qemu/docs/system/guest-loader.rst
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   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 it's
  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 it's 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 it's 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