From owner-freebsd-current Thu Nov 19 03:28:22 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id DAA16638 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 03:28:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ceia.nordier.com (m2-39-dbn.dial-up.net [196.34.155.103]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id DAA16629 for ; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 03:28:11 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rnordier@nordier.com) Received: (from rnordier@localhost) by ceia.nordier.com (8.8.7/8.6.12) id NAA05575; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 13:25:44 +0200 (SAT) From: Robert Nordier Message-Id: <199811191125.NAA05575@ceia.nordier.com> Subject: Re: /boot/loader & comconsole In-Reply-To: <3653F2AA.D3A7CA29@cs.uni-sb.de> from "D. Rock" at "Nov 19, 98 11:27:54 am" To: rock@cs.uni-sb.de (D. Rock) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 13:25:40 +0200 (SAT) Cc: rnordier@nordier.com, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG D. Rock wrote: > Robert Nordier schrieb: > [...] > > One difference between boot loader and the old/new boot blocks, is > > that boot loader uses PC BIOS services (int 0x14) for comms; both > > lots of boot blocks do direct port I/O, instead. > > > > The trouble with using the BIOS is that the int 0x14 services (which > > tend to be used only to talk to serial printers under DOS) expect to > > do hardware handshaking. > Using the BIOS for configuring the serial ports gives you also only > 9600 bps. I usually ran the comconsole at 19200 bps. But the original > BIOS int 0x14 services seem only support up to 9600 bps. I did a > small patch on the bootblocks, so that it uses the "extended communication > port control" service. I don't know if good ole 386 BIOS implement this > routine, but it works on my machine (I think it was introduced with the > PS/2 PCs). I'm not sure, either, how many BIOSes support this. The documentation I have suggests it is PS/2-specific, though it appears it's supported on at least some of the machines here. > With this service I could go up to 19200 bps (wow! but my terminal can't > do more, though). I haven't noticed any problems, but now my console is > twice as fast (I sometimes even do some work on the terminal) > > Below is the small patch Thanks. If we're going to stick with using the BIOS, it seems worthwhile to allow this as an option. -- Robert Nordier To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message