Re: disk=['file://..xvda'] not working for boot disks anymore?

[Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@oracle.com>]

On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 04:54:21PM -0500, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 03:59:09PM -0500, Boris Ostrovsky wrote:
> > On 01/22/2016 03:54 PM, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> > >Hey,
> > >
> > >This parameter
> > >disk = ['file:/root/sol.dd,xvda,w','file:/root/sol-11_2_15_5_1-text-x86.iso,xvdb:cdrom,r']
> > >
> > >works with qemu-traditional, but if I try with qemu-xen it
> > >does not find the disk:
> > >
> > >(d15) [2016-01-22 20:50:03] enter handle_19:
> > >(d15) [2016-01-22 20:50:03]   NULL
> > >(d15) [2016-01-22 20:50:03] Booting from ROM...
> > >(d15) [2016-01-22 20:50:03] Booting from c980:0361
> > >
> > >while with qemu-traditional:
> > >
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15] Bochs BIOS - build: 06/23/99
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15] $Revision: 1.221 $ $Date: 2008/12/07 17:32:29 $
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15] Options: apmbios pcibios eltorito PMM
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15]
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15] ata0 master: QEMU HARDDISK ATA-7 Hard-Disk (12288 MBytes)
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15]
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15]
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15]
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15] Press F12 for boot menu.
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15]
> > >(d14) [2016-01-22 20:43:15] Booting from Hard Disk...
> > >
> > >It does work with Xen 4.4, but that is ancient. I hadn't yet
> > >tried Xen 4.5 nor 4.6.
> > >
> > >I am hoping one of you knows exactly which commit might have made
> > >this change?
> > >
> > >Note that the name is 'xvda', not 'hda'. Thanks!
> > 
> > Probably this one:
> > 
> > http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2015-10/msg01529.html
> 
> You are good.
> 
> That was it.
> 
> CC-ing Anthony - are you OK if the patch was reverted?

And I dug in the thread.

There is a bit of problem here. This patch breaks some existing guests (Solaris 11.2
for example). It assumes that when running under Xen it would only use PV drivers.
Which is fine - except that the bootup part (GRUB2) is all done using QEMU - and
if the guest config has 'xvda' then SeaBIOS won't see the disk anymore. QEMU
traditional will still show the disk.

Ideas how to deal with the existing guests?

P.S.
Solaris OS cannot run as PV guest, only HVM.