xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/system/guest-loader.rst (revision ce799a04)
1..
2   Copyright (c) 2020, Linaro
3
4Guest Loader
5------------
6
7The guest loader is similar to the ``generic-loader`` although it is
8aimed at a particular use case of loading hypervisor guests. This is
9useful for debugging hypervisors without having to jump through the
10hoops of firmware and boot-loaders.
11
12The guest loader does two things:
13
14  - load blobs (kernels and initial ram disks) into memory
15  - sets platform FDT data so hypervisors can find and boot them
16
17This is what is typically done by a boot-loader like grub using its
18multi-boot capability. A typical example would look like:
19
20.. parsed-literal::
21
22  |qemu_system| -kernel ~/xen.git/xen/xen \
23    -append "dom0_mem=1G,max:1G loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all" \
24    -device guest-loader,addr=0x42000000,kernel=Image,bootargs="root=/dev/sda2 ro console=hvc0 earlyprintk=xen" \
25    -device guest-loader,addr=0x47000000,initrd=rootfs.cpio
26
27In the above example the Xen hypervisor is loaded by the -kernel
28parameter and passed its boot arguments via -append. The Dom0 guest
29is loaded into the areas of memory. Each blob will get
30``/chosen/module@<addr>`` entry in the FDT to indicate its location and
31size. Additional information can be passed with by using additional
32arguments.
33
34Currently the only supported machines which use FDT data to boot are
35the ARM and RiscV ``virt`` machines.
36
37Arguments
38^^^^^^^^^
39
40The full syntax of the guest-loader is::
41
42  -device guest-loader,addr=<addr>[,kernel=<file>,[bootargs=<args>]][,initrd=<file>]
43
44``addr=<addr>``
45  This is mandatory and indicates the start address of the blob.
46
47``kernel|initrd=<file>``
48  Indicates the filename of the kernel or initrd blob. Both blobs will
49  have the "multiboot,module" compatibility string as well as
50  "multiboot,kernel" or "multiboot,ramdisk" as appropriate.
51
52``bootargs=<args>``
53  This is an optional field for kernel blobs which will pass command
54  like via the ``/chosen/module@<addr>/bootargs`` node.
55