Patches backported and posted to rhvirt-patches for inclusion in the next libvirt build:

http://post-office.corp.redhat.com/archives/rhvirt-patches/2013-December/msg00034.html

I can reproduce the bug with packages:
# rpm -qa libvirt qemu-kvm-rhev seabios
libvirt-1.1.1-13.el7.x86_64
qemu-kvm-rhev-1.5.3-20.el7.x86_64
seabios-1.7.2.2-4.el7.x86_64

Steps:
Add a test.img which without an os installed to guest, keep one hard disk in guest, do not add other bootable devices, xml is:
<..snip..>
    <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2' cache='none'/>
      <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/test.img'/>
      <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
      <alias name='virtio-disk0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>
    </disk>
<..snip..>

then start the guest, guest will try:
Boot from Hard Disk...
Boot failed: not a bootable disk

then try:
Boot from ROM...
....
iPXE...
Nothing to boot: No such file or directory
No more network devices

then:
Booting from Floppy...
Boot failed: could not read the boot disk

Verified failed with qemu-kvm-1.5.3-21.el7.x86_64,libvirt-1.1.1-14.el7.x86_64 and seabios-1.7.2.2-4.el7.x86_64 as bug 1039446 is not fixed yet, adding it to depends on list, and will re-verify this bug after depend bug fixed.

Talked with a developer of qemu Amos Kong, he thought the problem for strict=on does not work is caused by the bug 997817 's fix patches.

Bug 997817 is re-opened to track the qemu regression problem, which blockes this bug's verification.

Reproduced as comment #2.

Verifying this bug with packages:

# rpm -qa libvirt qemu-kvm-rhev seabios
libvirt-1.1.1-23.el7.x86_64
seabios-1.7.2.2-11.el7.x86_64
qemu-kvm-rhev-1.5.3-48.el7.x86_64

Steps:
Add a test.img which without an os installed to guest, keep one hard disk in guest, do not add other bootable devices:

# virsh dumpxml test |  grep -B 15 "disk"
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-rhel7.0.0'>hvm</type>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <pae/>
  </features>
  <clock offset='utc'/>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='none'/>
      <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/test.img'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
      <alias name='ide0-0-0'/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>

then start the guest,

qemu process looks like:
# ps aux | grep test
...-boot strict=on ... -drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/test.img,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-0,format=raw,cache=none -device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-0-0,id=ide0-0-0,bootindex=1...

guest will try:
Boot from Hard Disk...
Boot failed: not a bootable disk

No bootable device.

then stop there, not try to boot from other un-selected devices like network, cdrom and so on, working as expected.

So setting as VERIFIED.

This request was resolved in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0.

Contact your manager or support representative in case you have further questions about the request.