From owner-freebsd-virtualization@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 12 06:13:20 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id F056ADE6 for ; Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:13:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-pd0-f174.google.com (mail-pd0-f174.google.com [209.85.192.174]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C7B1D220B for ; Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:13:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-pd0-f174.google.com with SMTP id z10so6375336pdj.5 for ; Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:13:14 -0800 (PST) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20130820; h=x-gm-message-state:message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to :subject:references:in-reply-to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=6S0HlL3NE2jrdFj/oLDgw23GhZKbFyCxlluxV2ICCCs=; b=X6G/tBlKMKjfmkym2PVZe1OUHz/+a05weNeAdRjFeIrS1XcR0s6Ybb6dq7TmX6dGQy Df+V/NBOqWv5QsnrPrc7yPinZGdhIMcZ1XwwCQvMW4jzVhyzOosgIpMJ02kk11vdGy/m ZlKuqF+Bxp7g3V2OWtuZW7pfRC2NAn3fiKifai0aamtrWIy+kdF0C/kU/i6lUDn7+RSh Hhw9U9NhkC/QUaq0iP6lZRvmC+jOhVV1W1nThaBXkJr3OR/2KiapTcxkSP6jjICuyngF 1Q8uXxbI+1KfnC+GqJfjxONB5uuxy6orTHMdgTou6inDBj0Q6bD1uPx1pfVjBUxJOgkN uR8g== X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQm+uCmNrv3W/RxDEIfc3vN5lmU6K7cmzvFumyxlDWMy8zGDigJ0Ul36Z96jXcFy/HlSa3n7 X-Received: by 10.68.17.132 with SMTP id o4mr33881445pbd.44.1384236794576; Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:13:14 -0800 (PST) Received: from Michaels-MacBook-Pro.local (c-98-246-202-204.hsd1.or.comcast.net. [98.246.202.204]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPSA id ef10sm14680305pac.1.2013.11.11.22.13.13 for (version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128); Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:13:13 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <5281C6F9.8040109@callfortesting.org> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:13:13 -0800 From: Michael Dexter User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130801 Thunderbird/17.0.8 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Abhishek Gupta (LIS)" , "freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: Use of Floppy Drive with FreeBSD Virtual Machines References: <528128E2.6000006@callfortesting.org> <8c6f3f012fc94908bf6a40cdd0d235d7@BL2PR03MB210.namprd03.prod.outlook.com> In-Reply-To: <8c6f3f012fc94908bf6a40cdd0d235d7@BL2PR03MB210.namprd03.prod.outlook.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.16 Precedence: list List-Id: "Discussion of various virtualization techniques FreeBSD supports." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:13:21 -0000 Hello Abhishek, On 11/11/13 11:37 AM, Abhishek Gupta (LIS) wrote: > Thanks so much for replying. Some follow up questions: > > 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 > through may promote floppy disk use. Please could you elaborate a bit > 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 given "bare metal" access to hardware disks yet has the benefit of the fast internal 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 see another floppy-based BIOS again but they are still out there. Michael