Re: [PATCH] Add support for a basic boot menu to the bios

[Anthony Liguori <anthony-rdkfGonbjUSkNkDKm+mE6A@public.gmane.org>]

Very cool!

My mailer doesn't want to quote your patch, but I noticed the following:

> +
> +    /* set the default based on the keypress or menu */
> +    switch(scan) {
> +    case 0x3D:
> +        outb_cmos(0x3d, 0x01);
> +        break;
> +    case 0x3E:
> +        outb_cmos(0x3d, 0x02);
> +        break;
> +    case 0x3F:
> +        outb_cmos(0x3d, 0x03);
> +        break;
> +    case 0x58:
> +        outb_cmos(0x3d, 0x04);
> +        break;
> +    default:
> +        break;
> +    }
> +
> +    /* Restore PIT ticks */
> +    wait_uninit();
> +}

But the CMOS memory isn't persisted in QEMU.  Another nice patch 
(although certainly not required IMHO for this to go in), would be to 
make nvram optionally persistent for QEMU so these settings would 
persist across boots.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

Jeremy Katz wrote:
> I sent this to the bochs list earlier today, but given that kvm is
> already carrying patches for the BIOS, it may be worthwhile/interesting
> to add this also as it can make the user experience substantially nicer.
>
> -- Begin forwarded message --
>
> The attached patch adds support for a relatively basic boot device
> selection menu to the bochs bios code.  
>
> Instead of immediately booting from the boot device set in the cmos, we
> wait for 3 seconds for the user to press F10; if they press it, then we
> show a basic boot menu that they can select what device to boot from.
> Otherwise, we continue on with what was setup before running the virtual
> machine.  The advantage is that users can change their boot device just
> on rebooting a virtual machine rather than having to stop and then
> restart it.
>
> This includes the wait routines added by VirtualBox
> (http://www.virtualbox.org) in their modifications to the rombios as
> they made things a bit easier.
>
> Jeremy
>   
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