[Qemu-devel] New x86 BIOS image

[Aurelien Jarno]

Hi all,

I have built a new x86 BIOS image from the latest Bochs CVS. Among the
nice fixes and improvements, the main ones are:
 - boot menu, accessible with F12
 - LBA48 support
 - basic implementation of SMBIOS

I had a problem with SMP support, as the delay between the launch of the
SIPI and the read of the number of CPU was too short. It was controlled
by a simple delay loop which seems to be too short now. Instead of 
waiting an arbitrary amount of time, I use the same solution as the one
choosen in KVM, that is to export the number of CPUs in the NVRAM. A
patch for that has been post among the KVM patches by Anthony Liguori.

You will find attached the new BIOS in binary format, the patch against 
the latest Bochs CVS I used to build it, and a small patch to apply to 
QEMU. To use it, apply the QEMU patch, and put the new bios in the
pc-bios directory. It should then be installed at the correct location
by "make install".

I currently have found no regressions with it, but as it is a very 
sensitive part, I would like to get it more widely tested. I am waiting 
for your comments.

Thanks,
Aurelien

-- 
  .''`.  Aurelien Jarno             | GPG: 1024D/F1BCDB73
 : :' :  Debian developer           | Electrical Engineer
 `. `'   address@hidden         | address@hidden
   `-    people.debian.org/~aurel32 | www.aurel32.net

bios.bin
Description: Binary data

bios.diff
Description: Text Data

0001-Tell-BIOS-about-the-number-of-CPUs.patch
Description: Text Data