Gerd Hoffmann wrote: >>> -drive if=virtio,id=sys,file=/path/to/disk.img >>> -cdrom /path/to/install.iso >>> -boot order=[sys],once=d,menu=off >> Yes, this looks powerful and clean. One could even still define probe >> orders like "-boot order=[sys][backup]d". > > Well, except that boot orders with two hard drives in there don't work > in the PC world ... That depends on your bios. I've seen many that allow disk boot ordering, though they may not support "[sys]d[backup]". However, I see no technical reason for artificially restricting qemu bios capabilities. > >>>> - This is just an implementation detail: Do we really need to implement >>>> booting from virtio and scsi via an extension rom? Isn't it possible >>>> to merge the corresponding support into the main bios? >>> Well. There are quite a few. bochs pcbios, seabios, coreboot ... >> Ok, but that's only an argument to have extboot as a workaround for >> bioses not yet supporting scsi and virtio natively, isn't it? I'm >> thinking long-term here, not arguing against a extboot-based short-term >> solution. > > I think it would be useful. Adding a fw_cfg knob to signal 'please boot > via extboot protocol instead of ide disk' should be enougth to allow > bioses supporting extboot directly. Additional plus is we can probably > code it in C not asm then. I'm still not convinced we need extboot for all bioses on the long term. And I think we should define new interfaces in a way that finally makes it obsolete, at least for our "home bios" (whatever it will be). Jan -- Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, CT SE 2 Corporate Competence Center Embedded Linux -- Libvir-list mailing list Libvir-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libvir-list