Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC PATCH V1 1/2] arm_boot: added linux switch

[Peter Crosthwaite]

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 11:41 AM, Peter Maydell <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 1 June 2012 02:16, Peter A. G. Crosthwaite
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Added a switch to tell the bootloader that the image is linux and should be
>> bootstrapped as such. This is needed to boot an elf that is linux.
>>
>> Syntax would be:
>>
>> qemu-system-arm ... -kernel linux.elf -machine linux=on
>
> This whole area is a mess. Personally I think we should have a
> standard way to say "load this ELF file into memory" which isn't
> target-dependent, and then we could make -kernel actually load
> a kernel rather than its current "load a kernel unless it's an
> ELF file in which case do something else".
>

Ok,

So this sounds like -kernel should behave like is_linux=1. Then you
add -elf as the command line option to boot your random non-linux
elfs?

> There are some back-compatibility issues there, though.

Yes there are definitely back compat issues in that people are using
-kernel already for their random elfs. But if you want to keep it
clean aren't we just going to have to take the hit on the command line
syntax change?

>
> -- PMM