Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 15 Feb 2000 14:17:21 +0100 | From | Geir Thomassen <> | Subject | Re: RFC: Adding no-BIOS support to Linux? |
| |
Jeff Garzik wrote: > > I am interested in finding out -- what BIOS dependencies are lurking in > a standard x86 kernel? How much arch/i386/* code requires BIOS > presence? >
I am making a board right now, with an AMD Elan SC520 chip, flash rom, SDRAM, eepro100 ethernet controller, etc for embedded use. I plan to boot linux on this system without buying a BIOS. One problem seems to be SDRAM sizing and initializing. I believe that the kernel can handle a PCI controller without a BIOS, but I have not verified this. My card is "headless" (no vga), so I am relying on the serial console.
>APM, and several framebuffer drivers (which directly or indirectly rely >on BIOS) wouldn't work.
APM requires Intel Pentium System Management Mode (SMM/SMI), I am not share if this is under NDA, like the Intel BIOS writers guide (sp?).
-- Geir
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |