From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LXfjy-0002MN-6i for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:52:46 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LXfjx-0002MA-N7 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:52:45 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=58848 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LXfjx-0002M7-LP for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:52:45 -0500 Received: from e1.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.141]:59614) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LXfjx-0004bL-6p for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:52:45 -0500 Received: from d01relay04.pok.ibm.com (d01relay04.pok.ibm.com [9.56.227.236]) by e1.ny.us.ibm.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id n1CHokEA012077 for ; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:50:46 -0500 Received: from d01av01.pok.ibm.com (d01av01.pok.ibm.com [9.56.224.215]) by d01relay04.pok.ibm.com (8.13.8/8.13.8/NCO v9.1) with ESMTP id n1CHqh6L193150 for ; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:52:43 -0500 Received: from d01av01.pok.ibm.com (loopback [127.0.0.1]) by d01av01.pok.ibm.com (8.12.11.20060308/8.13.3) with ESMTP id n1CHqgcH004353 for ; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:52:43 -0500 Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC] Machine description as data From: Hollis Blanchard In-Reply-To: <87iqng0x3t.fsf@pike.pond.sub.org> References: <87iqnh6kyv.fsf@pike.pond.sub.org> <1234378228.28751.79.camel@slate.austin.ibm.com> <20090212040138.GD31142@yookeroo.seuss> <87iqng0x3t.fsf@pike.pond.sub.org> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:52:42 -0600 Message-Id: <1234461162.20305.16.camel@slate.austin.ibm.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org List-Id: qemu-devel.nongnu.org List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Markus Armbruster Cc: devicetree-discuss@ozlabs.org, qemu-devel@nongnu.org On Thu, 2009-02-12 at 11:26 +0100, Markus Armbruster wrote: > David Gibson writes: > > > On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 12:50:28PM -0600, Hollis Blanchard wrote: > >> On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 16:40 +0100, Markus Armbruster wrote: > > [snip] > >> > I briefly examined the DT source format and the tree structure it > >> > describes for the purpose of QEMU configuration. I decided > against > >> > using it in my prototype because I found it awfully low-level and > >> > verbose for that purpose (I'm sure it serves the purpose it was > designed > >> > for just fine). Issues include: > >> > > >> > * Since the DT is designed for booting kernels, not configuring > QEMU, > >> > there's information that has no place in QEMU configuration, > and > >> > required QEMU configuration isn't there. > >> > >> What's needed is a "binding" in IEEE1275-speak: a document that > >> describes qemu-specific nodes/properties and how they are to be > >> interpreted. > >> > >> As an example, you could require that block devices contain > properties > >> named "qemu,path", "qemu,backend", etc. > > > > Yes, it shouldn't be hard to annotate an IEEE1275 style tree with > > extra information for qemu's use. > > I don't feel up to that task, because I'm not really familiar with > IEEE1275. Could you help out? I'm not really a "language lawyer" for device trees, but I can help. FWIW, I was imagining (from a PowerPC point of view) that a strict subset of the device tree interpreted by qemu would be passed into the guest. In other words, once qemu is done with it, it would strip every property prefixed with "qemu," and copy the result into guest memory. PowerPC kernels require this data structure, and even when firmware runs in the guest, you still need to tell the firmware what the system layout is, and the device tree is an obvious candidate... For x86, maybe it doesn't make sense to have in-guest BIOS split a qemu-provided device tree into all the nasty BIOS data structures, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how this could be used on multiple architectures. -- Hollis Blanchard IBM Linux Technology Center