Bug 754346

Summary:	RFE: Checkbox for direct kernel boot option, preserve kernel values when unchecked
Product:	[Community] Virtualization Tools	Reporter:	Petr Holasek <pholasek>
Component:	virt-manager	Assignee:	Cole Robinson <crobinso>
Status:	CLOSED UPSTREAM	QA Contact:
Severity:	unspecified	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	unspecified	CC:	berrange, crobinso, dhoward, dougsland, dpierce, hbrock, jforbes, virt-maint, xen-maint
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	Unspecified
OS:	Unspecified
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2013-08-18 16:43:35 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:

Description Petr Holasek 2011-11-16 08:36:19 UTC

Description of problem:
It would be great to have checkbox in Guest settings Boot Options category for turning on/off direct kernel boot. When booting from custom kernel fails, I want to fallback to in-guest kernel and must erase all three lines (kernel path, initrd path, params path). It is very uncomfortable when I have to type all lines again and again.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
virt-manager-0.8.7-6.fc15.noarch

How reproducible:
Create new Guest and go to Boot Options. Fill direct kernel boot lines. Boot machine and then decide to try old in-guest kernel, so you want to classic bootload.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Erase all direct kernel boot lines.
2. Boot again.
3.
  
Actual results:
I have to fill direct kernel boot parameters again and again.

Expected results:
I can easily able/disable direct kernel boot by checkbox or radio button. While off, filled lines stay grayed.

Additional info:

Comment 1 Cole Robinson 2012-01-18 16:24:30 UTC

Thanks for the report.

Though this isn't as easy as it sounds. virt-manager is stateless in this respect, all VM state is displayed and edited in the libvirt XML. Unfortunately the libvirt XML format doesn't give us any option to store kernel/initrd values in the XML without having the guest boot from them. So while we could keep those values around while virt-manager is running, once you restart the app, any values in those disabled kernel/initrd boxes will be lost.

I will try playing with just preserving this data while virt-manager is running and see how it goes. Moving this to the upstream tracker

Comment 2 Cole Robinson 2013-08-18 16:43:35 UTC

Fixed upstream now