[Bug 1404396] Re: [regression] vgabios -> seabios breaks (my) 16-bit applications

[Serge Hallyn]

** Description changed:

+ =======================================================
+ Impact: Unable to run 16-bit applications in windows
+ Fix: turn off VGA_ALLOCATE_EXTRA_STACK
+ Test case: (see comment #21)
+ Regression potential: This stops the allocation of extra vga stack so could
+ 	conceivably break other applications.  However all tests cases in
+ 	the qemu regression tests pass, and this has been enabled for some
+ 	time in wily.
+ =======================================================
  Upgrading from Ubuntu Precise to Ubuntu Trusty broke one of my guests.
  
  I've recently upgraded a host from Ubuntu Precise (qemu-kvm-1.0) to
  Ubuntu Trusty (qemu 2.0.0). I have a Windows 2008 32-bit OS running on a
  64-bit VM that runs a 16-bit line of business application. (While I
  realize that "upgrade the application" is the right answer, I can't.)
  The Windows VM boots, but the business application crashes on startup.
  Changing the VM to be a 32-bit VM doesn't help.
  
  After several hours of compiling and testing intermediate qemu versions,
  I accidentally stumbled into the real issue. Trusty has switched from
  vgabios to seabios:
  
  PRECISE $ ls -la /usr/share/qemu/vgabios*
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Dec 10 18:37 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios.bin -> ../vgabios/vgabios.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Dec 10 18:37 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios-cirrus.bin -> ../vgabios/vgabios.cirrus.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 Dec 10 18:37 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios-qxl.bin -> ../vgabios/vgabios.qxl.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Dec 10 18:37 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios-stdvga.bin -> ../vgabios/vgabios.stdvga.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Dec 10 18:37 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios-vmware.bin -> ../vgabios/vgabios.vmware.bin
  
  TRUSTY $ ls -la /usr/share/qemu/vgabios*
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Dec 10 18:50 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios.bin -> ../seabios/vgabios-isavga.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Dec 10 18:50 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios-cirrus.bin -> ../seabios/vgabios-cirrus.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 Dec 10 18:50 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios-qxl.bin -> ../seabios/vgabios-qxl.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Dec 10 18:50 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios-stdvga.bin -> ../seabios/vgabios-stdvga.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Dec 10 18:50 /usr/share/qemu/vgabios-vmware.bin -> ../seabios/vgabios-vmware.bin
  
  I installed the vgabios package and made my own tree of symlinks:
  
  $ ls -l /usr/share/wiktel-server-vmhost/vgabios/
  total 0
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Dec 17 00:40 bios.bin -> /usr/share/seabios/bios.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Dec 17 00:40 keymaps -> /usr/share/qemu/keymaps
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 Dec 17 00:40 vgabios.bin -> /usr/share/vgabios/vgabios.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 37 Dec 17 00:40 vgabios-cirrus.bin -> /usr/share/vgabios/vgabios.cirrus.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Dec 17 00:40 vgabios-qxl.bin -> /usr/share/vgabios/vgabios.qxl.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 37 Dec 17 00:40 vgabios-stdvga.bin -> /usr/share/vgabios/vgabios.stdvga.bin
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 37 Dec 17 00:40 vgabios-vmware.bin -> /usr/share/vgabios/vgabios.vmware.bin
  
  Then I added this to the guest XML:
  <domain type='kvm' xmlns:qemu='http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0'>
-   <qemu:commandline>
-     <qemu:arg value='-L'/>
-     <qemu:arg value='/usr/share/wiktel-server-vmhost/vgabios'/>
-   </qemu:commandline>
+   <qemu:commandline>
+     <qemu:arg value='-L'/>
+     <qemu:arg value='/usr/share/wiktel-server-vmhost/vgabios'/>
+   </qemu:commandline>
  </domain>
  
  This makes it work. Is this the long-term answer? Or should this change
  from vgabios to seabios be reverted? Or should libvirt be modified to
  accept <rom file="..."> for <video>, as discussed here:
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=811227#c9 Or should I try to
  get the seabios developers to help debug and fix this?

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Title:
  [regression] vgabios -> seabios breaks (my) 16-bit applications

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