On Mon, 19 Nov 2001, Paul Lussier wrote: > Here's an interesting question. One of the things I loved about > "real hardware", i.e. Sun, DEC, HP, etc. was that all their systems > were really designed with their own proprietary OS in mind.
Funny, that's what I always hated about those kinds of systems. ;-) > This is obviously *not* the case with Intel boxen. Is there any way > that anyone knows of to get or set BIOS parameters from within Linux? In theory, this is what things like DMI (Desktop Management Interface) and ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) are for. In practice, none of it works. Intel comes out with a new specification that is supposed to solve this every couple of years. The real problem is that most vendors do not implement optional specifications (and often ignore required ones outright) to reduce costs. Big vendors can push TCO all they want, but when it comes right down to it, companies almost always buy the box with the lowest price tag (or the best marketing team). There is a /dev/nvram device in Linux. It probably does... something. Try writing to it and see what happens. ;-) -- Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not | | necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or | | organization. All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
