QEMU supported to set device's boot index online recently(since QEMU 2.2.0). http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2014-10/msg00879.html The QMP "qom-set" is available for setting boot index. qom-set's example is as follows: { .name = "qom-set", .args_type = "path:s,property:s,value:q", .mhandler.cmd_new = qmp_qom_set, } (qemu) qom-set nic1 bootindex 3 (qemu) qom-set nic1 bootindex -1 (qemu) qom-set scsi0-0-0-0 bootindex 2 Setting boot index to -1 means cancel it. We can attach/update a device and set it's boot order when VM is running. The boot order will take effect immediately(after guest rebooting). For example, we can use 'virsh update-device' to change an interface's boot order. The xml is specified as below. <interface type='bridge'> <mac address='fa:16:3e:2e:d4:3d'/> <source bridge='br0'/> <target dev='tap4f2bce78-5b'/> <model type='virtio'/> <driver queues='4'/> <boot order='2'/> <alias name='net0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </interface> If the 'boot order' is not specified in the xml, that means canceling its boot order. Wang Rui (8): qemu: add a new qemuMonitorSetBootIndex() method to set device's bootorder qemu: support attachment of net device with boot index conf: check boot order which is used by itself qemu: a code movement qemu: support attachment of disk device with boot index conf: add compatiblity check for boot index when updating device qemu: support updating interface with boot index qemu: support updating disk with boot index src/conf/device_conf.c | 13 ++ src/conf/device_conf.h | 12 ++ src/conf/domain_conf.c | 74 ++++++---- src/conf/domain_conf.h | 9 -- src/qemu/qemu_driver.c | 64 +++++++-- src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c | 329 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------ src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.h | 4 + src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c | 25 ++++ src/qemu/qemu_monitor.h | 4 + src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c | 19 +++ src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.h | 5 + 11 files changed, 424 insertions(+), 134 deletions(-) -- 1.7.12.4 -- libvir-list mailing list libvir-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libvir-list