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Date:      Wed, 25 Feb 1998 22:52:44 -0800
From:      Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
To:        "Justin T. Gibbs" <gibbs@plutotech.com>
Cc:        freebsd-smp@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   BIOS PCI probe order (was Re: ASUS P2L97DS )
Message-ID:  <199802260652.WAA22816@dingo.cdrom.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 25 Feb 1998 23:35:49 MST." <199802260638.XAA19358@pluto.plutotech.com> 

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> >[...]
> >>I still think the FreeBSD way is broke.  NT can figure it out, Windows can
> >>figure it out, Solaris gets it the same way, but then there's FreeBSD out
> >>on the fringe.  Right, but difficult to use.

As noted, NT gets it wrong too.

> Actually, the PCI BIOSes may be installed anywhere.  The slot probe order,
> however was probably the problem.  Both FreeBSD and NT probe in a hard
> coded way which may not match the way the BIOS did it.

This is because neither can rely on hardware in a market where the 
ability to interoperate with the Win95 PCI enumerator is the only real 
criteria for widespread distribution.

> not necessarily match probe order, but it may be better to sit down with
> one of the PnP books and attempt to make FreeBSD's attach order match, as
> closely as possible, to what the PnP spec suggests for BIOSes.

It would be much easier just to call the BIOS PCI entrypoint (which is 
obtained in -current but not used), however Stefan will tell you all 
sorts of horror stories about nonconforming PCI BIOSsen.  
Unfortunately, unless you can second-guess the BIOS you can't guarantee 
that you'll pick the same ordering that it does.

-- 
\\  Sometimes you're ahead,       \\  Mike Smith
\\  sometimes you're behind.      \\  mike@smith.net.au
\\  The race is long, and in the  \\  msmith@freebsd.org
\\  end it's only with yourself.  \\  msmith@cdrom.com



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