Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] [PATCH v3] Add the bios option to specify the bios to load

[Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2012-02-28 at 17:26 +0000, Attilio Rao wrote:
> Signed-off-by: Attilio Rao <attilio.rao@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Ian Campbell <ian.campbell@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> ---
> 
> Differences with previous revision:
> - Rename of libxl_bios_types into libxl_bios_type
> - Improvement to the manpage, discussed with Ian
> 
> diff -r adcd6ab160fa -r 4c425ca35c4b docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5
> --- a/docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5   Thu Feb 23 10:29:27 2012 +0000
> +++ b/docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5   Tue Feb 28 17:25:37 2012 +0000
> @@ -430,6 +430,30 @@ accept the defaults for these options wh
>  
>  =over 4
>  
> +=item B<bios="STRING">
> +
> +Select the virtual firmware that is exposed to the guest.
> +By default, a guess is operated based on the device model, but sometimes

"...a guess is made based on ..."

> +it may be useful to force a different one, like UEFI.

I'd say "configure" or "request" rather than "force", force sounds like
it's not recommended or something.

> +
> +=over 4
> +
> +=item B<rombios>
> +
> +Load a traditional x86 BIOS used by default when 
> device_model_version=qemu-xen-traditional. This is the only BIOS option 
> supported when device_model_version=qemu-xen-traditional.

Very long line. Please wrap to < 80 cols.

This paragraph looks very different to the SeaBIOS and OVMF ones,
structure-wise which is a little jarring . Also rombios is no more or
less "traditional" or "16 bit x86 compatible" than SeaBIOS is. It's just
that SeaBIOS is better code and better maintained so we are
transitioning to it along with the upstream qemu transition.

I think I'd say something like the following:

        Loads ROMBIOS, a 16-bit x86 compatible BIOS. This is used by default
        when device_model_version=qemu-xen-traditional. This is the only BIOS
        option supported when device_model_version=qemu-xen-traditional. This is
        the BIOS used by all previous Xen versions.

> +
> +=item B<seabios>
> +
> +Loads SeaBIOS, a 16-bit x86 compatbile BIOS. This is used by default

                              compatible

> +with device_model_version=qemu-xen.
> +
> +=item B<ovmf>
> +
> +Loads OVMF, a standard UEFI firmware by Tianocore project. It can only
> +be enabled via the B<bios> option.

I think this last sentence is implicit in the fact that it is not the
default.

>  Requires device_model_version=qemu-xen.
> +
> +=back
> +
>  =item B<pae=BOOLEAN>
>  



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