Re: [edk2-devel] [PATCH 1/1] OvmfPkg PlatformBootManagerLib: Move TryRunningQemuKernel()

["Christoph Willing" <chris.willing@linux.com>]

On 11/8/21 8:30 pm, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Aug 2021 at 11:55, Christoph Willing
> <475.chris.willing@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 11/8/21 4:12 pm, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
>>>   Hi,
>>>
>>>> I amended my script to have:
>>>>
>>>> -drive if=none,id=sd00,file=disk.img,format=raw \
>>>> -device virtio-scsi-pci,id=scsi \
>>>> -device scsi-hd,bus=scsi.0,drive=sd00 \
>>>
>>> That switches storage from ide to virtio-scsi.
>>>
>>> Which is a good idea from the performance point of view.  Will obviously
>>> also workaround ide problems.  But might fail now due to virtio-scsi
>>> driver not being part of your initrd.
>>>
>>
>> Thank you James & Gerd,
>>
>> Your suggestions & comments led me to reconsider the contents of the
>> initrd and the problem is now fixed.
>>
>> I had been using an initrd that worked perfectly in a non-UEFI boot and
>> half worked with UEFI boot (the working half being when code was
>> patched). However when I generated a completely new initrd after
>> installing a new system in UEFI mode, I could see many virtio modules
>> being added which were not part of the old initrd I had been using.
>> Booting with the new initrd works perfectly in  all boot modes using
>> OVMF files created without any code patching.
>>
>> Is there a particular procedure to withdraw my patch request, or does it
>> die a quiet death by being ignored now?
>>
> 
> Glad to hear that the mystery is solved now.
> 
> As for the patch, we will just disregard it - no need for any other
> action on your part.
> 

Hi all,

I just wanted to add some clarification about why the problem is fixed.

It not really just about adding virtio* modules to the initrd. That was
only needed because I changed the drive to use a virtio-scsi-pci device
as James had suggested.

While that all worked fine, probably with better performance (as Gerd
mentioned) it was still unsatisfying that I couldn't make the plain ide
work. It turns out that the ide interface can work without changes to
the initrd but invocation requires separate -drive and -device options,
somewhat like James' scsi version, namely:

-device ahci,id=ahci \
-device ide-hd,drive=ide0,bus=ahci.0 \
-drive
if=none,id=ide0,file=disk.img,format=raw,cache=none,index=0,media=disk \

instead of my original shortcut version:

-drive file=disk.img,format=raw,cache=none,index=0,media=disk \


I'll probably stick with the better performing scsi version from now on
although it's still interesting that the shortcut version works without
UEFI but fails with UEFI.

chris