Re: [PATCH] hw/ppc/pnv: Improve kernel/initrd load failure error messages

[Vishal Chourasia <vishalc@linux.ibm.com>]

On Tue, Oct 07, 2025 at 02:29:52PM +0100, Peter Maydell wrote:
> On Tue, 7 Oct 2025 at 13:59, Vishal Chourasia <vishalc@linux.ibm.com> wrote:
> >
> > When QEMU fails to load the kernel or initrd image, it previously emitted
> > a generic error message such as:
> >
> >   qemu-system-ppc64: Could not load kernel 'vmlinux'
> >
> > This provides little context on why the failure occurred, which can make
> > debugging difficult, especially for new users or when dealing with large
> > images.
> >
> > The new messages also include the configured size limits (in MiB) to help
> > users verify that their image files are within acceptable bounds.
> 
> >          if (kernel_size < 0) {
> >              error_report("Could not load kernel '%s'",
> >                           machine->kernel_filename);
> > +            error_report(
> > +                "Possible reasons: file not found, permission denied, or size "
> > +                "exceeds the maximum supported limit (%ld MiB).",
> > +                KERNEL_MAX_SIZE / 1024 / 1024);
> >              exit(1);
> >          }
> 
> Rather than printing a list of reasons why the load might
> have failed, I think it would be better if we enhanced
> the error handling in load_image_targphys() and friends
> (i.e. use Error), so that these functions can report back
> to the caller exactly why they failed and then the caller
> can give that error message to the user. That way we can
> improve the error reporting for every board that uses
> these load functions.
Hello Peter,

Wouldn't it be better to print the error inside the function itself.

Thanks
vishalc
> 
> thanks
> -- PMM
>