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Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:12:43 -0700
From: Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>
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To: "Bruce M. Simpson" <bms@freebsd.org>
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Cc: current@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: boot0sio working for anyone?
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Bruce M. Simpson wrote:
> Ulrich Spoerlein wrote:
>> So, is boot0sio supposed to just work with a cheap USB->RS232 dongle at
>> the other end? I don't know how this paragraph from boot0cfg(8) is
>> affecting me.
>>   
> boot0sio is wholly dependent upon BIOS support for addressing the 
> on-board COM1 port. It is not intended (read: very unlikely) to work 
> with USB dongles.
> 
> If your BIOS does not support the call that it uses, then the symptoms 
> will be similar to what you've seen. Unfortunately there is just not 
> enough space in the MBR to implement any workarounds for this.
> 

Yeah, unless the BIOS provides traditional SIO emulation via USB 
(similar idea to providing tradition AT keyboard emulation via USB)
then boot0sio won't work.  It's not very feasible to put a USB
stack into the early boot loader anyways.  It's somewhat possible
(at least, using a chained boot loader), but not very feasible.

Scott