> >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 > uaage 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.
Good luck with that. Looking forward to you providing code which solves the problem. > >Also, BIOS functions are traditionally coded only powerful enough bootup > style operation. > > I'm not sure what you mean by 'powerful enough'. I continued on to explain it in more detail. > >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. I explained it is not possible. > 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. Well there you go. Get to it. See you in 10 years.
