>Because the kernel cannot know what memory it should leave untouched, >to use such BIOS functions.
Why not? I understand that there is some degree of variance amongst BIOS usage of memory but the upper bounds seem to be clearly defined (if I am not misinformed). And surely it would be possible to make decisions based on the BIOS detected. >Also, BIOS functions are traditionally coded only powerful enough bootup style operation. I'm not sure what you mean by 'powerful enough'. Somebody who installs OpenBSD and cannot access the internet now has a double problem 1) he can't access the internet 2) he therefore can't search online for information about how to fix the problem. He must now reinstall his old OS (or use a live bootable USB/CD) to look things up. Power off. Boot OpenBSD. Try it out. Power down. Repeat. Surely, having the option to have a cut down system while he gets things working properly is going to be a useful feature. >Their primitives simply >are not powerful enough to match the concurrency, locking, memory mapping, >etc needs of the kernel. Especially the concurrency - most use poll-style >operations. Nothing else would happen at the same time. OK. I think I see what you are saying here. I certainly agree that the end goal is get things up and running properly. That's why I asked if this feature was available. To provide the user who has just installed with a stepping stone to achieve that goal. >Finally, because BIOS on all platforms are full of history and BUGS. Yes, I've been looking into it and it certainly does seem messy. It's a wonder computers actually work nowadays given that the history seems to dictate such a terrible mess of architecture. I wonder what a brand new PC developed in hind sight that doesn't have to worry about backward compatibility would like look. >We'd rather jump off a cliff. The more I look into this the more I start to think that I wasn't being extreme enough when I decided it would be easier to build my OS than play around with everyone else's. It now seems what I should have decided was to build my own hardware and then after that the OS design would be a far simpler affair. 0x00
