Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v11 0/8] Add a generic loader

[Alistair Francis]

On Tue, Sep 20, 2016 at 11:05 PM, Markus Armbruster <address@hidden> wrote:
> Alistair Francis <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> This work is based on the original work by Li Guang with extra
>> features added by Peter C and myself.
>>
>> The idea of this loader is to allow the user to load multiple images
>> or values into QEMU at startup.
>>
>> Memory values can be loaded like this: -device 
>> loader,addr=0xfd1a0104,data=0x8000000e,data-len=4
>>
>> Images can be loaded like this: -device loader,file=./images/u-boot.elf,cpu=0
>
> I know it's way too late for design questions, but the thought just
> occured to me: -device gives you what you need without defining yet
> another command line option (good!), but is it appropriate?  It's not
> exactly a device...  Would -object be a better fit?  I honestly don't
> know.  Paolo?

I see your point, but I kind of think it makes sense that everything
uses the same command line argument.

I image it would be very confusing if we have -device and -object.
Then when you want to add something you will need to figure out if it
is a device or an object? How do you know which one is which?

I agree that technically it isn't a device but I think this is still
clear what you are trying to do.

Thanks,

Alistair

>
> If this question leads to changes, they can be done on top.
>
>> This can be useful and we use it a lot in Xilinx to load multiple images
>> into a machine at creation (ATF, Kernel and DTB for example).
>>
>> Tested with the latest Xilinx ZynqMP machine, if I enable EL3 and EL2 I can
>> boot ATF through to u-boot using the loader to load the images.
>>
>> It can also be used to set registers.
>>
>> This patch series makes the load_elf() function more generic by not
>> requiring an architecture. It also adds new functions load_elf_as(),
>> load_uimage_as and load_image_targphys_as which allows custom
>> AddressSpaces when loading images.
>