[SeaBIOS] [PATCH 2/2] smbios: allow vendor/manufacturer/version/product names be set on config.h

[Eduardo Habkost]

On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 10:54:14PM -0400, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 10:28:18AM -0300, Eduardo Habkost wrote:
> > On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 11:09:08AM +0200, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> > > On 6/18/10 10:19 PM, Eduardo Habkost wrote:
> > > > Instead of using the same string for every field, let those fields to be set
> > > > individually on config.h
> > > >
> > > > The current default value is kept (CONFIG_APPNAME), but it should allow
> > > > fine-tuned configuration at build-time on config.h.
> > > >
> > > > Signed-off-by: Eduardo Habkost <ehabkost at redhat.com>
> > > >   
> > > Out of curiosity: What's the use case?
> > 
> > Basically it is to give better vendor/product information on the smbios
> > tags for KVM virtual machines running on RHEL hosts. The most relevant
> > field for me is the BIOS name/version field on smbios, that can be used
> > to identify the specific SeaBIOS build being used, but I also want to
> > set better defaults for the other fields, in case they are not
> > explicitly set by the Qemu process.
> > 
> > On my case, I don't plan to customize all the defines: some smbios
> > fields and the ACPI stuff was added just for completeness. The rationale
> > is that CONFIG_APPNAME is useful, but it affects too many different
> > fields, so I am making the existing config option a bit more flexible.
> 
> Which fields do you need to customize, and what problem are you
> running into if they aren't changed?

The Bios Information and System Information fields are the most
important to me.

There are some software that use those fields to identify if the system
as a KVM virtual machine running inside a Red Hat host. Anyway, support
reasons are stronger than specific software problems: users and support
people can use the smbios information to identify on which kind of
system the operating system is running, and seeing "Bios: seabios;
Vendor: Red Hat; Product: KVM" is more informative than seeing "Qemu" or
"Bochs" on every field.

Long term, Qemu may load its own table and/or set their own fields
through the paravirt interface. This is something to help setting
defaults for users who don't specify those values on the Qemu
command-line (and have a Qemu version that doesn't set default values
unless explicitly specified).

-- 
Eduardo