Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Wed, 06 Dec 2000 10:26:46 -0800 | From | "H. Peter Anvin" <> | Subject | Re: That horrible hack from hell called A20 |
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"Richard B. Johnson" wrote: > > The protected-mode switch in INT 15 is probably the least tested BIOS > function ever. I wouldn't trust it, and relying on it will put further > burden on embedded Linux developers, many of whom don't even have a > BIOS. It is 'least tested' because there is no way provided to get > back to real-mode. This implies that somebody probably 'tested' it > once, verified that some simple 32-bit function executed for a > few microseconds, then declared; "It works!". >
And of course, that's pretty much all we'd trust it to do. Personally, I'd rather try to use the A20 gate function, if it works. I suspect that between the machines where the BIOS or the KBC works, we should be close to 100% coverage.
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