Date: Sun, 31 May 1998 09:05:29 +0100 (BST) From: Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com> To: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: AlphaBIOS documentation Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.95q.980531090101.330A-100000@herring.nlsystems.com> In-Reply-To: <199805301621.JAA06062@antipodes.cdrom.com>
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On Sat, 30 May 1998, Mike Smith wrote: > > Does anyone know if there is documentation available for the ARC or > > AlphaBIOS boot sequence? In particular, what services does the firmware > > provide to the bootstrap program (e.g. linload.exe). Alternatively, does > > anyone know where I can find the source code to linload.exe? > > The Linux ARC bootloader is a cut-down Linux kernel. Last I talked to > anyone about it, it used almost none of the ARC services, rather it > just banged directly on the hardware. I have spent a *long* time reading Linux and Milo source code and I really want to avoid putting hardware drivers in the bootloader. It just seems wrong to me. When AlphaBIOS boots, it talks to both the VGA and the SCSI cards (it even runs their BIOS code using an x86 emulator) so it must be able to provide device services to the bootloader. > > I think the Linux-Mips ARC bootloader is similar. > > > Sigh. I should have read more source code while I was at Microsoft :-). > > 8) Would they have let you at something like that anyway? I'm pretty sure I could have found a copy of the NT source code if I actually tried. I actively stayed away from most of the Windows source code. Win95 because it made me feel ill and WinNT because I didn't want any intellectual contamination which might affect my being able to work on FreeBSD. -- Doug Rabson Mail: dfr@nlsystems.com Nonlinear Systems Ltd. Phone: +44 181 951 1891 Fax: +44 181 381 1039 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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