[Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Lee]

Hi All,

Just wanted to through to the developers another great idea for qemu.

it is the ability to list a boot-device sequence.

I have in my mind something like this:

-boot a,c,d
-boot d,c
...



-- 
Lee
linuxtwidler@gmail.com

Re: [Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Magnus Damm]

Hello,

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 15:56:06 -0600 (CST), Lee <linuxtwidler@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just wanted to through to the developers another great idea for qemu.
> 
> it is the ability to list a boot-device sequence.
> 
> I have in my mind something like this:
> 
> -boot a,c,d
> -boot d,c
> ...

This is already present in the bochs bios, just have a look at version
1.121 of rombios.c and start hacking...

http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/bochs/bochs/bios/#dirlist

/ magnus

Re: [Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Jim C. Brown]

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 03:56:06PM -0600, Lee wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> Just wanted to through to the developers another great idea for qemu.
> 
> it is the ability to list a boot-device sequence.
> 
> I have in my mind something like this:
> 
> -boot a,c,d
> -boot d,c
> ...
> 
> 

What would be the point? It shouldn't be difficult to do, but I don't see how
it would be useful ... you'd still need to specify the boot device itself via
the command line as well. The only real use I can see is thru the monitor (I'm
thinking system_reset here).

> 
> -- 
> Lee
> linuxtwidler@gmail.com
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Qemu-devel mailing list
> Qemu-devel@nongnu.org
> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel
> 

-- 
Infinite complexity begets infinite beauty.
Infinite precision begets infinite perfection.

Re: [Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Mike Swanson]

It would be useful with installing the older NTs (the ones that
required floppy disks) and Windows 9x/Me (where you generally have to
go through a few disks for partitioning and formatting and then
booting into DOS and then running setup).

I see advantages to this boot sequence aproach, not useless bloat.


On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 19:38:24 -0500, Jim C. Brown <jbrown106@phreaker.net> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 03:56:06PM -0600, Lee wrote:
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > Just wanted to through to the developers another great idea for qemu.
> >
> > it is the ability to list a boot-device sequence.
> >
> > I have in my mind something like this:
> >
> > -boot a,c,d
> > -boot d,c
> > ...
> >
> >
> 
> What would be the point? It shouldn't be difficult to do, but I don't see how
> it would be useful ... you'd still need to specify the boot device itself via
> the command line as well. The only real use I can see is thru the monitor (I'm
> thinking system_reset here).
> 
> >
> > --
> > Lee
> > linuxtwidler@gmail.com
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Qemu-devel mailing list
> > Qemu-devel@nongnu.org
> > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel
> >
> 
> --
> Infinite complexity begets infinite beauty.
> Infinite precision begets infinite perfection.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Qemu-devel mailing list
> Qemu-devel@nongnu.org
> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel
>

Re: [Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi,

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005, Jim C. Brown wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 03:56:06PM -0600, Lee wrote:
> >
> > I have in my mind something like this:
> >
> > -boot a,c,d
> > -boot d,c
>
> What would be the point? It shouldn't be difficult to do, but I don't
> see how it would be useful ... you'd still need to specify the boot
> device itself via the command line as well. The only real use I can see
> is thru the monitor (I'm thinking system_reset here).

Maybe he wants to boot from floppy after installing windows... Having
to wait for the reboot can be very boring. Of course, one could add a
monitor command to change the boot device...

Ciao,
Dscho

Re: [Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Jim C. Brown]

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 04:55:58PM -0800, Mike Swanson wrote:
> It would be useful with installing the older NTs (the ones that
> required floppy disks) and Windows 9x/Me (where you generally have to
> go through a few disks for partitioning and formatting and then
> booting into DOS and then running setup).
> 
> I see advantages to this boot sequence aproach, not useless bloat.
> 
> 

Ah of course. Every OS i've ever installed has been via cdrom boot, which
required one reboot, so I've never needed this.

This option would be quite useful to have, agreed. You'd probably want an option
in the monitor to change the boot device also.

-- 
Infinite complexity begets infinite beauty.
Infinite precision begets infinite perfection.

Re: [Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Lee]

> > I have in my mind something like this:
> > 
> > -boot d,c
> 
> What would be the point? It shouldn't be difficult to do, but I don't see how
> it would be useful ... you'd still need to specify the boot device itself via
> the command line as well. The only real use I can see is thru the monitor (I'm
> thinking system_reset here).

I was thinking that you could specify the harddrive first, and then the cdrom.  

That way when you are installing a new os, it would boot to the cd first (since there is no data on the harddrive), and then when the os does its reboot, it then boots off the harddrive.

This prevents the user from having to quit qemu, just to change the boot order to finish the installation.


-- 
Lee
linuxtwidler@gmail.com

 00:15:51 up  2:10,  1 user,  load average: 0.09, 0.13, 0.40

Re: [Qemu-devel] Boot Sequence

[Magnus Damm]

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:55:58 -0800, Mike Swanson
<mikeonthecomputer@gmail.com> wrote:
> It would be useful with installing the older NTs (the ones that
> required floppy disks) and Windows 9x/Me (where you generally have to
> go through a few disks for partitioning and formatting and then
> booting into DOS and then running setup).

FYI, it is now possible to install win98 from cdrom without floppies.

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2005-01/msg00337.html

/ magnus