From owner-freebsd-current Sun Jan 5 22:03:20 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) id WAA09766 for current-outgoing; Sun, 5 Jan 1997 22:03:20 -0800 (PST) Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id WAA09761 for ; Sun, 5 Jan 1997 22:03:16 -0800 (PST) Received: (from msmith@localhost) by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.8.2/8.7.3) id QAA29343; Mon, 6 Jan 1997 16:32:57 +1030 (CST) From: Michael Smith Message-Id: <199701060602.QAA29343@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> Subject: Re: kernel w/o source? [MOD_DECL in lkm.h] In-Reply-To: <199701051901.OAA18285@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> from Bill Paul at "Jan 5, 97 02:01:56 pm" To: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu (Bill Paul) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 16:32:56 +1030 (CST) Cc: jb@cimlogic.com.au, current@freebsd.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL28 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-current@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Bill Paul stands accused of saying: > > That said, what would make this problem (and probably some others) go > away is a BIOS-based disk driver, but we've discussed this already and > the problems involved in doing something like this haven't yet been > solved. (Talked about to death, yes, but not solved.) Getting the kernel > to switch to real mode to use the BIOS and then back again is tantamount > to turning lead into gold, and nobody seems to be in a hurry to implement > vm86 support. (Then again, I'm not even sure that vm86 mode alone is > enough to do it.) Do I need to beat the "why we have no vm86 support yet" gong again? If anyone thinks it'll help, I will 8) Yes, we could do a BIOS disk driver. I don't know whether it would actually require vm86 support (which is for running user processes, not kernel code), but it would be a shade hairy. Certainly it would be easiest to run it in a user process. > That said, I'm sure that some people wouldn't mind having an 'object-mostly' > kernel distribution in addition to the full source distribution. That way Or even just a means to construct such a distribution. > -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager, Master of Unix-Fu -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control. (ph) +61-8-8267-3493 [[ ]] Unix hardware collector. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[