Re: [PATCH] docs/system: clarify pflash0 and pflash1 are virt-only options

["Daniel P. Berrangé" <berrange@redhat.com>]

On Wed, Jun 24, 2026 at 02:28:39AM +0530, Linisha wrote:
> The pflash0 and pflash1 machine options shown in the Aarch64 virt example are only available for virt machine types on Arm, RISC-V, and LoongArch architectures. Add a note to clarify this for users who may try these options on x86 machines and be confused when they are not available.
> 
> Resolves: https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/3254
> Signed-off-by: Linisha <linisha232@gmail.com>
> ---
>  docs/system/introduction.rst | 6 ++++++
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/docs/system/introduction.rst b/docs/system/introduction.rst
> index bec7291e47..0c400aefb6 100644
> --- a/docs/system/introduction.rst
> +++ b/docs/system/introduction.rst
> @@ -158,6 +158,12 @@ virtualisation so we can use KVM inside the emulated guest. As the
>  ``virt`` machine comes with some built in pflash devices we give them
>  names so we can override the defaults later.
>  
> +.. note::
> +   The ``pflash0`` and ``pflash1`` machine options are specific to the
> +   ``virt`` machine type on Arm, RISC-V, and LoongArch architectures.
> +   They are not available on x86 machines, which use ``-bios`` or
> +   ``-pflash`` for firmware instead.

No this is wrong.

The pflash0 and pflash1 properties apply to x86 pc & q35 machines too.

-pflash is a legacy syntax which remaps to pflash0 and pflash1 internally,
but also applies to other machines which don't use the new pflash0/pflash1
properties.

With regards,
Daniel
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