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From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Message-Id: <199601042356.QAA00715@phaeton.artisoft.com>
Subject: Re: X for install
To: wilko@yedi.iaf.nl (Wilko Bulte)
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 16:56:27 -0700 (MST)
Cc: terry@lambert.org, gibbs@freefall.freebsd.org, phk@critter.tfs.com,
        jkh@time.cdrom.com, obrien@cs.ucdavis.edu, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <199601042030.VAA01717@yedi.iaf.nl> from "Wilko Bulte" at Jan 4, 96 09:30:18 pm
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> > The INT 15 EISA problem is annoying, but I think you can use signature
> > tagging to do memory size probing (the reason you need the EISA BIOS
> > is that the per slot memory is not necessarily a fixed range and can
> > vary from box to box, though most have pretty much standardized).
> 
> In our (=at a former 'work') most of the EISA mainboards only survive
> calling the EISA INT from things like DOS. The 32 bit equivalent in
> the BIOS most of the times simply crashed the Unix. I lost the details
> but I think counting on this to work is optimistic
> 
> BTW we where using this to 'autoconfig' a ATT V.3 based system. You
> still had to do a kernel link but it was based on the info in the EISA
> config NVRAM.

The point is to bypass the BIOS.  The only non-computable information
is the size of the per slot CMOS area.  That's what I meant.


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.