diff --git a/.github/workflows/mkosi.yml b/.github/workflows/mkosi.yml
index de00078b2a..47716541dd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/mkosi.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/mkosi.yml
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ jobs:
             release: tumbleweed
           - distro: centos_epel
             release: 9-stream
+          - distro: centos_epel
+            release: 8-stream
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@2541b1294d2704b0964813337f33b291d3f8596b
diff --git a/README b/README
index fa5d3aca1b..92e3ca0f48 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ REQUIREMENTS:
         libcryptsetup (optional), >= 2.3.0 required for signed Verity images support
         libaudit (optional)
         libacl (optional)
-        libbpf >= 0.7.0 (optional)
+        libbpf >= 0.1.0 (optional)
         libfdisk >= 2.32 (from util-linux) (optional)
         libselinux (optional)
         liblzma (optional)
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 2c6a061a90..dfe18f7e7b 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1388,7 +1388,7 @@ conf.set10('HAVE_LIBIPTC', have)
 want_qrencode = get_option('qrencode')
 if want_qrencode != 'false' and not skip_deps
         libqrencode = dependency('libqrencode',
-                                 version : '>= 4',
+                                 version : '>= 3',
                                  required : want_qrencode == 'true')
         have = libqrencode.found()
 else
diff --git a/mkosi.build b/mkosi.build
index 4f7b67d7e5..f02a15ad4d 100755
--- a/mkosi.build
+++ b/mkosi.build
@@ -56,6 +56,22 @@ for bpftool in /usr/lib/linux-tools/*/bpftool; do
         break
 done
 
+# CentOS Stream 8 includes bpftool 4.18.0 which is lower than what we need. However, they've backported the
+# specific feature we need ("gen skeleton") to this version, so we replace bpftool with a script that reports
+# version 5.6.0 to satisfy meson which makes bpf work on CentOS Stream 8 as well.
+if [ "$(grep '^ID=' /etc/os-release)" = "ID=\"centos\"" ] && [ "$(grep '^VERSION=' /etc/os-release)" = "VERSION=\"8\"" ]; then
+        cp /usr/sbin/bpftool /usr/sbin/bpftool.real
+        cat > /usr/sbin/bpftool <<EOF
+#!/bin/sh
+if [ "\$1" = --version ]; then
+        echo 5.6.0
+else
+        exec /usr/sbin/bpftool.real \$@
+fi
+EOF
+        chmod +x /usr/sbin/bpftool
+fi
+
 if [ ! -f "$BUILDDIR"/build.ninja ] ; then
         sysvinit_path=$(realpath /etc/init.d)
 
@@ -149,7 +165,7 @@ if [ ! -f "$BUILDDIR"/build.ninja ] ; then
                 -D gnu-efi=true \
                 -D kernel-install=true \
                 -D analyze=true \
-                -D bpf-framework=auto
+                -D bpf-framework=true
 fi
 
 cd "$BUILDDIR"
diff --git a/src/shared/qrcode-util.c b/src/shared/qrcode-util.c
index 1ad3474b3f..4a33c28bf2 100644
--- a/src/shared/qrcode-util.c
+++ b/src/shared/qrcode-util.c
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 #include "dlfcn-util.h"
 #include "locale-util.h"
 #include "log.h"
+#include "strv.h"
 #include "terminal-util.h"
 
 #define ANSI_WHITE_ON_BLACK "\033[40;37;1m"
@@ -21,10 +22,18 @@ static QRcode* (*sym_QRcode_encodeString)(const char *string, int version, QRecL
 static void (*sym_QRcode_free)(QRcode *qrcode) = NULL;
 
 int dlopen_qrencode(void) {
-        return dlopen_many_sym_or_warn(
-                        &qrcode_dl, "libqrencode.so.4", LOG_DEBUG,
+        int r;
+
+        FOREACH_STRING(s, "libqrencode.so.4", "libqrencode.so.3") {
+                r = dlopen_many_sym_or_warn(
+                        &qrcode_dl, s, LOG_DEBUG,
                         DLSYM_ARG(QRcode_encodeString),
                         DLSYM_ARG(QRcode_free));
+                if (r >= 0)
+                        break;
+        }
+
+        return r;
 }
 
 static void print_border(FILE *output, unsigned width) {