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docs: stop documenting the e1000 NIC model as the default
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The default NIC model for QEMU varies per machine type, and is liable to
change across machine type versions. Documenting e1000 NIC as the
default for PC/i386 is thus misleading to users at best. In particular
the PC q35 machine type switched to use e1000e, but only in machine
type versions after 2.11.

Rather than try to explain which NIC model is used for each machine
type version, remove mention of e1000 as the default, and steer users
towards always specifying their desired model.

Reviewed-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
Reviewed by: Aleksandar Markovic <amarkovic@wavecomp.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
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berrange committed Feb 7, 2020
1 parent 834e8bf commit 416b719
Showing 1 changed file with 7 additions and 5 deletions.
12 changes: 7 additions & 5 deletions qemu-options.hx
Expand Up @@ -2428,8 +2428,7 @@ Use @option{model=help} to list the available device types.
The hardware MAC address can be set with @option{mac=@var{macaddr}}.

The following two example do exactly the same, to show how @option{-nic} can
be used to shorten the command line length (note that the e1000 is the default
on i386, so the @option{model=e1000} parameter could even be omitted here, too):
be used to shorten the command line length:
@example
@value{qemu_system} -netdev user,id=n1,ipv6=off -device e1000,netdev=n1,mac=52:54:98:76:54:32
@value{qemu_system} -nic user,ipv6=off,model=e1000,mac=52:54:98:76:54:32
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2843,9 +2842,12 @@ netdev with ID @var{nd} by using the @option{netdev=@var{nd}} option.
Legacy option to configure or create an on-board (or machine default) Network
Interface Card(NIC) and connect it either to the emulated hub with ID 0 (i.e.
the default hub), or to the netdev @var{nd}.
The NIC is an e1000 by default on the PC target. Optionally, the MAC address
can be changed to @var{mac}, the device address set to @var{addr} (PCI cards
only), and a @var{name} can be assigned for use in monitor commands.
If @var{model} is omitted, then the default NIC model associated with
the machine type is used. Note that the default NIC model may change in
future QEMU releases, so it is highly recommended to always specify a model.
Optionally, the MAC address can be changed to @var{mac}, the device
address set to @var{addr} (PCI cards only), and a @var{name} can be
assigned for use in monitor commands.
Optionally, for PCI cards, you can specify the number @var{v} of MSI-X vectors
that the card should have; this option currently only affects virtio cards; set
@var{v} = 0 to disable MSI-X. If no @option{-net} option is specified, a single
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