Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC PATCH v2 5/5] ne2k_isa: add property for option rom loading.

[Anthony Liguori]

Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
> On 10/07/09 15:08, Anthony Liguori wrote:
> > Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
> > > + if (s->pxe) {
> > > + if (rom_add_option("pxe-ne2k_isa.bin") != 0) {
> > > + qemu_error("warning: loading rom pxe-ne2k_isa.bin failed\n");
> > > + s->pxe = 0;
> > > + }
> > > + }
> > > +
> >
> > Maybe we should make the filename a property instead of adding a pxe
> > option?
>
> No.  The user should not need to know the file name of the option rom 
> just to enable pxe booting for the nic.

Having a pxe flag is somewhat odd.  Real network devices always have 
roms and they always get loaded.  They register themselves as BEV 
devices and the normal boot selection is used to determine whether a 
particular NIC gets network booted or not.

Our roms do expose themselves as BEV roms so there's really no harm in 
loading an option rom while booting from disk.

Any PCI device can have a rom and it probably should be a generic 
property of any PCI device.  There's really nothing specific about 
network adapters.

> When making the filename configurable it should be a separate property 
> like "rom-name" or simliar.  I would suggest to NOT implement it 
> unless users actually ask for it ;)

Quite a few users today replace the standard etherboot roms with gPXE roms.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori