X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=TODO;h=1e265c222bc1bfb85b9449ab06d81396fb08f561;hp=3264e3a0f56c1c189d846149611a8e7aabb1f61e;hb=3087b47c3abac1ad8773dd07500b51423e62079f;hpb=88be1d399915c716ff312f29a7d3f3afcfd509f8

diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index 3264e3a..1e265c2 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -49,53 +49,76 @@ Use virtio_blk by default.  It's faster and more natural.
 Unfortunately it seems like this will rename all devices - see next
 item.
 
+Note: virtio_blk *IS* supported by all our minimum platforms,
+ie. CentOS 5.3, Fedora 11, Debian.
+
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-"Device independent" naming for devices.
+Qemu options -- After discussion with the KVM developers, they have
+recommended some flags which will improve the safety and reliability
+of KVM.  Need to test that these also work under qemu (or at least, do
+no harm):
 
-With a Fedora-based appliance, using libata driver, devices have
-"SCSI" names like /dev/sda.
+-no-hpet      HPET support is broken and should be disabled.
 
-With an EPEL-based appliance, using old ide driver, devices have names
-like /dev/hda.
+-rtc-td-hack  Keeps the rtc clock source track time correctly.
+
+-drive file=...,if=[ide|virtio],cache=off
+              cache=off is necessary to improve reliability in the
+	      event of a system crash when writing.
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-If we use virtio_blk, devices will have names like /dev/vda.
+"Standalone/local mode"
 
-What a mess.
+Instead of running guestfsd (the daemon) inside qemu, there should be
+an option to just run guestfsd directly.
 
-So the idea would be to add a device independent naming scheme, such
-as the one used by grub:
+The architecture in this mode would look like:
 
-  "(hdX)"   X = 0 means 'a', X = 1 means 'b' and so on.
-  "(hdX,Y)" Device X, partition Y (in grub, this counts from 0 which is
-            deeply confusing).
+     +------------------+
+     | main program     |
+     |------------------|
+     | libguestfs       |
+     +--------^---------+
+          |   | reply
+      cmd |   |
+     +----v-------------+
+     | guestfsd         |
+     +------------------+
 
-There would have to be a very simple rule.  If guestfsd was expecting
-a /dev block device or partition name, then the alternate form can be
-used, and we would just look it up using the normal output of
-guestfs_list_devices.
+Notes:
 
-Maybe best is to use /dev/sda as the "standard" naming.  That
-shouldn't cause conflicts in the appliance because we tightly control
-what drivers are available.
+(1) This only makes sense if we are running as root.
 
-Note there's a lot of hackery that currently exists in tests.c which
-could be *removed* if we made this change.
+(2) There is no console / kernel messages in this configuration, but
+we might consider capturing stderr from the daemon.
 
-Open: Should the substitution be done in the library layer or in the
-daemon?
+(3) guestfs_config and guestfs_add_drive become no-ops.
+
+Obviously in this configuration, commands are run directly on the
+local machine's disks.  You could just run the commands themselves
+directly, but libguestfs provides a convenient API and language
+bindings.  Also deals with tricky stuff like parsing the output of the
+LVM commands.  Also we get to leverage other code such as
+virt-inspector.
+
+This is mainly useful from live CDs, ie. virt-p2v.
+
+Should we bother having the daemon at all and just link the guestfsd
+code directly into libguestfs?
 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-Qemu options -- After discussion with the KVM developers, they have
-recommended some flags which will improve the safety and reliability
-of KVM.  Need to test that these also work under qemu (or at least, do
-no harm):
+PPC problems:
 
--no-hpet      HPET support is broken and should be disabled.
+  ppc (32 bit) works with qemu from git, however there is no serial console
 
--rtc-td-hack  Keeps the rtc clock source track time correctly.
+  ppc64 requires extra parameters:
+    -M mac99 -cpu ppc64
+  however it still fails:
+    invalid/unsupported opcode: 01 - 01 - 1a (06301e83) 00000000018c2738 1
+    invalid bits: 00400000 for opcode: 0b - 19 - 15 (2d746572) 0000000000009230
 
--drive file=...,if=[ide|virtio],cache=off
-              cache=off is necessary to improve reliability in the
-	      event of a system crash when writing.
+  no serial console in ppc or ppc64 because no one can tell us what
+  console=ttyXX option to use