From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 24 15:04:49 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6239A37B401 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 2003 15:04:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from asarian-host.net (mail.asarian-host.net [194.109.160.70]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E284643FB1 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 2003 15:04:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from admin@asarian-host.net) Comments: To protect the identity of the sender, certain header fields are either not shown, or masked. Anonymous email accounts can be requested by filling in the appropriate form at: https://asarian-host.net/cgi-bin/signup.cgi Received: (from root@localhost) by mail.asarian-host.net (8.12.9/8.12.9) id h6OM4kLC051389 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 25 Jul 2003 00:04:46 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from admin@asarian-host.net) From: Mark Message-Id: <200307242204.H6OM4K3H051379@asarian-host.net> Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 22:04:46 GMT X-Authenticated-Sender: admin@asarian-host.net X-Trace: U6xJ1e3nYizq07vhKs6JqNzj2RKtkFXlp0b30BhY25p0edKvOJPWB2tU+IGKQGq87srDj1SlaxXTVhna8EeEvA== X-Complaints-To: abuse@asarian-host.net X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we are unable to process your complaint Organization: Asarian-host To: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 X-Auth: Asarian-host PGP signature iQEVAwUAPyBX/jFqW1BleBN9AQELfgf/X0JMOgRbZ+2CTf1L9bzHz6bEyj7xvxPV 8au2noTnig91m3d/lxqmtS7MZeE5tOKyEZUENAs/Df2/CQkaoWfMRZHDD7RoyeOn br/MGMogDIlalZFNbHCtnOSlAaI03PH3aSqk3DVRb3F6C6PKtlzgBwPqS0Yrfnfz 1E7vJM/yjDDGw4vHvCjRY6U3/bKiCIvlD/CK+oO8XzJUOgWpfZk0cdEp6XFX78kK jB5YkFtwpDXfj37w1yHfzsMmg7iPcQVKv0ruuODs0mVjm66xxQ6cD6/04AIN5RaG 9VHL/rgPMgjnfyXrH476hV63au/72/EbXLxwzF45i1WgVXaR5by0/Q== =EczI Subject: Re: Is it possible to read BIOS setting? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 22:04:49 -0000 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pranav A. Desai" To: Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 11:27 PM Subject: Is it possible to read BIOS setting? > Hi! > > This is what I am trying to do ... > If the hard disk fails (or becomes un-bootable) I would change the BIOS > setting to boot from second disk or maybe from cdrom, repair or reimage > the hard disk and reboot the box. > > I would like to automate this process, so that I dont have to be > physically present at the box. In fact, a script or program can activate > this on an event like hard disk error etc. kind of self-healing. But the > main problem with this is the BIOS settings need to changed. > > Does this sound reasonable? No, actually. :) Though your kern.securelevel (2+) may even prevent writing to CMOS ports directly (not really sure), I am sure, though, that doing so is a bad idea. Even back in the days of yore, when we had XT's and all, it could be done, but not devoid of risk. Such as corrupting the CMOS checksum, causing the BIOS to weird out on boot-up. And on an XT, at least you more or less knew which port did what. But nowadays that is quite uncertain too; "proprietary" they call it now. :) And even if it could be done, you would have to know, exactly, how your particular BIOS (version) calculates its checksums, in order to change data. Tricky business. Besides, if your disk fails to boot, what would you then, at that point, expect the BIOS to do? Automatically reboot and try from the second disk? And you would start the script to work this, exactly how? :) Not to mention that, these days, we have a better way of dealing with the untimely demise of hard disks; RAID is your friend. ;) Then, if one of your disk fails, your data remains intact, and you let an SNMP agent report the mishap to you. Then you haste home to check on your baby. :) - Mark