[virt-tools-list] [virt-manager PATCH] installer: Prefer "cdrom" over "floppy"

[Daniel P. Berrangé]

On Fri, Jun 07, 2019 at 01:32:55PM +0200, Fabiano Fidêncio wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 7, 2019 at 12:49 PM Peter Crowther
> <peter.crowther at melandra.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 7 Jun 2019 at 11:34, Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange at redhat.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Fri, Jun 07, 2019 at 11:27:36AM +0100, Peter Crowther wrote:
> >> > On Fri, 7 Jun 2019 at 11:18, Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange at redhat.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > On Fri, Jun 07, 2019 at 12:00:56PM +0200, Fabiano Fidêncio wrote:
> >> > > > Instead of using "floppy" as the way to perform unattended installations
> >> > > > for Windoes, let's prefer using "cdrom" instead.
> >> > >
> >> > > Aren't there versions of windows which /only/ support "floppy", which
> >> > > would require us to preferentially use "cdrom" but fallback to "floppy"
> >> > > for older versions ?
> 
> Daniel,
> 
> Older versions of Windows would require floppy. However:
> - There are no floppy support for VMs using q35 in some OSes;

This doesn't bother me. If some OS vendors want to intentionally cripple
floppy support they simply don't get to use OS which need floppy install.

> - mtools has been orphaned on Fedora;

This is more of a problem. We need devs to be able to test the code and
so if Fedora has dropped mtools, the main dev platform of virt-manager is
unable to test it.

> 
> With those two things in mind, I'd happily not support those systems
> as part of a new feature for virt-install.
> Still, if you prefer (and Cole agrees), I'd be okay providing a
> fallback code to use floppy as the injection method for Windows and
> keep supporting Windows XP.

Unless there's a viable alternative to mtools that isn't a huge amount
of work, then I think we probably have to drop it.

> >> > Not for many, many years.  Even Windows 2000 enabled you to burn a CD with
> >> > a winnt.sif answer file on it; I've not checked further back.  How far back
> >> > do we wish to support?
> >>
> >> libosinfo provides install scripts back to XP vintage
> >>
> > All fine - CD-only unattended installation was well established by that point.
> >
> 
> Peter,
> 
> Are you sure about this? I couldn't start a unattended installation
> using a second cdrom containing the winnit.sif file on it.

I think you probably needed to modify the primary cdrom media to
contain the sif file.

Regards,
Daniel
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