing elilo makes the whole dep repo uninstallable -- it MUST be required here, not
+    # silently tolerated (it builds from a tracked prebuilt on ppc64le/EL8, compiled elsewhere).
+    my @req = qw(elilo-xcat ipmitool-xcat syslinux-xcat grub2-xcat xnba-undi
                  perl-IO-Stty perl-HTTP-Async perl-Net-HTTPS-NB);
     push @req, 'xCAT-genesis-base' unless $skip_genesis;
     my @missing = grep { !have_rpm($dir, $_) } @req;