Re: [Qemu-devel] [Qemu-ppc] [PATCH 3/3] PPC PReP: can run without bios image

["Edgar E. Iglesias" <edgar.iglesias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Apr 06, 2013 at 10:12:49PM +0200, Alexander Graf wrote:
> 
> On 06.04.2013, at 22:07, Edgar E. Iglesias wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Apr 06, 2013 at 01:38:52PM +0200, Alexander Graf wrote:
> >> 
> >> On 06.04.2013, at 13:27, Peter Maydell wrote:
> >> 
> >>> On 6 April 2013 10:07, Alexander Graf <agraf@suse.de> wrote:
> >>>> On ARM, look at highbank. Because we're not running we're lacking
> >>>> a monitor mode blob that provides sys calls for flushing caches.
> >>>> Thus today the highbank machine doesn't boot anymore with Linux.
> >>>> If we ran firmware like the real board, that would provide for the
> >>>> sys call.
> >>> 
> >>> We also flat out don't implement enough monitor mode to allow
> >>> a hypothetical firmware blob to work.
> >> 
> >> Why don't we implement enough monitor mode? Because we're not running firmware :). It's a chicken and egg thing. Bottom line is that Linux validly expects that firmware exists. If we don't run firmware, we diverge, thus we potentially break.
> > 
> > 
> > Hi guys, A question -  For linux kernels that depend on preivous stages to setup
> > HW state. What is the prefered way to handle it?
> > 
> > In particular, if the boot loader chain depends on for example a boot rom
> > that is not Open Source. Is providing a QEMU specific loader in pc-bios/ a good
> > option?
> 
> That's pretty much what we do for all PPC machines that do execute firmware, yes :). Just make sure to license your own firmware code under an open source license.

OK, got it, thanks Alex.

Cheers,
Edgar