Re: [coreboot] [Qemu-devel] Release plan for 0.12.0

[Jordan Justen]

On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 10:40, ron minnich <address@hidden> wrote:
> I use qemu for a lot of coreboot work. I really depend on qemu for
> many things I do, not just coreboot related. The qemu target in
> coreboot has been very heavily used by us to test out new ideas.
>
> That said, I don't see a compelling need to augment seabios with
> coreboot on qemu *in the standard distribution*. If seabios gets the
> job done, and gets OSes booted, I think that's sufficient. I don't see
> a need to complicate anyone's life with something that is, after all,
> a sideshow for qemu users.
>
> Conversely, I don't see the need to add the huge pile of stuff that
> comes with UEFI/OVMF/whatever to qemu either. One might argue that

This is a valid argument right now.  OS X is the only OS today that
targets UEFI, and specifically not legacy BIOS.  But, in 5 ~ 10 years
that might not be the case.

I'll admit that this is a fairly dumb argument to make while we are
talking about a QEMU release only a few months from now.  But, as UEFI
seems to be gaining ground in the industry, I think the sooner QEMU
can get this support, the better.

We're specifically trying to help out with this with OVMF.  But if a
better solution is developed, then so be it.

> having any BIOS callbacks in the OS is a huge mistake, and certainly
> I've learned in practice that this argument is true.

I'm not going to take a side on this matter.  But, I think what will
be more important is what is used in the majority of OS's and systems.
 This is why we still put the 16-bit legacy BIOS as the #1 priority
after ~30 years.  But, like I mention, I think there are signs that
this may shift towards UEFI at some point.

-Jordan