From owner-freebsd-current  Sun Jun 11 10:11:13 2000
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To: "Daniel C. Sobral" <dcs@newsguy.com>
Cc: Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG>,
	Luoqi Chen <luoqi@watermarkgroup.com>, current@FreeBSD.ORG,
	emulation@FreeBSD.ORG
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From: "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM>
Subject: Re: VMware detection code in boot loader 
References: <200006110105.SAA11913@mass.cdrom.com> <3943AFF4.6821783E@newsguy.com> 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 12 Jun 2000 00:27:48 +0900."
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Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 13:10:48 -0400
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> Mike Smith wrote:
> > 
> > > VMware intercepts the inb/outb instruction to port 0x5658 when the eax
> > > register is set to a magic value, otherwise it would be handled as any
> > > other ports.
> > 
> > I think, again, that adding an i386-specific word that detects the
> > presence of VMware is a perfectly sensible idea, and it should simply be
> > done.
> 
> Given the way VMware works, I'd have nothing against making it a FICL
> words, except...
> 
> ...VMware is a port. For some reason, I dislike the idea of having
> support targetted at exclusively one specific port. Though we have
> features added specifically to deal with certain ports, they were all
> more generic features.
> 
> So, I see two alternatives here:
> 
> 1) Add the Forth words that allow execution of assembler code (CODE
> ;CODE), and hex-compile the code (as having a whole assembler around is
> unreasonable). This enables similar problems to be solved without having
> to change loader(8).
> 
> 2) Add the VMware detecting to FICL, as originally suggested.

or 3) add inw and outw Forth words, and make the VMWARE specific 
stuff just new words defined in Forth.  Perhaps this doesn't preclude
having to do 1) for some future problem, but it could delay it
somewhat.

louie


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