RE: [Xen-devel] Re: [Xen-users] Is xen planning to support hvm guests booting under UEFI?

[Paul Durrant <Paul.Durrant@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Since I was at the presentation in question, I asked about requirements for 
virtual platforms. I seem to recall the response being that UEFI was not a 
requirement for virtual platforms as yet and moreover I don't believe hyper-v 
VMs UEFI boot. 
That said I'm not sure about the requirements surrounding trusted boot; I guess 
they will become clearer as the HCK requirements are firmed up.

I'd certainly like to see HVM UEFI boot sooner rather than later as I think it 
will speed up Windows boot (and not just for Windows 8) quite a lot but I 
didn't see any need to panic just yet.

  Paul 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xen-devel-
> bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of jim burns
> Sent: 25 September 2011 03:18
> To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: Todd Deshane
> Subject: [Xen-devel] Re: [Xen-users] Is xen planning to support hvm
> guests booting under UEFI?
> 
> On Sat September 24 2011, 6:43:42 PM, Todd Deshane wrote:
> > On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 5:34 PM, jim burns
> <jim_burn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > On Wed September 21 2011, 9:06:38 PM, jim burns wrote:
> > >> Pls cc: me as I am not subscribed.
> > >
> > > [...]
> > > http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenParavirtOps has been
> reworked
> > > recently. Not sure if this was there before:
> > >
> > > "Add EFI support in Linux pv-ops. Jan Beulich wrote patches to
> make
> > > Xen hypervisor be able to compile as an EFI application. "Build
> > > xen.efi, write up a config file for it to read (most importantly
> so
> > > it knows what Dom0 kernel and initrd to use), and you should be
> good
> > > to go (provided the EFI implementation isn't too flawed). This
> being
> > > an EFI application you can simply run it from the shell prompt.
> > > Parameter for Xen.efi is -cfg <file>, and <file> has: kernel=,
> > > ramdisk=, options=, video=gfx-x. The Linux pv-ops needs at least
> to
> > > parse XEN_VGATYPE_EFI_LFB data, E820 parsed (should be working)
> and
> > > give the ACPI subsystem a pointer to the ACPI DSDT without
> consulting EBDA."
> > >
> > > This doesn't solve the Windows 8 hvm problem, but at least EFI
> is
> > > being considered.
> >
> > There was a google summer of code project around UEFI:
> > http://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code-2011-
> tianocore/download
> > s/deta
> > il?name=Bei_Guan.tar.gz&can=2&q=
> >
> > I don't know if it was submitted to xen-devel, but you can follow
> up
> > with the xen-devel mailing list if you are interested.
> >
> > Hope that helps.
> 
> The article I quoted was from http://www.itworld.com/it-
> managementstrategy/205255/windows-8-oem-specs-
> may-block-linux-booting :
> 
> "Red Hat's Matthew Garrett was one of the first to notice that
> according to the new logo rules, all Windows 8 machines will need to
> be have the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of
> the venerable BIOS firmware layer. BIOS has been pretty much the
> sole firmware interface for PCs for a long time.
> 
> The EFI system has slowly been making headway in recent years, and
> right now EFI firmware is compatible with Windows supporting the
> GUID Partition Table (GPT), OS X/Intel, and Linux 2.6 and beyond
> machines. EFI is seen as a better hardware/software interface than
> BIOS, since it is platform-agnostic, runs in
> 32- or 64-bit mode, and GPT machines can handle boot partitions of
> up to 9.4 zettabytes. (That's 9.5 billion terabytes to you and me.)
> 
> EFI, and the later UEFI specification, is not the problem for Linux.
> The problem is Microsoft's other requirement for any Windows 8-
> certified client:
> the system must support secure booting. This hardened boot means
> that "all firmware and software in the boot process must be signed
> by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA)," according to slides from a
> recent presentation on the UEFI boot process made by Arie van der
> Hoeven, Microsoft Principal Lead Program Manager."
> 
> Putting aside the signing problem for now, the immediate problem is
> qemu-dm as the emulator for hvm guests, since it provides an
> emulated *bios*. Or hvmloader as the bootloader. The url Todd
> provides points to a project to modify 'ovmf', an EFI bootloader, to
> be xen hvm aware. Windows 8 will be a game changer, if the article
> is right. Hope plans are being made to incorporate some sort of EFI
> bootloader into xen.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-devel mailing list
> Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel

_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel