Dosemu uses vm86 to provide the int 13 and others... perhaps code could be scraped out of it to make "elfBIOS"
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Garzik" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Justin Cormack" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 9:31 AM Subject: freebios (was Re: VGA roms) > Justin Cormack wrote: > > > > > > > > Ronald G Minnich wrote: > > > > > > > > On Mon, 4 Mar 2002, Jeff Garzik wrote: > > > > > > > > > However... why don't you add basic BIOS INT support as an option? ;-) > > > > > > > > ow. I'll let someone else do that. It makes my brain hurt SO MUCH. > > > > > > The masses will cheer your name and elevate you from Man to God, if you > > > do it, though ;-) > > > > > > > > > > when you ran the BIOS code, what did you set up in the way of cs, ds, > > > > etc.? > > > > > > > > It seems you need to have: > > > > bus,devfn in %ax > > > > cs should be: ??? > > > > Code should run in 8086 mode at physical address: ?? > > > > > > IIRC on ia32 the code was run in vm86 mode... which promptly started > > > hurting when nVidia put 32-bit code in their video BIOS. (noone else > > > does that, AFAIK) > > > > Surely if X does it it can be done in userspace? So it isnt a Linuxbios issue. > > I dont think adding BIOS INT support is a good idea at all. The whole idea > > is to get away from all that crap. And as you get to userspace so quickly > > you wont notice. And you can run in emulation on all platforms. > > BIOS INT support is not critical for booting linux kernel from flash. > > BIOS INT support -is- critical for the goal of a 100% free software BIOS > that end users may use. > > So far there is no free software which does this. This is really the > last bastion of proprietary software. Free software exists for all > other usages after the BIOS boots. We have free bootloaders, free > kernels, and free userland. But no free BIOS. > > So... BIOS INT -must- be supported. However, it IMO is best to keep > that separate from linuxbios. As I keep pointing out, this can (and > should!) be a separate piece of the puzzle: > > linuxbios + freebios == can boot MS-DOG > > "freebios" would be the piece that provides BIOS INT services, console > services, etc. If/when freebios exists, freebios users will likely > -disable- some code, such as PCI or IDE init... or anything besides > basic CPU/DRAM init. freebios would be the one that initializes the PCI > bus(es), spins up IDE drives according to spec, etc. > > Of course, this is completely a pipe dream until I (or someone else) > sits down to code it. ;-) > > Jeff > > > > -- > Jeff Garzik | > Building 1024 | > MandrakeSoft | Choose life. >
