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Date:      Tue, 12 Nov 2013 21:07:41 +0000
From:      "Abhishek Gupta (LIS)" <abgupta@microsoft.com>
To:        Michael Dexter <editor@callfortesting.org>, "freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org" <freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org>
Subject:   RE: Use of Floppy Drive with FreeBSD Virtual Machines
Message-ID:  <c1acdfa9ee254fd3956451f2f3c83bb6@BL2PR03MB210.namprd03.prod.outlook.com>
In-Reply-To: <5281C6F9.8040109@callfortesting.org>
References:  <bbe6d48d21024e199eebb47601a8f0f7@BL2PR03MB210.namprd03.prod.outlook.com> <528128E2.6000006@callfortesting.org> <8c6f3f012fc94908bf6a40cdd0d235d7@BL2PR03MB210.namprd03.prod.outlook.com> <5281C6F9.8040109@callfortesting.org>

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Thanks for the response Michael! I understand now. Just wanted to let you k=
now that Hyper-V Gen2 VMs do not have a virtual FDD. Not that we have FreeB=
SD supported on it yet but the scenarios you describe may not work on Gen2 =
FreeBSD virtual machines today. Thanks again for the feedback.

Abhishek

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Dexter [mailto:editor@callfortesting.org]=20
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2013 10:13 PM
To: Abhishek Gupta (LIS); freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Use of Floppy Drive with FreeBSD Virtual Machines


Hello Abhishek,

On 11/11/13 11:37 AM, Abhishek Gupta (LIS) wrote:
> Thanks so much for replying. Some follow up questions:
>=20
> a) Is it not possible to use an ISO file to do the BIOS updates?

I have not.

> b) I did not quite understand your second comment on why PCI pass=20
> through may promote floppy disk use. Please could you elaborate a bit=20
> more?

The scenario I see the most is a virtualized (HyperV, VMware etc.) FreeNAS =
guest to which you pass a PCIe storage controller card to so that ZFS is gi=
ven "bare metal" access to hardware disks yet has the benefit of the fast i=
nternal backplane if you will for networking, rather than going over copper=
 or optical network interfaces.

Because the FreeNAS guest may be one among many, it would not be desirable =
to reboot the whole system and boot to a floppy to apply a BIOS update to a=
 PCIe controller card. Again, I have not tried anything like this but it is=
 a possible use case of what you describe. Also mind you I never want to se=
e another floppy-based BIOS again but they are still out there.

Michael



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