James wrote: > Norbert Kamenicky <noro <at> xmedia.sk> writes: > > > >>The purpose of BIOS is not to provide complete and excellent HW >>maintenance in multitasking environment, but system boot up only. >>Maybe there are some exceptions, but generaly if kernel is alive, >>u can safely remove all BIOS chips from it's sockets. > > > > For most of the legacy hardware: drives, floppy, CD, mouse, serial ports > this may be true. But, let's think about ACPI, I2C, sensors, SMBus, > Dallas one-wire, and the myriad of undocumented hardware/comm channels > going on the motherboard. Not to mention that the evil one from redmond > has convinced quite a few hardware vendors to pursue nefarious > activities during the boot process..... > > Have you actually removed a bios/flash chip or erased it after boot > to test your theory? I think what you have said is true of older boards > and some current vendors, but, certainly not is all cases.... > > Let's think about this a little bit more.... > > > James >
Yes, I many times removed BIOS extension chips (not needed during kernel boot) from different cards, just to boot faster... if it's not easy, there is always a possibility to cut chip select/ enable (CS/CE) wire near to chip's pin. Linux kernel runs in 32-bit protected mode, but AFAIK nearly all BIOSes are written for 16-bit real mode and stored in 8-bit *ROMs (very slow access). This makes it nearly unusable under linux kernel. If u are on doubt, linux kernel uses (or not) BIOS calls for ACPI, I2C, sensors, SMBus, Dallas one-wire etc., please open appropriate driver in kernel sources and check it yourself... and let me know, if u find some driver, which uses them. noro -- [email protected] mailing list
