Re: [Qemu-devel] RFC: changing ROM bundling in tar dists for releases

[Philippe Mathieu-Daudé]

On 08/31/2017 09:29 AM, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
[...]> There are the following options I see
>    1. Keep existing dist, and add a new minimal one
>
>         qemu-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2 - qemu source + bundled ROMS + libs
>         qemu-minimal-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2 - qemu source only
>
>       Least impact for current non-distro users, distros just switch.
>
>    2. Change existing dist, and add a new one with everything
>
>         qemu-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2 - qemu source only
>         qemu-full-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2 - qemu source + bundled ROMS + libs
>
>       Non-distro users need to download a different dist from what they
>       have known previously, but otherwise unchanged build process.
>
>    3. Change existing dist, and add a new one with bundled bits
>
>         qemu-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2 - qemu source only
>         qemu-addons-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2 - bundled ROMS + libs
>
>       Non-distro users need to manually download & install an
>       extra piece compared to now.

Debian style:

linux-kbuild-4.9 - Kbuild infrastructure for Linux 4.9
linux-kbuild-4.12 - Kbuild infrastructure for Linux 4.12
linux-source - Linux kernel source (meta-package)
linux-source-4.12 - Linux kernel source for version 4.12 with Debian patches
firmware-linux - Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kernel 
(meta-package)
firmware-linux-nonfree - Binary firmware for various drivers in the 
Linux kernel (meta-package)
firmware-misc-nonfree - Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux 
kernel
firmware-zd1211 - binary firmware for the zd1211rw wireless driver
firmware-bnx2 - Binary firmware for Broadcom NetXtremeII
...
qemu-efi - UEFI firmware for 64-bit ARM virtual machines
grub-firmware-qemu - GRUB firmware image for QEMU
ipxe-qemu - PXE boot firmware - ROM images for qemu
ovmf - UEFI firmware for 64-bit x86 virtual machines
vgabios - VGA BIOS software for the Bochs and Qemu emulated VGA card
seabios - Legacy BIOS implementation
sgabios - bios option rom to provide legacy serial console for x86

$ apt-cache show qemu-system-x86
Package: qemu-system-x86
Provides: qemu-system-i386, qemu-system-x86-64
Suggests: samba, vde2, qemu-block-extra, kmod, sgabios, ovmf

$ apt-cache show qemu-system-arm
Recommends: qemu-utils, ipxe-qemu, qemu-efi

This seems to me the cleaner one, the distrib choose to provide 
dependencies in the package description, a package to build, and keep 
exclusive licenses in different packages.

>    4. Change existing dist, never distribute bundled ROMs + libs at all
>
>         qemu-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2 - qemu source only
>
>       Only here for completeness, not a serious suggestion

Linux style :)

>    5. Change nothing
>
>       Continue ignoring the problem I aim to solve.
>
>
> My patch did option 2, but I really open to any of 1/2/3 without a
> strong preference, as long as we can get some agreement on one. I
> guess option 1 might be easiest to get agreement on given its minimal
> impact.

It would be easier to have people building from sources to answer but 
they usually don't read this list, you might want to ask on qemu-stable.

Regards,

Phil.