ports/emulators/qemu-devel/pkg-message

[
{ type: install
  message: <<EOM
FreeBSD host notes
==================

- Needs to set net.link.tap.user_open sysctl in order to use /dev/tap*
  networking as non-root.  Don't forget to adjust device node
  permissions in /etc/devfs.rules.

- slirp (usermode networking) is fixed now, you still have to manually
  do: echo nameserver 10.0.2.3 >/etc/resolv.conf but that is normal. And
  you have to wait a bit for dhclient to do its thing; traffic to
  address 10.0.2.2 is routed to 127.1 on the host.

- The -smb option (smb-export local dir to guest using the default slirp
  networking) needs the samba port/package installed in addition to
  qemu. (SAMBA knob.)

- If you want to use usb devices connected to the host in the guest
  you can use usbredir over the network (see below); also unless you are
  running qemu as root you then need to fix permissions for /dev/ugen*
  device nodes: put a rule in /etc/devfs.rules, activate it in
  /etc/rc.conf and run /etc/rc.d/devfs restart.  Example devfs.rules:

	[ugen_ruleset=20]
	add path 'ugen*' mode 660 group operator

  corresponding rc.conf line:

	devfs_system_ruleset="ugen_ruleset"

- If you want to test the new usb network redirection (USBREDIR option)
  see this thread by Hans de Goede <hdegoede <at> redhat.com>:

	http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.qemu/110176/focus=110183

  Quote:

  Example usage:

  1) Start usbredirserver for a usb device:
  sudo usbredirserver 045e:0772
  2) Start qemu with usb2 support + a chardev talking to usbredirserver +
     a usb-redir device using this chardev:
  qemu -usb \
    -readconfig docs/ich9-ehci-uhci.cfg \
    -chardev socket,id=usbredirchardev,host=localhost,port=4000 \
    -device usb-redir,chardev=usbredirchardev,id=usbredirdev ...

  [you would replace docs/ich9-ehci-uhci.cfg with e.g.
  /usr/local/share/doc/qemu/docs/ich9-ehci-uhci.cfg, but turns out
  ehci was broken for me here with FreeBSD guests and the previous
  qemu version at least, I got:

	FETCHENTRY: entry at 22C5484 is of type 2 which is not supported yet
processing error - resetting ehci HC
	Assertion failed: (0), function ehci_advance_state, file /data/ports/emulators/qemu-devel/work/qemu-0.15.0/hw/usb-ehci.c, line 2045.

  The new qemu version works better tho.]

- Still usb: since the hub is no longer attached to the uchi controller and
  the wakeup mechanism, resume interrupt is not implemented yet linux guests
  will suspend the bus, i.e. they wont see devices usb_add'ed after its
  (linux') uhci module got loaded.  Workaround: either add devices before
  linux loads the module or rmmod and modprobe it afterwards.  [Not sure
  if this still applies to the new libusb host code used on recent
  10-current.]

- If you get repeated `atapi_poll called!' console messages with FreeBSD
  guests or other weird cdrom problems then thats probably because the guest
  has atapicam loaded, which for reasons still to be determined has problems
  with qemu's now by default enabled cdrom dma.  You can build the port with
  CDROM_DMA disabled to disable it.  [Looks like this is fixed in recent
  FreeBSD guest versions.]

- If you build qemu wihout SDL and then get crashes running it try passing it
  -nographic.

- qemu's network boot roms (-boot n) have a bug when bootfiles sizes are a
  multiple of blksize, if this affects you (like with FreeBSD's /boot/pxeboot)
  you can do like

	cp /boot/pxeboot pxeboot-qemu && chmod +w pxeboot-qemu && echo >>pxeboot-qemu

  and then use pxeboot-qemu. Actually you need recent btx code because
  of the real mode boot problem, so use at least pxeboot from there.

- If you use slirp (usernet, the default) and want to mount nfs into the
  guest and you are not running qemu as root, then mountd(8) on the
  exporting box needs to be run with -n in order to accept requests from
  ports >= 1024.

- (not FreeBSD-specific:) There have been reports of qcow2 corruption with (at
  least) win2k guests on recent kvm (which uses similar qcow2 code than qemu
  now, see this thread:

	http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2009-02/msg00713.html -

  the consensus on that thread seems to be that qcow(2) code has always been
  experimental and you should use raw images if you want reliability; raw is
  also usually faster.)  You should be able to migrate existing images to raw
  using qemu-img(1)'s convert function; raw doesn't support advanced features
  like snapshots tho.  [a few important qcow2 bugfixed have been committed in
  the meantime so this _might_ be less of an issue now; and meanwhile there
  also is the new qed format - I don't know how stable that one is.]

- (also not FreeBSD-specific:)  It is recommended to pass raw images using the
  new -drive syntax, specifying format=raw explicitly in order to avoid
  malicious guests being able to exploit the format autodetection thats
  otherwise getting used.  (Not that you should run malicious guests anyway,
  but this eleminates at least a known attack vector.)

- qemu now has improved physical cdrom support, but still there is at
  least one known problem: you need to have the guest eject the disc if you
  want to change it/take it out, or otherwise the guest may continue using
  state (like size) of the old disc.  (You can also do like `change ide1-cd0
  /dev/acd0' in the monitor after taking out the disc if a guest cannot eject
  it itself.)

- The default configuration location (qemu-ifup script etc.) has been changed
  from /etc to PREFIX/etc (usually /usr/local/etc).  Move your files
  accordingly.

- The pcap code (-net nic... -net pcap,ifname=...) should work properly now,
  with only one exception:  Advanced features like TSO used on the host
  interface can cause oversize packets which now do get truncated to avoid
  confusing/panicing guests but of course still will cause retransmissions.
  So if you see slow throughput and `pcap_send: packet size > ..., truncating'
  messages on qemu's tty try disabling TSO etc on the host interface at least
  while using pcap.

- kqemu is no longer supported in qemu upstream after the 0.11 branch
  was created, which means also not in this version.  (Linux has moved
  on to kvm now for qemu(-like) virtualization needs, so if you want qemu
  to go faster and don't want to switch to virtualbox or stick to the older
  emulators/qemu port which is at 0.11.1 atm and as such still supports
  kqemu you should help getting the FreeBSD kvm port updated and
  completed:

	http://wiki.freebsd.org/FabioChecconi/PortingLinuxKVMToFreeBSD

  )
EOM
}
]