Supported options:
@table @code
@item compat
-Determines the qcow2 version to use. @code{compat=0.10} uses the traditional
-image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10 (this is the default).
+Determines the qcow2 version to use. @code{compat=0.10} uses the
+traditional image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10.
@code{compat=1.1} enables image format extensions that only QEMU 1.1 and
-newer understand. Amongst others, this includes zero clusters, which allow
-efficient copy-on-read for sparse images.
+newer understand (this is the default). Amongst others, this includes
+zero clusters, which allow efficient copy-on-read for sparse images.
@item backing_file
File name of a base image (see @option{create} subcommand)
@item backing_fmt
Image format of the base image
@item encryption
-If this option is set to @code{on}, the image is encrypted.
+If this option is set to @code{on}, the image is encrypted with 128-bit AES-CBC.
+
+The use of encryption in qcow and qcow2 images is considered to be flawed by
+modern cryptography standards, suffering from a number of design problems:
+
+@itemize @minus
+@item The AES-CBC cipher is used with predictable initialization vectors based
+on the sector number. This makes it vulnerable to chosen plaintext attacks
+which can reveal the existence of encrypted data.
+@item The user passphrase is directly used as the encryption key. A poorly
+chosen or short passphrase will compromise the security of the encryption.
+@item In the event of the passphrase being compromised there is no way to
+change the passphrase to protect data in any qcow images. The files must
+be cloned, using a different encryption passphrase in the new file. The
+original file must then be securely erased using a program like shred,
+though even this is ineffective with many modern storage technologies.
+@end itemize
-Encryption uses the AES format which is very secure (128 bit keys). Use
-a long password (16 characters) to get maximum protection.
+Use of qcow / qcow2 encryption is thus strongly discouraged. Users are
+recommended to use an alternative encryption technology such as the
+Linux dm-crypt / LUKS system.
@item cluster_size
Changes the qcow2 cluster size (must be between 512 and 2M). Smaller cluster
qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket my_disk.qcow2
@end example
-The use of qemu-nbd allows to share a disk between several guests:
+The use of qemu-nbd allows sharing of a disk between several guests:
@example
qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket --share=2 my_disk.qcow2
@end example
@item -g @var{W}x@var{H}[x@var{DEPTH}]
-Set the initial VGA graphic mode. The default is 800x600x15.
+Set the initial VGA graphic mode. The default is 800x600x32.
@item -prom-env @var{string}
@item
IOMMU
@item
-TCX Frame buffer
+TCX or cgthree Frame buffer
@item
Lance (Am7990) Ethernet
@item
A sample Linux 2.6 series kernel and ram disk image are available on
the QEMU web site. There are still issues with NetBSD and OpenBSD, but
-some kernel versions work. Please note that currently Solaris kernels
+some kernel versions work. Please note that currently older Solaris kernels
don't work probably due to interface issues between OpenBIOS and
Solaris.
@item -g @var{W}x@var{H}x[x@var{DEPTH}]
-Set the initial TCX graphic mode. The default is 1024x768x8, currently
-the only other possible mode is 1024x768x24.
+Set the initial graphics mode. For TCX, the default is 1024x768x8 with the
+option of 1024x768x24. For cgthree, the default is 1024x768x8 with the option
+of 1152x900x8 for people who wish to use OBP.
@item -prom-env @var{string}