[libvirt] [PATCH v2 2/2] qemu: Default to virtio-net where available

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Thu, Sep 03, 2015 at 10:48:58AM +0200, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> On Wed, 2015-09-02 at 16:08 -0400, Laine Stump wrote:
> > >    * change the default for all architectures (except arm)
> > >      instead of just ppc64
> > 
> > Are we certain we want to do this even for x86 guests? I don't think 
> > it's a good idea - it makes the default into something for which no 
> > driver exists on the install media for *many* x86 guests, meaning it
> > is 
> > highly likely that a "default" config would have non-functional 
> > networking. AFAIR this is why we didn't make virtio the default
> > several 
> > years ago when we began recording a default into the XML (and why the
> > last time changing the default was discussed, I believe it was
> > pointing 
> > more towards something like e1000, i.e. something which 1) we are 
> > certain has a driver on every guest OS installation media that might
> > be 
> > found, 2) is better maintained in qemu than the rtl8139, and 3)
> > performs 
> > better than rtl8139 (although obviously not as good as virtio).
> 
> Good point. We could switch the default to virtio just for
> ppc64 then, leaving the capability check in place of course,
> and change the global default from rtl8139 to e1000 in a
> separate series.

I think we should just do nothing. If people/apps care about optimal
defaults, nothing libvirt changes will make them happy. Apps need to
be just using libosinfo to get the sensible defaults on a per OS
basis.

Regards,
Daniel
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