From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Avi Kivity Subject: Re: vgabios and other guest related firmware Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:36:47 +0200 Message-ID: <477B5B2F.7080304@qumranet.com> References: <20080102044438.GB8605@tapir> <42DFA526FC41B1429CE7279EF83C6BDCBB773B@pdsmsx415.ccr.corp.intel.com> <20080102093039.GC8605@tapir> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: kvm-devel-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org, "Zhang, Xiantao" To: Carlo Marcelo Arenas Belon Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20080102093039.GC8605@tapir> List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: kvm-devel-bounces-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org Errors-To: kvm-devel-bounces-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org List-Id: kvm.vger.kernel.org Carlo Marcelo Arenas Belon wrote: > >> We also need to upload the ia64 firmware for kvm, and make it >> available for users use. At least, we need to provide the binary. >> > > beware that actually providing the binary without sources might be a problem > for some distributions (like debian and derivatives like ubuntu). > > most likely getting the sources and a makefile which could be used to build > the binary and copy it to the qemu/pc-bios/ directory, at release time or when > the sources had been changed and it needs to be rebuilt, and for convenience > so it can be distributed with the release tar.gz will be preferred. > > for hints on how to get that look at the Makefiles in the bios or vgabios top > level directories and the top level Makefile > > Note that we ship x86 binaries for two reasons: - qemu does it that way, and we inherited it, before the need arose to make modifications - obscure tools are needed to build the binaries (iasl and dev86) Since ia64 doesn't have these issues (is that right?) then we can probably do a source-only release. >> BTW, current ia64 binary has 2M size, is it OK to upload it to >> kvm-source tree ? >> > > if you are talking about the binary only, EFI BIOS from Intel, then it could > be problematic (because of the free software guidelines of some distributions) > and of course will need to have also some sort of README file clearly > specifying that the license allows for re-distribution and can be used at least > together with kvm (like the ELPIN vga bios was licensed for BOCHS) > > IMHO is probably better to use only the GPL version with sources and > distribute that with kvm source packages and let the users or distributions > to manage the distribution/installation of BLOBs otherwise as that keeps the > lawyers from distracting us from the interesting technical issues. > I agree, let's avoid binary-only components if possible. -- error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/