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

[Markus Armbruster]

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?

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.